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All eyes will be on major court cases, new policies and fresh surprisesSINGAPORETHERE was a time when many people living here said the local news in the papers and on television was slow- paced and boring, dominated by government pronouncements.存倉 2013 was proof again that this era has passed.From Pollutant Standards Index readings of 400 to the Little India 400 (that was the initial rioter number estimate) and the cooling of everything from PSLE T-score fever to COEs and COVs, the country lurched madly from one talking point to another: the primary school leaving exam; then certificates of entitlement for cars; and cash-over-valuation for Housing Board resale flats.In between, we've had bodies dragged under cars; run over by the wheels of buses and cement trucks; decapitated, de-limbed and thrown into rivers.Meanwhile, a different sort of hacking was taking place in the non-physical world of the Internet, where a self-proclaimed "Messiah" and an anonymous legion of amateur vandals dared to deface websites like that of the Prime Minister's Office and stole personal details from museum goers and banking clients.Sometimes it seemed all it took was a little spark - from an oversized blowtorch in a network utility room or a land-clearing farmer in Riau - to ignite random chaos and throw unsuspecting Singapore residents out of their comfort zones.Given the circumstances, few would venture to give the local news scene next year a shape or form that corresponds to any pattern or theme. So, in television terms, think of 2014 as less documentary and more courtroom drama and variety show. And here are seven reasons to keep watching:1. KOVAN KILLER COP TRIALPEOPLE are dying to know just what was going through the mind of police officer Iskandar Rahmat when he killed 67-year-old car workshop owner Tan Boon Sin and his 42-year-old son Chee Heong, and then dragged the latter's body under a car for almost 1km.Why did he do it? Why Mr Tan, and how did his son get to be involved?The only clue: Iskandar was the officer the elder Tan dealt with when he reported a theft months earlier.2. CITY HARVEST CHURCH VERDICT?SO FAR, the trial of six former leaders of the church accused of misappropriating more than $50 million in church funds - to finance the singing career of church leader Kong Hee's wife Ho Yeow Sun - has been dry and full of difficult-to-follow corporate accounting details.But things will become more interesting in 2014 if Kong, Ho and the very photogenic former finance director Serina Wee take the stand and explain the inner workings of one of Singapore's most controversially successful mega-churches. Whichever way the judge decides, the verdict that follows is poised to have huge ramifications.3. "HACKTIVISTS" SENTENCEDTHE courts will also decide the fate of James Raj Arokiasamy and other hackers who called themselves the "Anonymous collective" and were responsible for disrupting the websites of organisations like the Prime Minister's Office and the Ang Mo Kio Town Council in November.Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has already promised that the hackers, who donned Guy Fawkes masks and threatened to bring down national infrastructure if the Government did not rethink its new rules on licensing online news sites, will face the "full extent of the law".On the flip side, 2014 will be a busy year for government organisations and corporates scrambling to patch weak links in their IT systems exposed by these hacking incidents. Their customers and users will also be watching with worry to see if security breaches escalate and - as was the case with Standard Chartered Bank and the Singa儲存ore Art Museum this year - result in more confidential private data being stolen.4. ONLINE HARASSMENT RULESSTILL in the digital realm, Law Minister K. Shanmugam has promised a new legal framework early next year that brings the penalties for online harassment in line with the laws governing harassment in the physical world. The new rules could radically change the nature of online discourse in Singapore and, depending on how strongly they are enforced, go a long way towards eliminating irresponsible hate speech or personal attacks on the Internet.Meanwhile, 2014 should also see the cessation of another form of harassment: unwanted SMSes and phone calls.New data protection laws kick in from January prohibiting marketeers from contacting anyone who has put his phone number in the national Do-Not-Call Registry. So far, tens of thousands have signed up.5. LITTLE INDIA RIOT: WHAT NEXT?BY THE middle of next year, the specially convened Committee of Inquiry looking into the causes of the Dec 8 riot will also have completed its work.Focused not on assigning blame but taking a dispassionate look at why the riot happened and how it could have been handled better, the hope is that constructive proposals will emerge on the increasingly hot-button issue of how best to integrate the foreign low-cost labour so necessary for economic growth into the larger fabric of society.6. PRIMARY 1 REGISTRATION: NEW RULES2014 will see the implementation of the first of a series of reforms the Education Ministry is making to the school system to create a fairer admissions process and reduce the emphasis on competitive scores.It's a relatively "mini" change that will see the number of places for children of school alumni reduced - a move that prevents certain popular schools from becoming, in the words of PM Lee, "closed circles" only for parents with all the right connections.How parents react could give an insight into how larger changes in the pipeline - including the removal of T-scores at PSLE and the introduction of a less transparent assessment process for entry into Secondary 1 - will eventually play out.7. HEALTH-CARE FINANCING REVIEWNEXT year will also see the completion of another important review - this time of the key elements in Singapore's health-care financing framework.Health Minister Gan Kim Yong has already promised "fundamental shifts" in thinking, such as the Government increasing its spending to take on more of the burden of health-care costs.MediShield, Singapore's national insurance scheme, is also being reworked to give better protection for large hospital bills and provide universal coverage - even for those with pre-existing conditions.The question is at what cost, and the extent to which Singaporeans will agree to higher premiums in turn gives some clue as to how far society has come to accept the idea of paying more individually for the collective good.Of course there are many other issues to look out for in 2014. As more buses are put on the roads and taxi availability requirements are tightened, will commuters see further tangible improvements in public transport? And as HDB flat prices continue to cool, can the Government engineer a soft landing for the public housing market?Yet these are just the "known unknowns", and arguably the less interesting aspects of any news year. Time has a way of doling out surprises. Who would have thought, in January 2013, that the year would end with a riot?So here's to the surprises that 2014 will bring, and the new insights they will offer into how life is quickly changing on this once "boring" and predictable isle.ignatius@sph.com.sg迷你倉