Clik here to view.
Abortion vs Adoption – People’s well being should come first
By AWARE (Association of Women for Action and Research) AWARE welcomes Minister Chan Chun Sing’s recent statements on abortion, affirming that the decision whether to terminate a pregnancy or bring it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Abused and exploited - but now in jail
This is the story of the two Chinese construction workers who staged a protest last December, as told to us by the 2 men themselves. By Irene Lee & Bernard Lim Pay issues were not the only reasons...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"That’s pretty unbelievable, don’t you think?”
By Woo Wei Ling We die how we live—that is one of the subtexts of the new documentary Bukit Brown Voices. The film opens with shots of densely packed HDB blocks, and ends with footage of Mandai...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Workers made false claims, MOM?
By Andrew Loh Two days after the two Chinese workers – dubbed the “crane protesters” by the media – were sentenced to jail, the Ministry of Manpower said the men had made “false claims”. One of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Straitjacket prosecutorial decision not the way to go
The following is a letter by Mr Vincent Law was sent to the TODAY newspaper, which declined to publish it. The letter was also sent to the Straits Times. Last week, AG Steven Cheong launched an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Allow society to be provoked
By Andrew Loh “The guidelines clearly state that we will not fund projects which are incompatible with the core values promoted by the Government and society or disparage the Government,” said the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
S377A - to prevent what harm?
In light of the recent judgement on the issue of Section 377A by our courts, the following article by NUS professor Michael Hor on the topic is worth re-reading. The article was first published on The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cheering bigotry in the House
By Andrew Loh When a hate speech is delivered in the august chambers of Parliament, you know something is not quite right. Yet it did happen. In Singapore. In 2007, during the debate on the issue of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Loving our country too much?
By Elaine Ee Things are getting ugly online again. Read almost anything that has to do with immigration, population, jobs, housing, transport or any current socio-political issue and you’re likely to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Not prepared to wait
The following is a note first published on Ms De Rozario's Facebook page. We thank her for allowing us to re-publish it here. By Tania De Rozario "...it is not that the courts do not have any role to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Time to video record statements to police?
“The electronic recording of interrogations… is the single best reform available to stem the tide of false confessions.” – The Innocence Project. The allegations by two former SMRT drivers, He Jun Ling...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nparks wants protest organisers to apply for permit
With 2 weeks to the second protest at Speakers’ Corner against the population White Paper, the organisers of the event have been asked to apply for a police permit. The “For A Better Singapore” event...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A lone voice no more
By Andrew Loh The problem of workplace discrimination was recently highlighted in the media and by the Minister for Manpower (MOM). The latest case involved government agencies placing age limits in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Blogger to fight for free speech rights in court
In the first case of its kind in Singapore, 21-year-old local blogger, Han Hui Hui, applies to the High Court for a declaration that the Council for Private Education (CPE), a statutory body, is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cartoonist's arrest - not just about alleged sedition
By Andrew Loh The news is all over the Internet now - cartoonist Leslie Chew, 37, of Demon-cratic Singapore, arrested for alleged sedition. Since the news broke late on Tuesday night, the number of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nizam Ismail saga – the good, the bad and the ugly
By Zakaria Hassan Mr Nizam Ismail, a Director of the Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP) and Chairman of the Board of the Centre for Research on Malay and Islamic Affairs (RIMA) recently resigned...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A persistence in meaning, when a Mango Tree is more than just a tree.
Few of us in Singapore have much to return to from our childhood, even fewer would have fought as hard as Hidayah Amin to preserve what she holds dear of her heritage. When Hidayah was born in her...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Single-identity politics
By Angela Oon The recent case of Nizam Ismail and his resignation from the AMP got me thinking, again, about the kind of single-identity politics that keep getting shoved down our throats. It's the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Silence over Sri Lanka’s killing fields
By Jewel Philemon From Singapore… Close to forty participants were seen setting up base at the Speakers Corner on Saturday. These people - from different walks of life, different nationalities,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More than a picnic, less than a conspiracy
By Ng Jing Song It was the following exchange that might have brought Stand Up on May Day more publicity than the organisers could have ever bargained for. “Labour Day is a day for rest.” “Ya, like...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Kampong boy, human rights champion
By Elaine Ee Human rights lawyers in Singapore are a rare and precious breed. In a republic where political, press and civil liberties are only just starting to look up, fighting for human rights was,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
When activists cross the line
By Andrew Loh In recent years, there have been instances where the Government took issue with civil society activists for allegedly having “crossed a line” from civil society activism to political...
View ArticleClik here to view.
AGC to be joined as party in blogger’s case involving stat board
The Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) has indicated that it has “no objections to being joined as a party” in the case brought by blogger Ms Han Hui Hui involving a statutory board. Ms Han is being...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ending the politics of dominance
By Tan Wah Piow In his interview with the Straits Times, the Deputy Prime Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam said “it’s in Singapore’s interest that you do have a dominant party”. The responses from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Erosion of trust in public institutions not necessarily a bad thing
By Andrew Loh In September last year (2012), Sim Ann, the Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Communications and Information & Ministry of Education, posted the following joke on her...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gov't reneges on 'light touch' promise
Publichouse.sg statement on the MDA ruling: "The new Internet ruling announced by the Media Development Authority (MDA) is symptomatic of a government which continues to be out of touch with the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gov't continues to be out of touch
By Andrew Loh On 4 January, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sent a legal letter of demand to writer and activist Alex Au to remove an article which was allegedly defamatory of Mr Lee. Mr Au was also...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is the PAP government going back to its old ways?
By Dr Wong Wee Nam On the 12th of August 2004, a young man confidently declared, “We will continue to expand the space which Singaporeans have to live, to laugh, to grow and to be ourselves. Our people...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Students call for dialogue with Minister Yaacob Ibrahim
The Media Development Authority had, on 28 May 2013, made a rather unexpected announcement of a new licensing regime for online news sites which requires websites that regularly report on local news,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Major websites to protest licensing requirement
MEDIA STATEMENT Thursday, 30 May 2013 MAJOR ONLINE WEBSITES IN SINGAPORE TO PROTEST AGAINST LICENSING REQUIREMENT The Media Development Authority had, on Tuesday, introduced a “licensing framework”...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Remembering Qu Yan - people-first leadershp
By Dr Wong Wee Nam “Those who are wise do not dispense political decrees (to the people)” 知者不言 Laozi On 12th of May 2008, a terrible earthquake hit the Sichuan Province of China. About 70,000 were...
View ArticleClik here to view.
MDA's censorship rules apply to readers' comments too
By Andrew Loh The so-called new regulations announced by the Media Development Authority (MDA) are perhaps intentionally broad and vague enough to allow the government to enforce it on virtually...
View ArticleClik here to view.
#FreeMyInternet – Movement against new licensing requirements for online media
MOVEMENT AGAINST NEW LICENSING REQUIREMENTS FOR ONLINE MEDIA MEDIA STATEMENT - 1 JUNE 2013 The blogging community will be organising a protest and online blackout next week against the new licensing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Reading "the right thing" under wrong circumstances
By Cheryl Marie Tay And so, as many of us had probably already expected, the MDA’s plan to “regulate” online news sites has come to pass. Today is the day, and it appears there’s not much we can do...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Singapore once had a free press
By Elaine Ee It wasn’t always this way. The media in Singapore wasn’t always state-controlled. We didn’t always have the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act (NPPA). Our newspapers were not always run by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
MOM Minister criticised for not issuing Stop-Work Order
By Andrew Loh At 1pm on Thursday, 20 June, the Pollutants Standard Index (PSI) hit a record-high of 371 in Singapore. PSI levels 300 and above are considered hazardous. The high level of the PSI held...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Never trade off workers’ safety for cost or for time: PM Lee
The following is a speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on 20 May 2013. The PM made the speech at the launch of the Workplace Safety and Health Campaign. We reproduce the speech in light of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
AGC fails to answer pertinent questions
By Andrew Loh The report in the 24 June edition of the Straits Times, titled “Contempt of court: AGC can decide over prosecution”, misses the main points which members of the public have asked. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pink Dot 2013 - Gary, Kenneth, and Tan Eng Hong
By Lisa Li I've been to every Pink Dot for the past five years, watching it grow from crowds of 2,500 in 2009 to 21,000 in 2013. I'm still awed by the glorious sight of pink people all streaming onto...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A People's Stravinsky: Review and Interview with Angela Liong
I had to take time to think about this one. Rite of Spring: A People's Stravinsky which was staged on the 22nd June at The Esplanade, was a daring enterprise. At the centre of the stage was The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More clarity, consultation needed on Broadcasting Act: #FreeMyInternet
Statement from #FreeMyInternet group in response to remarks by the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Communications and Information, on MDA's Internet regulations. We refer to the statements made...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Court's decision settles 50-year dispute on by-election
Court favors the Citizen’s Right to Parliamentary Representation Today [Friday, 5 July 2013], the Court of Appeal ruled that the Constitution of Singapore “does not give the Prime Minister an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Calling by-elections - PM's discretion not unfettered, court rules
The Court of Appeal on Friday, 5 July, laid down that the Prime Minister must call a by-election and that he does not have "unfettered discretion" in deciding when to call one when a parliamentary seat...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mollycoddled little emperors
Andrew Loh On 30 June, Acting Minister for Manpower, Tan Chuan Jin, posted a status update on his Facebook page. In it, he pledged his support for SportsCares, an organisation which uses “sport as a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Re-open Coroner's inquiry into prison death
By Andrew Loh The Attorney General’s Chambers’ explanation of why the Coroner’s inquiry into the death of prison inmate Dinesh Raman Chinnaiah was discontinued does not answer the questions raised...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Low grades in a high-stakes education system
The following article was first published on Insing. By Elaine Ee Dealing with the demands of the education system and keeping to personal ideals of parenting is not easy, one parent says (Photo:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It's about high-handed politics, not high standards of journalism
By Elaine Ee Since the Media Development Authority (MDA) introduced its hugely unpopular licensing requirements for Singapore news websites on 1 June 2013, the government has been on the defensive....
View ArticleClik here to view.
ST avoids Dhanabalan's reason for leaving Cabinet
By Andrew Loh When Straits Times reporter Robin Chan lamented that he did not think we will see the likes of Mr S Dhanabalan again, he was probably just being rhetorical. After all, the human race has...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My victory over domestic violence
This is what Rachel Chung, 37, wants you to know. Rachel put up with domestic violence for eight years before finally filing for divorce. Today, she has sole custody of her two kids (10 and 15-years...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Kampong spirit alive and kicking in Jalan Kukoh
By Jewel Philemon / Online/Offline The little red dot has been abuzz with great debate, following the release of this year’s National Day Parade theme song, ‘One Singapore’. The almost 4-minute music...
View Article