New Naratif's Political Agenda

Yesterday, on 21 September 2020, New Naratif Managing Director PJ Thum was interrogated for four and a half hours, had his mobile phone and laptop seized, and his home invaded by the Singapore police. Today, he sits down with Sean Francis Han to explain what exactly the Elections Department of the Prime Minister's Office is accusing New Naratif of having done, how this is an abuse of the law and d...

Lune Loh, co-founder of Students for a Safer NUS, member of tFreedom, and Executive Director of TransNUS, speaks to PJ Thum and Sean Francis Han (WakeUpSG) about her activism, her life as a trans woman in Singapore (especially during National Service), and the recent kerfuffle over an educational event on bondage and rope play organised by tFreedom. Watch a longer extended interview on YouTube at...

Jolovan Wham, the well known Singaporean human rights defender and activist, talks to PJ Thum about his most recent stint in jail for civil disobedience. They discuss Singapore’s arbitrary laws, his experience with jail, issues with the criminal justice system, and why he is advocating for prison reform. Learn more, and get in touch with Jolovan, at prisonlife.sg .

Picking up from last week's episode, PJ Thum continues his conversation with Sean Francis Han, the Editor-in-Chief of Wake Up Singapore. In August, Wake Up Singapore conducted a survey of Singaporeans' social and political attitudes, with some surprising and some not-so-surprising results. In this week's episode, they discuss the results of that survey. 

On this week's episode of Political Agenda, PJ Thum speaks to Sean Francis Han, the Editor-in-Chief of Wake Up Singapore. Wake Up Singapore bills itself as a community of young activists looking to bring alternative voices to the major issues in Singapore and around the world, which advocates for reform and social justice. Part one of this interview is about Wake Up Singapore and looks at the sust...

PJ sits down with Tan Jee Say of the Singapore Democratic Party to talk about Singapore's economy and economic policies, and the SDP's campaign pledges. Recorded amidst the heat of campaigning on 6 July 2020 and first broadcast on onlinecitizenasia.com.

Last year, Professor Stefano Harney made headlines in Singapore when he gave all 169 business students in his course the same grade. The university called these grades bogus, but Stefano felt the students deserved it and gave them all an A grade. This week on Political Agenda, PJ Thum speaks to Professor Stefano Harney about this incident and what it reveals about meritocracy in Singapore.

Prof James Warren, author of several groundbreaking subaltern histories of Singapore including "Rickshaw Coolie: A People's History of Singapore 1880-1940", reflects on a long career working on Singapore history in this lecture delivered at the National Library of Singapore in January 2019.

On this week's episode, PJ Thum speaks to Dr Paul Tambyah from the Singapore Democratic Party. They discuss his vision for Singapore, healthcare, the role of non-Singaporeans in the country and other pressing issues. This interview was originally recorded live on The Online Citizen Asia 's Facebook page.

Historian Thum Ping Tjin ("PJ") responds to the POFMA order by Minister of Law K Shanmugam against Episode 8 of "The Show with PJ Thum", by analysing how Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019 (POFMA) was used against Episode 8. He notes how the POFMA order did not challenge any of the fundamental conclusions of Episode 8; and demonstrates how its use against Episode 8 proves...

Kokila Annamalai, Ngiam Shih Tung, and Gan Theng Wei sit down with PJ Thum to talk about all the issues surrounding Singapore's elections, and in particular the ways in which it is not free and unfair. This podcast was recorded in April 2019.

Feroz Khan and Al Lim, authors of "Educating for a Climate-Crisis World", talk about our need to transform the fundamental values we teach ourselves and our children in order to adapt to the ongoing climate crisis.

PJ speaks to Hallam Stevens and Monamie Bhadra Haines, professors at Nanyang Technological University, about the TraceTogether app, and more broadly about Citizen Science, and the broader societal implications of using such technology to address deeply contentious and difficult political issues.

PJ uses the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019 (POFMA) as a case study, to demonstrate how Singapore's People's Action Party government writes poorly worded laws that give themselves immense amounts of power, while misleading the Singaporean people by saying the laws will be used responsibly and for good purposes but then using the law chiefly to silence critics and suppre...

Last week on World Press Freedom Day, we talked about Freedom of the Media in Indonesia. Today, we talk about Freedom of Expression, including the Media, in Singapore, in a chat with Dr James Rowlins. James earned a PhD in French Literature and Film at the University of Southern California and was a lecturer in film and media studies at the Singapore University of Technology and Design when the un...

Historian Thum Ping Tjin ("PJ") explains Singapore's Oxley Road dispute between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his siblings, Lee Wei Ling and Lee Hsien Yang; how Lee Kuan Yew's legacy is crucial to the PAP continuing to win elections and monopolising power; how this demonstrates the weakness of public institutions in Singapore; and how Singapore has the appearance of the form of public account...

Historian Thum Ping Tjin ("PJ") explains how Singapore's economy has evolved over time, how it is heavily dependent on foreign funding, and how the PAP tried to wean Singapore off foreign funding and failed miserably, leading to Singapore's current economic quandary. Yeoh Lam Keong and The Future of Singapore discussions: Part 1: https://youtu.be/KIZKbR1SOiQ Part 2: https://youtu.be/56PxMROHKhU Pa...

PJ speaks with Zakir Hossain Khokan, a migrant worker from Bangladesh and founder of "Migrant Writers of Singapore", who is currently ill with COVID-19 (but recovering), and Jay and Michelle, two Singaporeans who volunteer with his organisation, about their work and other initiatives, including aid to workers in the ongoing crisis ( 2:30 ). Zakir also talks about how he's doing with COVID-19, his...

Historian Thum Ping Tjin ("PJ") explains how the People's Action Party in Singapore uses/abuses the concept of the "Rule of Law" to control all forms of political activity, by criminalising all behaviour but selectively investigating, harassing, and charging only its critics and opponents. Also, he tries to sell you some cologne. Watch the video at https://youtu.be/nPfoQyutztk.

Historian Thum Ping Tjin ("PJ") explains how the People's Action Party in Singapore, through purposeful social design since the 1960s, has created a system through which the state is able to intimately interfere in peoples lives and create public dependence on the state; and how this dependence on the state then makes people afraid to speak up or oppose the government. See the video at https://you...

On 13 March 2020, Wong J-Min, an 18 year old student, held Singapore's first Climate Strike when she skipped school to protest in front of the offices of ExonMobil. On 22 March, 20 year old Nguyen Minh held up a placard in front of Toa Payoh Community Club which said "Singapore is better than Oil." PJ Thum talks to these two young Singaporeans about themselves, their activism, their goals, and the...

PJ comments on the oppression of peaceful climate change activists, Lee Hsien Loong's continued teasing of us about an election amidst the coronavirus crisis, and sex with a condom; and continues his explanation of how the electoral system is deeply unfair. The historic use of arrests and lawsuits, the threats of punishment, and the slanted media coverage create an atmosphere of fear in which peop...

For some reason, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wants to call an election in the middle of the coronavirus crisis. Historian Thum Ping Tjin (“PJ”) comments on this and explains how the electoral system is deeply unfair. It is designed to maximise the seats and votes for the governing People’s Action Party (PAP), and the point of the system is to legitimise PAP rule, not to reflect popula...

Thum Ping Tjin talks to Tan Wah Piow about childhood, his time in the University of Singapore, his activism, his fraudulent conviction and the PAP government's attempted abuse of the National Service Act against him, his subsequent flight and exile from Singapore, all the people who helped him along the way, and his reflections on Singapore’s politics and political activism today. Recorded 13 Nove...

A recording of a conversation between sociologist and author of  This Is What Inequality Looks Like , Teo You Yenn, and New Naratif's Editor-in-Chief, Kirsten Han, about their writing process, and what it's like to do the work they do in Singapore.