New Naratif's Political Agenda

In a speech in early 2019, then-British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt extolled Singapore as a model for the UK post-Brexit. This idea has persisted throughout the Brexit campaign and the debate over the future direction of post-Brexit UK. Implicit in these models is a vision of Singapore as an economically liberal, “low-tax, low-spend, low-regulation” environment that appeals to many anxious over B...

Across the world, young people have stepped up to lead social movements and speak out on a range of causes, from the climate crisis to gun control in the US. In Singapore, young people have also stepped up to take action, whether it's pressuring their university to reform its sexual harassment policies, or take part in organising the country's first ever climate rally. But there's also been less-t...

One year ago on 29 March 2018, PJ Thum went before the Singapore Parliamentary Select Committee for Deliberate Online Falsehoods, or “fake news”, to use the common shorthand. To his surprise, instead of speaking about his submission to the Committee, he was ambushed with a six-hour interrogation about a paper he published in 2013—or, to be more precise, about one paragraph in that paper, about Ope...

It's been about a year since Singapore's Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods held its open hearings. Although no Bills have yet been tabled, Singapore is expecting legislation to deal with "fake news" and foreign interference. But what would their impact be? In this episode, we talk to political scientist Ian Chong and Editor-in-Chief of The Online Citizen Terry Xu about security conc...

The legend and myth of Lee Kuan Yew looms large, not just over Singapore but over many countries around the world which aspire to emulate his achievements. But who is Lee Kuan Yew, and what exactly did he accomplish? The very first book to try to tackle Lee using a rigorous research-based approach was James Minchin’s No Man Is An Island: A Portrait of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew . As a researcher, Mi...

On 28 January, Singapore’s Ministry of Health revealed that the personal data of 14,200 people living with HIV had been leaked. The news has drawn attention to both the stigma against HIV and concerns over data collection and protection in Singapore. In this episode, we speak to Avin Tan of Action For AIDS and software engineer Chong Kai Xiong. 

2019 marks the 200th anniversary of Sir Stamford Raffles' arrival and the beginning of colonisation in Singapore. Following up on 2015's SG50 celebrations, this year Singaporeans will be hearing plenty about the SG Bicentennial. But how—and why —are we commemorating our own colonisation? How do Singaporeans view colonialism, and what impact has the dominant historical narrative had on our lives? W...

In its 60 years in power, the People's Action Party has used three, very starkly different, official historical narratives. In this lecture, PJ Thum explains this historiography and how the current narrative aims to legitimise the continued subjugation of Singaporeans, weaponise nationalism, and perpetuate colonial mindsets.

Protests are often seen as disruptive and destructive, and are generally frowned upon in Singapore. Activists and performance artists have been arrested and charged under the Public Order Act in recent years, even for indoor forums and solo outdoor performances. In this episode, we sit down to talk to former student activist Tan Tee Seng and civil rights activist Jolovan Wham about activism, socia...

In our final episode of Political Agenda for 2018, New Naratif's Managing Director PJ Thum and Editor-in-Chief Kirsten Han sit down to talk about recent developments in Singapore, from the anointing of Heng Swee Keat as successor to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, to the ongoing maritime dispute between Singapore and Malaysia, and the upcoming bicentennial of Raffles' landing on the island.

Singapore has an ageing population. It's a situation often described in anxious, alarmist tones, with the growing number of senior citizens framed as dependent on a shrinking pool of able-bodied working adults. Yet the country is doing well in terms of health life expectancies, indicating that Singapore's elderly aren't as helpless or infirm as they are often portrayed as being. Is it time for a f...

Our team’s been busy in Kuala Lumpur for our first open meeting in Malaysia, so instead of a new episode of Political Agenda, we’ll be airing a lecture that our Managing Director PJ Thum delivered at Stanford University in October. He discusses the history of Singapore, covering how the country developed politically and socially from as a post-colonial country in the 1960s to the much-envied yet a...

There are almost a million work permit holders in Singapore, labouring in a range of low-wage, stigmatised professions: construction, manufacturing, domestic work. But many face physical and social segregation, and are excluded from data on Singapore’s resident population. This week, Dr Stephanie Chok from the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME) and Debbie Fordyce from Transie...

Political Agenda is a fortnightly podcast by New Naratif, where we get interesting people together for a conversation about an important Singaporean subject or issue. Singapore’s hawker centres have been described as a “cultural institution”, a source of pride as much as a source of good eats. Yet the hawker industry is in crisis today, with rents and overhead costs rising even as hawkers are pres...

On 6 September, the Indian Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality when it ruled on Section 377 of its penal code. The historic ruling on this colonial-era law gave a boost to Singapore’s LGBT movement, prompting a renewed push to repeal Section 377A of Singapore’s Penal Code. New Naratif sits down with Ready4Repeal co-author Johannes Hadi , Clement Tan of Pink Dot and PhD candidate Pamela Deva...

New Naratif turned one on 8 September 2018 and we marked the occasion with our members with a live recording of Political Agenda! Managing Director PJ Thum and Editor-in-Chief Kirsten Han reflect on a rollercoaster year and take questions from the audience.

Crazy Rich Asians opened in the US a week-and-a-half ago and was welcomed as a milestone, a “moment” and a win for representation. But how does it portray Singapore, in which the story is set? We sit down with Ruby Thiagarajan of Mynah Magazine, Aisyah Amir of The Local Rebel and Yale-NUS undergraduate Faris Joraimi to talk about representation, inequality and Crazy Rich Asians from a Singaporean...

This is New Naratif’s Political Agenda — a fortnightly roundtable discussion series of current affairs and issues of national importance in Singapore. Hosted by Managing Director PJ Thum and Editor-in-Chief Kirsten Han. This week, we talk nationalism and National Day in Singapore with political scientist Dr Ian Chong and theatre director—and former National Day Parade creative director—Glen Goei.