The Bird Is Out of the Cage
Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . When two young women, while trying to talk to Singapore's Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam about the misuse of POFMA (Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act) , were provoked to flip the bird to the cameras of his minders, the fast-and-furious criticisms of the sisters from politicians of the governing party, civil-society actors, and community leaders were telling about the rigid restrictions of political discourse in the country. As Jom puts it, "When we are quick to judge, to believe authority over activists, to pine for some imagined decorum in a dialogue biased by the disparity in power, we leave out much from our collective consciousness, our understanding of who we are." The sisters have given their own version of the event , and I choose to believe them instead. If the full video were to be released, and not just the seven minutes that whistled to the ...