Song of a Reformed Headhunter

Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . I've been a subscription member of New Naratif since its founding. New Naratif is much more than a journalism outlet, it is a movement for democracy in Southeast East Asia. Its long-form reports amplify the voices and actions of activists and minorities across the region. Its events and podcasts raise awareness and connect people. Its calls for action are thoughtful and practical. You may already be a supporter of your own country's independent media. (If you are not, please be one!) Now you can also support a transnational movement working for human rights, workers' rights, and minorities' rights. New Naratif's latest article "Across Southeast Asia, Human Rights Defenders Unite Against Myanmar Coup," exemplifies its mission. In confronting the rise of authoritarianism and violence in the region, we need greater unity and understanding among us. If you belong to a coun...

Singapore Unbound Public Statement  September 21, 2020  Singapore Unbound Urges Prime Minister's Office to Withdraw Police Complaint Singapore Unbound denounces the People's Action Party government's harassment of PJ Thum, the Managing Director of New Naratif, an independent news website reporting on Singapore and Southeast Asia. The Elections Department, Prime Minister's Office, has filed a police complaint against New Naratif, alleging that New Naratif published “paid advertisements that amounted to the illegal conduct of election activity under s83(2) of the Parliamentary Elections Act (PEA) during the recent 2020 General Election.” As New Naratif points out , the PEA is framed so broadly that almost any kind of paid public comment could be construed to run foul of it, including New Naratif's coverage of the General Elections, boosted as paid posts on Facebook. Judge for yourself: The PEA states that “…such material shall be election advertising even t...

FOTO: unknown photographer/agency, "[(L-R) Lim Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan, S. Woodhull] Released People's Action Party detainees at Middle Road and S.T.C. Union." (caption provided by AsiaOne), 1963    On 2 February 1963, 113 people—anti-colonial activists, trade unionists, students, and politicians—were arrested in the security operation code-named Coldstore and detained without trial in Singapore. The British operation, carried out with the urging of Lee Kuan Yew, aimed ostensibly at crippling the Communist movement, but was actually directed at defeating the left-wing Barisan Sosialis party, led by Lim Chin Siong (pictured above), that was formed after breaking away from Lee's People's Action Party. The latter story has since been erased by the PAP narrative of successful national development after the defeat of Communism. There are eerie echoes of Singapore's past in Trump's attempt to bribe the Ukrainian government to invest...

Weekly column written for Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . In view of upcoming elections, New Naratif surveyed Singaporeans on the most important issues facing the country. 447 people responded, and their responses covered not only jobs and cost of living, but also electoral and parliamentary reform, human rights and civil liberties, social discrimination, and foreign policy. Interestingly, as New Naratif points out, no one mentioned religious extremism or deliberate online falsehoods, issues identified by the PAP government as so important as to justify rushed and controversial legislation recently. Now, if you are a Singapore citizen, you can decide which of the 28 issues identified by fellow citizens are most important to Singapore. The goal is to pose these questions to every candidate standing up for election, and to hear their individual stands. Please consider participating in this democratic exercise . Vote with full information. Jee Leong Koh September 5, 2...

Weekly column written for Singapore Unbound's newsletter. Sign up here . "They came to the coffee shop in Joo Chiat where I was working at 2am. About five or six officers came, and they took me to Outram [police station], where there were already many people. I was detained for four and a half years. I was a Singapore citizen but I lost my citizenship; they took me to the border. I couldn’t return to Singapore for years...." YEH Kim Pak was 27 years old when he was arrested on February 2nd, 1963, along with over 110 anti-colonial activists on the mere suspicion of being Communists. Yeh was not a Communist, but he did fight for workers' rights through the Singapore Coffee Shop Employees Union. The British police operation, codenamed Cold Store, was supported by the Malaysian and Singaporean leaders who used it against their political opponents. In fact, there is evidence that Singapore's leader LEE Kuan Yew urged the reluctant British authorities to...

The column below is written for Singapore Unbound's weekly newsletter. Sign up here .  Social change activists are often perceived as trouble-makers. This happens not only in Singapore but all around the world. However, this wrong perception is even more egregious in Singapore because Singaporeans have forgotten or suppressed their own local tradition of activism. The mistake is thus prevalent and stubborn. To unearth the history, theory, and practice of Singaporean activism, the news magazine New Naratif interviews former student activist TAN Tee Seng and civil rights activist Jolovan WHAM in their podcast series Political Agenda . In the interview, New Naratif's THUM Ping Tjin referred to a theory of activism propounded by Bill Moyer. This is not the beloved American political commentator. This Bill Moyer (without an 's" at the end of his last name) was a United States social change activist who influenced Martin Luther King Jr. and James Bevel to focu...