Index
All notes
Every note, newest first.
01 Notes
Notes on Singapore politics, newest first
-
What sort of general election is fought with no rallies at all?
Singapore's 14th General Election was always going to be quieter than its predecessors. Fought at a distance, without crowd-pulling rallies and with smaller entourages, it removed the instruments that opposition campaigns depend on most.
-
What the opposition said about the handling of the virus
Early criticism concentrated on whether an election should be held at all. By May it had moved to the dormitories, the timing of the circuit breaker and who the support packages reached.
-
Pofma — but not for WhatsApp, so far
Twenty-seven orders, twenty of them to Facebook and the people posting there. At least eighteen more falsehoods were dealt with by a website notice instead.
-
No clarity on Singapore's Covid-19 elections legislation
On 4 May 2020 Parliament debated a bill authorising temporary special arrangements for an election held during the outbreak. It passed. What it did not do was say when, or under what conditions, any of it would be used.
-
Letters home: Singapore's dormitories and the second outbreak
Two outbreaks ran at once in 2020: one in the general community, and a far larger one inside purpose-built dormitories. The second was counted separately in the daily figures, which is how its scale became visible.
-
Ramadan under restrictions: what changed and who decided
No mass gatherings to break the fast, no prayers at the mosque from dawn to dusk, no relatives visiting. The month ran under restrictions — and the way the guidance was issued says something about how Singapore handles religion and the state.
-
Present but not invited: LGBT questions in Parliament
The subject is present in Singaporean politics without being a normal part of it. What happened in 2022 shows both halves of that at once.
-
Face-off in Aljunied and Hougang
Hougang has returned an opposition MP since 1991. Aljunied became the first GRC ever to change hands in 2011. Together they are the only places in Singapore where opposition incumbency exists at all.
-
How Singaporeans form an impression of the opposition parties
Most Singaporeans have never met an opposition politician. The impression is assembled from television, from parents, and from a handful of clips — and it survives until something replaces it.
-
Meet-the-People sessions: an old tradition still going strong
The queue forms in the evening and often runs past midnight. No law requires it, and almost every MP holds one — which makes it the most consistent point of contact between Singaporeans and the people who represent them.
-
Electoral boundaries report: the committee, the electors, the map
The release of a boundaries report is read as the starting gun for an election. What it actually contains is a list of electoral divisions, and the differences from the last list are where the politics sits.
-
Self-censorship: what young Singaporeans say they will not say
Ask young Singaporeans why they do not post about politics and the answer is rarely the law. It is the job application, the relative who will see it, and the fact that nothing online ever goes away.
-
Good things come in big packages: reading a Budget statement
The annual statement usually opens with the winds of change, geopolitical shifts and technological disruption. What follows is the part worth reading — and the debate that comes after it is where the detail surfaces.
-
Is PSP just Tan Cheng Bock?
After 14 years away, a former PAP MP and presidential candidate returned to politics with a new party. The question the party itself started asking was whether it could survive its 79-year-old founder.
-
CIPC funds: which town council got how much
A dispute over one access ramp put the disparity in improvement grants back in view. The town councils' own annual reports show where the money went.
-
Parliamentary questions: Question Time by MP and by ministry
Oral parliamentary questions get ninety minutes at the start of a sitting, and ministers have to stand up and answer them. Three and a half years of it, counted by member and by ministry, show a House where a handful of MPs do a disproportionate share of the asking — and three subjects that would not go away.