The end of the year is really hurtling towards us and once again I am not ready.
(1)
Singapore is determined to do a bit more killing before the year draws to a close. I'd really hoped that 14 executions—the highest in a single year for about two decades—would have been enough, but this week the Transformative Justice Collective learnt that three execution notices have been issued for next week: one for 26 November, two for 27 November.
One of the men the prison intends to execute on the 27th is Saminathan Selvaraju. Sami was one of the four prisoners who'd challenged the constitutionality of the presumption clauses in the Misuse of Drugs Act used to convict them—the Court of Appeal dismissed this challenge in August. In September, Sami's family had been part of a joint clemency appeal submitted to President Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
What's really outrageous about these execution notices is that, earlier this month, a group of us filed a constitutional challenge against the mandatory death penalty. We're currently set for a hearing on 3 December 2025. Why is the state trying to execute people sentenced to the mandatory death penalty, when the constitutionality of this punishment is being challenged? 😡
(2)
Singapore POFMAed a Malaysian news outlet and was essentially told to go fly kite. The news website MalaysiaNow was POFMAed for publishing a statement by Pannir Selvam Pranthaman's older sister, Sangkari. They weren't fazed in the slightest, publishing this statement:
Today, the government of Singapore issued a lengthy notice to MalaysiaNow under a draconian censorship law euphemistically called the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act, or Pofma.
The notice concerns an article published by MalaysiaNow on Nov 9, 2025, written by Sangkari Pranthaman, the sister of Pannir Selvam, the Malaysian citizen who was executed on Oct 8.
The full article can be read here: "Family of Malaysian prisoner reveals shocking acts of threats, deception before execution in Singapore".
The Pofma notice is an 18-page of rambling littered with jargon and threats, while being kind enough to provide us with ready-made "correction" templates and expecting MalaysiaNow to paste them in our article and related social media posts.
The document provides instructions on how and where to place these passages, as well as a directive to "pin" them in our social media posts.
Effectively, it is saying that the Singapore government will manage MalaysiaNow's content if it is not satisfied with what we publish.
We thank the Singapore government for its offer and are touched by the meticulous guidelines prepared for us, in order that we avoid punishment under a foreign law that has been condemned for its extraterritorial character, not to mention its Orwellian overtones.
It is baffling, even amusing, to think that the Singapore government could have spent so many man-hours to produce these intricate instructions and expect the media in Malaysia to follow them.
We do not take instructions from our own government; what makes them think we would take instructions from them?
We reject this notice, and we will include this statement instead in all the links mentioned by the Pofma notice.
Unsurprisingly, the government has now blocked MalaysiaNow in Singapore.
(3)
Singapore is imposing sanctions on four Israeli settlers for "egregious acts of extremist violence" against Palestinians in the West Bank. Meir Mordechai Ettinger, Elisha Yered, Ben-Zion Gopstein, and Baruch Marzel have been banned from entering the country and are subjected to "targeted financial sanctions". These four are either from a right-wing Jewish group or from an aggressive Israeli youth group that attacks Palestinians. They've also been sanctioned by the European Union, and some by Canada and Australia, too.
Got some more...
🫥 Why is the PAP jumping on the opposition every opportunity it's got? (paywalled) Well... when has it not?
👀 I haven't had the chance to read it yet, but wanted to flag this in the newsletter: The Straits Times has features (here and here) on sex work in Singapore and they're not total howlers, so that's encouraging.
Among the many things that we do at the Transformative Justice Collective is supporting families of death row prisoners, as much as we can, with their various needs. For this purpose, we run the TJC Support Fund, which can be used for a variety of things, including travel expenses (so that they can come to Singapore for prison visits), or, if it comes to it, funeral costs.
If you can, please consider making a contribution to the TJC Support Fund either by scanning the QR code above or making a PayNow transfer to our UEN 201025212ETJ8. Please add "TJC Support Fund" in the reference so we know that your donation has been earmarked for this purpose! 🙏🏼
Something interesting
🎧 A new episode of Currents this week! This time, it's a conversation with Trịnh Hữu Long on freedom of expression in Vietnam and curating a library of books banned in the country.
Thank you for reading! As always, feel free to forward this weekly wrap to anyone you like, and spread the word about this newsletter!