Special Issues
Stay the execution, he’s got Covid
I’m writing this late at night after a nerve-wrecking, exhausting day. I’m still trying to collect my thoughts. Everything feels surreal, even a little bit ludicrous. I’m glad and relieved, but also horrified and anxious. Since learning of Nagaenthran’s impending execution on 28 October, I’ve
Death by bureaucracy
I’ve been an anti-death penalty activist for 10 years. In this time, I’ve tried my best to observe and document the application of capital punishment in Singapore, and to support the families of death row inmates as they navigate the system. When people ask me about this work,
“I am fighting for a meaningful change”: A conversation with Justin Lee’s mother
After losing her son, Cecilia Ow is now demanding significant and meaningful reform to the way the criminal punishment system handles cases with young persons, or people with mental health conditions.
Singapore’s anti-foreign interference bill is (more) bad news
Again, apologies for not having a weekly wrap last Saturday. It's been a stressful week... and then the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Bill showed up on Monday! Given that I've been anxious about this law for years now, of course there's gotta be a special issue on it. After two years
Singapore's gig musicians talk Covid-19 and the live music situation
Apologies for not having a weekly wrap today — an emergency came up yesterday afternoon and I basically ran out of time to write a wrap. 😭 If I can, I'll write one this weekend so you'll get a wrap on Monday. If not, we'll be back to regular programming next weekend,
WTC Long Read: Parsing the shock announcement of Yale-NUS College’s impending closure
This piece morphed and evolved as I wrote it over the past few days. I didn’t want to rehash things that were already being reported by the local media, so I was looking for a way We, The Citizens could add value to what’s out there. I ended
A look at Singapore’s Mandarin media coverage of China
Apologies for not having a weekly wrap this Saturday; in trying to take on a few big deadlines I've overdone it and run myself down. 😢 But I'm really excited about this special issue; it covers something that I've been curious about for a long time, and I'm so glad that
The differentiated measures we care about... and the ones we don't
This commentary was written for The News Lens International, who have published the piece here. I'm emailing it directly to Milo Peng Funders for convenience.
Reaching out in a time of loss
This issue is only for Milo Peng Funders. It's not so much a piece about Singapore, but a personal essay/reflection reaching out to others who might be going through a tough time, or finding 2021, as a whole, more difficult and depressing. ❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹
"Choosing between education and family": The international students' dilemma
This story was directly emailed to Milo Peng Funders, who will never miss an issue of We, The Citizens. It's also freely accessible via the website. Milo Peng Funders keep this newsletter running, as well as supporting my other independent writing and civil society work. Please become one if you