WTC Wrap: 1 August 2026

Why are there always so many emails? Do they ever stop?

(1)

Three kids were detained under the Internal Security Act. A 14-year-old boy was detained in May—the youngest to ever be detained without trial under the ISA. Also detained, in separate cases, are a 15-year-old and a 19-year-old.

As always, with ISA cases, we only have government claims in press statements to go on; there will be no open trials, which is one reason why I always hesitate to accept the narrative wholesale. The authorities say that these kids had all been self-radicalised and planned to carry out various attacks. There's been an observed emergence of has been dubbed "salad bar extremism", referring to situations where an individual picks and chooses from a variety of beliefs and positions—putting together their very own customised platter of horrors—instead of adhering to a single ideology.

Salad bar extremism—or Composite Violent Extremism, or Mixed, Unstable, and Unclear extremism, depending on who you're asking and what their preferred jargon is—requires a different playbook and approach from the traditional methods. With the wide variety of disinformation, conspiracy theories, hate speech, underground communities, etc. disseminating content at speed and at scale online, individuals might not fit the profiles that experts usually look out for.

(2)

Massive Attack, an English trip-hop collective, played in Singapore on 29 July. Massive Attack has never hidden their political opinions and are among the many artistes and labels who've joined No Music for Genocide, a cultural boycott of Israel that involves geo-blocking their music from Israel. So it's really not so shocking that they pulled out a flag of Palestine during their concert, to applause from the audience.

I don't know if they hadn't been told about how jumpy Singapore and Singaporeans can be about such things, or if their Singapore concert promoted had briefed them and they just didn't care. But there are two things I know to be true: they displayed the flag, and Singaporeans (not all, but enough) love snitching. The original post has been removed now, but someone had claimed on Reddit that they'd attended the concert and tried to report the incident on the SGSecure app. (What's shocking to me in this anecdote is that there are people who voluntarily use the SGSecure app.) Reports were lodged and now the Infocomm Media Development Authority is looking into the matter, for a possible breach of licence conditions. The police have issued stern warnings to two members of the band. They’re also banned from returning to Singapore, so to all the fans who decided to report them—congratulations no more Massive Attack live in Singapore for you!

I've not seen a public response from Massive Attack to this investigation yet but, based on this short interview with their member Robert Del Naja at a 2025 protest against the British government's decision to designate Palestine Action a terrorist organisation in the UK, I doubt they’re feeling much regret for making their point:

(3)

The Ministry of Defence is recruiting volunteers who have skills in things related to the performing arts. They're interested in not only performers, but also people with technical skills like sound engineering and camerawork. It's all part of the Singapore Defence Volunteer Network; MINDEF is pitching this as a new way for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents to contribute to Singapore's defence in non-military ways.

Hang on a minute, says Ivan Heng of Wild Rice. In an ST Forum letter, he writes:

The roles listed by MINDEF require years of training, experience and technical expertise. They are the same skills that event organisers, arts organisations and commercial clients routinely pay for. When well-resourced institutions ask people to provide such work for free, it sends a message that artistic labour is worth less than other professional services.

As a writer, I've participated in soooooo many conversations about paying freelancers and creatives, and the ethics or impact of working for free. Personally, I don't mind doing writing or editing for free if it's a cause that I care about or for an organisation that I know is struggling to make ends meet. I see it as similar to making a donation, just that my contribution is being made in services or in kind. I've met many workers in the media and performing arts space who operate in this way, too. We're no stranger to going above and beyond for little to no renumeration.

But that's not the case here. In the 2026 Budget, MINDEF's estimated total expenditure for 2026 was $24,933,880,000. This is not an under-resourced NGO or charity fighting to stay in the black. This is a government ministry, funded by public monies (including the taxes that workers in the creative industries pay from the income they've made). They can, and should, be paying fair rates for professional work. Artists constantly have to fight for their work to be respected and appropriately compensated; the government shouldn't be—whether consciously or not—perpetuating the mindset that such work can be easily obtained for free.

MINDEF has issued a response to Ivan's forum letter:

We remain committed to supporting Singapore’s creative ecosystem by regularly engaging and commissioning local performers, creative agencies, production companies, and technical crews for a wide range of projects such as public engagement concerts, livestream events, as well as digital media productions and programmes. These are fully paid engagements.

The Singapore Defence Volunteer Network (SG Defence) complements, and is not intended to replace, paid engagements. It serves as a platform for active citizenry, offering an additional avenue for Singaporeans from all backgrounds and with diverse skill sets including both creative professionals and non-professionals, to contribute their time, talents, and abilities in support of national defence. Other examples of volunteers contributing alongside our service personnel include SAF volunteers serving as Auxiliary Security Troopers or psychiatrists volunteering on the SAF Psychiatry Specialist Advisory Board.

Got some more...

🏠 The government has formally acquired Lee Kuan Yew's old house on Oxley Road. The National Heritage Board will study the site and come up with suggestions of how it can be turned into a public space while respecting LKY's stated desire for privacy. A tall order, seeing that LKY's stated desire was for the place to have a private meeting with a wrecking ball.

🔍 In last week's wrap, I wrote about the process (or potential lack thereof) of screening people who work with children, and about wanting to learn more about how this works (or doesn't) in Singapore. So I was interested to read this commentary in The Straits Times arguing for mandatory checks:

The education sector is highly regulated but there is vulnerability in the informal education market, where criminal history checks are not mandatory.

Freelance tutors, volunteers, coaches and private teachers in centres with fewer than 10 students operate outside the strict registration requirements mandated by the Education Act.

This is unlike public and large private institutions, which have to receive official Ministry of Education (MOE) registration for staff members, a process which includes criminal history checks.

The regulatory gap means former teachers who have been convicted of sex offences related to young people and other criminal offences where children have been harmed can, after they have served their sentence, pivot to home-tutoring.

I'm not a big fan of the idea of a public sex offender registry, but given it does strike me as odd that Singapore doesn't already have more of a process to screen people who work with children and vulnerable people.

Music for the weekend! I'm very basic, because any time someone mentions Massive Attack I just think about this song, which I will forever associate with Hugh Laurie and the TV series, House.