Dear reader,

“Singapore This Week”. In our weekly digest, we discuss the Lees’ political asylum in the UK; the ethics of assisted dying; Singapore’s war on drugs; the latest prize for Khir Johari’s magisterial The Food of Singapore Malays: Gastronomic Travels through the Archipelago; playwright Joel Tan’s upcoming show in the UK; a new work experience programme from the University of the Arts Singapore; the fate of One Championship; and that of eFishery.

Our essay of the week, “Singapore’s most popular politicians”, is the second of our two-parter analysing Jom’s first voter sentiment survey, which was conducted by Milieu in June. Last week, we discussed Singaporeans’ political interests and imperatives. This week’s is a little juicier. We asked our 1,000 respondents about whether they approved of Lee Hsien Loong’s performance as prime minister; whether they have confidence in Lawrence Wong’s ability as prime minister; how likeable 14 different members of Parliament are; and whether or not they think a politician’s personal life (e.g. extramarital affairs) should affect their suitability for office.

I’m not going to give it all away. But to note a few things, there’s plenty here for Lee, Wong, and Pritam Singh to be happy about. By contrast, the findings may cause Josephine Teo, Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa some grief. And K Shanmugam? Perhaps predictably for the polarising politician, some great news, some not so good. Read the piece for more.

Jom has today shared both the raw and weighted data that Milieu sent us. Play with it; tell us what we’ve missed. 

Finally, a big thanks to the numerous contributors, some of whom are named, for their help over many months. We’re deeply grateful.

I’m going to end my perhaps shortest-ever newsletter here, and look forward to continuing the conversation with you in person at this weekend’s Singapore Art Book Fair (SGABF). Tickets available at the door. See you there.

Jom cakap,
Sudhir Vadaketh
Editor-in-chief, Jom

Behind Jom’s art, with Charmaine Poh

This week’s header comes courtesy of Saki, our social media manager. Her approach adds a playful touch to the gravity of some of our reportage, this week’s included. Combing through the politicians’ portraits, it was interesting to observe how the PAP leaders had social media profile pictures of them appearing friendly and relatable, while it was much harder to find something similar for the leader of the opposition. Yet considering his popularity, perhaps the relative lack of polish in party branding may not be such a detriment after all.

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