Dear reader,
This is Abhishek, subbing in for Sudhir who is luxuriating in the mountains of northern Thailand. If you read last week’s newsletter, you’ll know Charmaine, Sudhir and I were in Chiang Mai for the Splice Beta media festival. It was, in a word, revelatory.
We often groan about the lack of press freedoms and the commercial challenges of building an independent publication here. The groans are justified. But speaking to some of the folks at Splice—Afghani journalists operating in exile from the US; reporters from Myanmar forced to flee over the border into Thailand; Mongolian scribes tearing their hair out trying to convince even a few readers to pay for content—really put things into perspective.
Speaking for myself, that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. When you see displaced people doing amazing work, a smile on their faces and a que sera sera on their lips, you can’t complain too much about your own challenges, can you? And who are we, really, if not our complaints? Not sure I’ll be going back. Separately, Sudhir and Charmaine also duped me into a treacherous three-hour trek inside the Doi Inthanon National Park, 90 minutes from Chiang Mai. They may have faced dire consequences, but the magnificent view from the summit came to their rescue.
Now, to this week.
Letters. Nigel Li has responded to Bobby Jay’s critique of his postcard from Washington DC. In his forceful epistle last week, Bobby stressed American individuality and economic dynamism; in his response, Nigel worries about inequality, and that disagreement within the country’s body politic, the lifeblood of any healthy democracy, appears to now have become corrosive. “The difference today,” he writes, “is that one side calls the other fascists and the other stokes fear of an ‘enemy within’”. Conversations about the wider implications of these divisions will become increasingly important as we move into the second Trump presidency. We’re glad some of them are being had on Jom’s pages. Thanks, Nigel and Bobby. Read their full exchange here.
“Singapore This Week”. In our weekly digest, we discuss the deepfake porn scandal at the Singapore Sports School; a proposed law that will give Singapore police unprecedented powers to protect scam victims; the old Market Street carpark; the revival, here, of Butoh, the dance form born in the crucible of post-war Japan; a new AI model that can understand Singlish; and more.
“Essay”. This week’s essay is by Saza Faradilla. Saza is the co-founder of End Female Genital Cutting Singapore, a collective dedicated to ending female circumcision. This year, she went to Geneva as part of a group of NGOs representing Singapore, alongside government agencies, in front of the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) committee.
Saza sketches a fascinating picture of the various interest groups from Singapore making their case while parrying rosy state narratives. Some battled for Muslim women’s rights: “Muslim women should have the right to marry of their own accord, without permission from male guardians. They don’t. They should have equal divorce rights. They don’t. Polygamy should be banned, and the rule prohibiting the marriage of Muslim girls before they turn 18 enforced. They’re not.” Others clamoured for migrant domestic workers to be given the same employment rights as everyone else, including “limits on work hours, compensation for overtime, as well as annual and medical leave.” All this, while jostling for a sliver of the collective 10 minutes they were given to make their oral presentations.
The essay rests on twin themes: autonomy and equality. Despite the progress Singapore has made, true gender parity will be achieved only when society, and the state, accept that it means autonomy and equality for “all women” in Singapore, not just those who belong to the mainstream. Saza’s words are informative, timely, and urgent. Read them here.
Jom fikir,
Abhishek Mehrotra
Head of content, Jom
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