Dear reader,
It’s here! Six of us from the Jom team trod through the mud alongside many of you at the Workers’ Party rally last night in Sengkang. Whatever the final score, it was so refreshing to attend our first rally in 10 years, to breathe in the air of democratic possibility. We hope to see some of you at other parties’ rallies in the coming days.
Save the date: 8pm, May 3rd. On Polling Night, we’ll have a special livestream for you on our YouTube channel. Get your friends round, and join Jom for a watch party as the results stream in. More details in next week’s newsletter.
GE Daily dispatch. We’re cosplaying as a daily during the GE. The Daily dispatch is our usual, opinionated take on the previous day’s happenings. You can see the dispatches on social media, or by visiting our new GE portal.
GE portal. You’ll find all Jom’s GE-related coverage here. Daily dispatch, commentaries, videos, and a Voter Quiz by the Community for Advocacy and Political Education (CAPE). Unsure which political party aligns most with your own personal beliefs, from BTOs to freedom of expression? Visit our portal, scroll down, and take the quiz now to find out.
Video. Jom hosted our first-ever livestream on Wednesday to make sense of the muddle of Nomination Day earlier that morning, and discuss party strategies, power teams and suicide squads. Anngee Neo, an illustrator, and Walid Abdullah, NTU professor, joined me in the studio for a one-hour chat, which you can watch here. Among other things, I learnt about the “Goh Meng Seng Haters Club” and the phrase “Mas Must Go”.
- Our roundup of the key GE battlegrounds: Bukit Panjang SMC, Punggol GRC, West Coast-Jurong West GRC, and possibly Tampines GRC.
- Was Pritam Singh too conservative with his GE strategy?
- Theft in our communal gardening plots
- Malay poetry in political discourse
- An obituary of Laichan Goh, couturier of the Singapore stage
- A surprise new Kinokuniya store
And more, in our weekly digest. Read it now.
Essays. During the GE, we’ll also keep publishing our more contemplative pieces. These will be coming out every other day. So do keep popping into our GE portal for the latest.
“Seeing is believing: why Singapore will benefit from having more female politicians” is by Chirag Agarwal. A day before Nomination Day, he argues why all parties should field more female candidates.
“Home is where the ballot is: overseas Singaporeans and GE2025” is by Robin Vochelet, who interviewed Singaporeans around the world to find out what they’re looking forward to this time.
Phew! I know it’s a lot. It’s our first time covering a GE, and I hope we’re bringing to you fresh perspectives that will help you make an informed choice.
Jom fikir,
Sudhir
Editor-in-chief, Jom
p.s. We will still publish next Friday, Cooling-off Day. We’ll just avoid prescribed, sensitive areas. So look out for that e-mail: our last chance to chat before you vote.
Behind Jom’s art, with Tsen-Waye Tay
We’ve collaborated with Dan on a piece about the “sandwich class” by Reeta Raman, and knew he would be able to distil the essence of Robin’s essay on overseas voters with his skill for detail and substance. In the “hero” illustration we see a Singaporean voter torn between two worlds, her adopted city and home country; her hair symbolising both her roots and her exploration of new, possibly more democratic worlds. In the second image, overseas Singaporeans are depicted “flying in” to cast their ballots, the red strings a visual metaphor for ties to Singapore despite building a life elsewhere.
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