Occasionally, Jom publishes essays outside the paywall. These are on issues we think are in the public interest, and deserve a wider airing. In the past two years, we have published nearly 50 such pieces. Read some of these if you’d like to see samples of our work. We hope they’ll convince you to subscribe. And even if you’re here with no intention of doing so, we hope you’ll enjoy these offerings and consider it time well spent!
Arts and Artists
‘La Luna’: Malayan dreaming (March 22nd, 2024)
A conservative kampung, a racy new lingerie store, a whole host of irresistible characters—Dan Koh enters the charming world of “La Luna”, director M Raihan Halim’s contemporary evocation of the Golden Age of Malayan cinema.
Grief, memory and trauma at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival (May 10th, 2024)
Three maternal figures took the stage in the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival: an overprotective mother, a mother in the clutches of dementia, a motherland consumed by conflict. How might we confront these difficult relationships?
Why it’s really hard to write a bad review in Singapore (July 12th, 2024)
The arts critic in Singapore contends with numerous disparate forces pulling at her, all at once.
Country and its Citizens
Singapore’s new workplace discrimination law a win for equality? (Aug 19th, 2022)
By conflating protectionism with traditional workplace discrimination, we risk creating a watered-down law that fails to address the real discrimination faced by people from from marginalised groups.
Alternative views on HDB pricing should not be censored (October 21st, 2022)
It may be time for Singapore to reconsider how it prices new public housing units. Yet by using POFMA to shut down an alternative view, the government stifles public discourse.
Ordinary people dream (July 12th, 2024)
In this excerpt from her chapter in Why Not? Thinking about Singapore’s Tomorrow, sociologist Teo You Yenn discusses the conditions that will enable people to exercise choice, autonomy, and ethical agency.
Health and Healing
Mental health: my journey and our life’s foundation (September 23rd, 2022)
By confronting her own mental health problems, Jom’s co-founder hopes for a Singapore in which we can talk about mental illness openly, without fear of stigma.
The youthful faces of caregiving (Aug 4th, 2023)
Four young caregivers give us a glimpse of what it is like to hold the delicate balance of love and care in their hands.
I object: mental illness is not a crime (March 28th, 2024)
Proposed amendments to laws will give the police greater powers to arrest those who are “mentally disordered”. One mental health researcher and advocate warns about the risks of these well-meaning changes.
Seize your life (August 16th, 2024)
“How could I compete when other people’s brain waves march to the beat of a steady hand–and mine dance to jazz?” asks the young writer who was handed an epilepsy diagnosis in childhood.
Margins and the Marginalised
Gaze beyond the gloss (Aug 19th, 2022)
As another year passes, the question is less about whether we can see others, but about whether we can make people feel seen.
Jom on S377A (Aug 26th, 2022)
The recent announcement that S377A will soon be repealed is cause for celebration. Yet societal attitudes towards the queer community will not change overnight.
Reframing our traditional family unit (Sep 2nd, 2022)
By framing the traditional family unit as fundamental to Singapore’s survival, we deprive ourselves of the chance to shape a more expansive, inclusive vision of love, family, and society.
Performing normativities (June 20th, 2023)
Not Without Us: Perspectives on Disability and Inclusion in Singapore is a collection of essays presenting voices that explore the personal and political of living with a disability in Singapore.
Their struggle is ours (Aug 2nd, 2024)
Singapore must prioritise the creation of clear, transparent pathways that enable transgender Singaporeans, including youths, to access the appropriate care that they need.
Nation and Nationhood
National Service: why we need a deeper discussion (August 11th, 2022)
An interrogation of our contemporary notions of home, community and enemy.
To Singapura, in time (Aug 11th, 2022)
The nation as a concept is so new and limited. For most of recorded history people tended to identify with their city, town or village first. To cherish the Singapore of “Saint Jack” opens up a different kind of belonging.
Wild Rice’s ‘Hotel’: how do we host our histories? (March 3rd, 2024)
A critic’s third watch of Wild Rice’s sprawling play “Hotel” prompts questions about how we might sojourn through a national history from a room with a specific view.
A National Day baby reviews “National Day Charade” (August 8th, 2024)
Thomas Lim’s Saturday Night Live sketch comedy equivalent of the National Day Parade cleverly exploits our patriotic socialisation and turns it on its head: same emotional manipulation, different socio-political outcomes.
Politics and Politicians
The long shadow of Operation Coldstore (February 3rd, 2023)
Sixty years ago, Lee Kuan Yew’s government arrested and detained over 120 alleged “Communists”, some for over a decade. Survivors claim it was a politically motivated purge. Are we any closer to the truth?
An assessment of the ministerial review on the Ridout leases (July 1st, 2023)
A senior counsel questioned the perceived independence of a ministerial review, and its failure to robustly assess the Code of Conduct for Ministers.
Nobody’s independent: Singapore’s presidential election (August 30th, 2023)
Ahead of the polls last year, Jom analysed the presidential candidates.
Should Singaporeans vote for a stronger opposition? (May 31st, 2024)
A more diverse Parliament would generate new ideas, maintain our economic vigour and prevent the systemic decay that often results from protracted one-party dominance.