Dear reader, Letters to the editor. Thank you, Vignesh Ramachandran, who’s based in Dubai, for your thoughtful response to “My authoritarian brain”, Linette Lim’s essay last week. Vignesh, in a few short lines, validates the author’s thesis, defends the systemic flexibility he believes Lee Kuan Yew left...

Dear reader, New section: Behind Jom’s art, with Charmaine Poh. Jom has always emphasised the importance of our visual language, an effort led by Charmaine, our co-founder and head of visual culture and media. Inspired partly by The Atlantic, we’ve decided this week to start a short new...

Dear reader, We’re hiring a new head of product and revenue! No, we’re not looking for writers, but business and marketing gurus. You know the brand. You’ve seen the product. Help us improve it, help us sell it. It’s a 5-7 hour a week role, and...

Dear reader, Happy National Day! I’m writing this from Malaysia, the land where my father was born, where the word jom first emerged, and from which our country separated on August 9th 1965. It feels like an appropriate place to ponder notions of belonging, identity, and citizenship. Wherever you...

Dear reader, “Singapore This Week”. In our weekly digest, we discuss blackface at Raffles Institution, Lim Tean’s nativism, and their respective connections to the historical words and contemporary policies of the ruling People’s Action Party; bike-sharing in Singapore; the late Nona Asiah, singer extraordinaire; “LIMINAL Space”, a micro-documentary...

Dear reader, A newsletter in three parts. “Singapore This Week”. In our weekly digest, we look at why Singapore handed the “Donald Trump of Beijing” some Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act (FICA) directives; help for low-income transnational families; the second volume of S.Rajaratnam’s biography is released, the passing of...