By Biddy Low
Close to a week before its private event at the Substation, local civil initiative Function 8 was notified by the independent arts centre that their booking has been cancelled, following "advisement" from a public agency. This decision came at a short notice, months after the reservation was made and paid for. It left the organisation with no choice but to postpone what would have been a reading of the play, Square Moon by Wong Souk Yee and the launch of two books - "Escape from the Lion's Paw" and "Smokescreens and Mirrors". The former was written by political exiles who escaped arrest by the ISD. The latter, penned by the supposed "ringleader" of an alleged 1987 "Marxist Conspiracy", Tan Wah Piow, who escaped arrest and currently lives in the United Kingdom. Both the books were published by F8.
The staging of the play Square Moon has also been removed for consideration from the programme in an arts festival to be held next year. Function 8 had originally intended to stage the play in its own capacity and even procured a venue for this, but let go of those plans when it was commissioned for the festival by The Necessary Stage.
A civil group partly founded by ex ISA detainees from the 1987 arrests, Function 8 was responsible for the open exhibition titled "That We May Dream Again" at Speaker's Corner in June this year. The event sought to create public awareness for the so called "Marxist Conspiracy" in which Singaporeans ranging from social workers to student activists were detained for months and even years without trial. The event enjoyed a fair turnout, in spite of it being postponed when the Speakers Corner was temporarily gazetted because of the Hougang by-election.
Forget raising the birth rate, help parents instead
By Andrew Loh
Since the ’80s, the Government has introduced more measures to try and up the birth rate in Singapore – to no avail. (See here.)
Some 94 per cent of those polled in a Channelnesasia survey after PM Lee’s National Day Rally speech said the measures he announced to encourage Singaporeans to have babies will not help raise the birth rate.
But underlying all these measures is a serious concern, as with any country which is facing the same situation. Their governments too have tried and are trying all kinds of measures to prop up their birth rates too.
Singapore’s birth rate problem was first raised by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1983 and since then, it has been a huge headache not only for the Government but also for anyone who is concerned.
So, what -really – can be done?
Media restrictions in S'pore not mythical
“It is not a mythical restriction. There are real restrictions,” said Mr Tan Tarn How at the latest forum by bloggers called Online|Offline: Digital Citizens on Press Freedom. Mr Tan, who is a playwright and senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), used to also work in the mainstream Singaporean media, particularly writing for the Straits Times. He was part of an invited audience at the forum.
Panelists also shared their experience of how the media in Singapore is restricted and what can be done to free up the media space here.
The issues of media censorship and control were the focus of the forum, which had Member of Parliament, Mr Baey Yam Keng, as the main guest. Mr Baey is also the deputy chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for the Ministry for Information, Communications and the Arts (Mica). Mr Baey, however, was attending the forum in his own private and personal capacity.
Job vacancy: alternative government for S'pore
By Elaine Ee
Who can step into this role?
Too much democracy is a nightmare for management. Who do you listen to? How do you decide? Who wins in the end? With society opening up like never before and a proliferation of citizens’ voices and civil society groups making themselves heard on everything from housing to education to foreigners to Bukit Brown, the Government is being besieged from all quarters by different groups, each demanding to be heard.
So much so that Minister Tan Chuan Jin retorted, “Do we then clamour for consultation, engagement in every single thing ... before we get a decision? At some point as leaders, you must have the capacity to listen, the sincerity to listen, take on board perspectives, society feedback and so on, but you must have the courage to make the calls. And it is not always a popular call,” said Mr Tan.
SDP organizes football tournament to engage average Singaporeans
A football tournament is one of the Singapore Democratic Party’s (SDP) latest attempts to reach out to Singaporeans on the ground.
The SDP’s Youth Wing held their first football tournament last year – it was the first football tournament in Singapore organized by a political party and featured individuals such as Dr Wong Wee Nam and Dr James Gomez showing off their skills on the pitch.
This year’s tournament will take place on the 22nd of September, Saturday, at KickersBay@IndianAssociation. The SDP welcomes all members of the public to participate in the competition regardless of age, gender or political affiliation. Teams of 6 players with 3 reserves will vie for the SDP Challenge Trophy, which will have the winning team’s name engraved on it.
More information on the rules and format of the competition may be found here, and registration must be done by 15th September 2012.
The SDP uses football partly as a way of re-instilling a sense of community and national loyalty that they feel is lacking amongst today’s youths. According to its website, many youths resort to gangs and other anti-social behaviour because of the lack of such sentiment. By using sports to re-integrate youths into society, the SDP hopes to make them more interested in current affairs and more committed to the greater good of this country.
For a better sense of what the tournament is like, here is a video of last year’s event:
By Elaine Ee
Elaine Ee bids goodbye to a talented teacher on Teachers’ Day.
Just recently, as I was helping my daughter’s school to prepare for Teachers’ Day, my daughter told me that her form teacher had resigned. “Teachers’ Day will be her last day,” my nine-year old said.
My daughter’s form teacher is an excellent teacher. One of the best she’s had so far—capable, smart, understanding and full of empathy for her students. I felt good knowing that she was in charge of my daughter’s class. She pushed for good grades but knew that there was more to education and life than that.
Workers asked to sign off extra pay for working on off day
In February this year, 200 Bangladeshi workers conducted a sit-in over a salary dispute with their employers Sunway Concrete Pte Ltd and TechCom Construction. The workers said then that they made to work till 12 am on busy days, without overtime pay.
More recently, in August, some workers at the Panasonic company protested when they too were cheated of their salaries.
It has come to our knowledge that Yangzijiang International (S) Pte Ltd requires its workers to agree to no overtime pay when the workers work on the weekends. Printed on its “Work Record Card” for its workers, it says:
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