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By Elaine Ee

Human rights lawyers in Singapore are a rare and precious breed. In a republic where political, press and civil liberties are only just starting to look up, fighting for human rights was, and still is, a noble but extremely difficult cause. What kind of person then goes down this path and sticks to it?

A person of extreme courage, conviction and compassion.

One of these gems of a lawyer is M. Ravi, known to the community as the lawyer who fought against the mandatory death penalty and who represented Dr Chee Soon Juan and his sister Chee Siok Chin against the formidable Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong. And this at a time when no lawyer in Singapore would touch the Chees with a ten-foot pole. M. Ravi reveals in his personal memoirs Kampong Boy, his experiences with these cases—and others—and what shaped him as a young man and turned him into the lawyer that he is today.

By Andrew Loh

It's 10 February. It's the first day of the Lunar New Year. It is also the 61st birthday of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong - the man whose job I would not want.

The parliamentary debate on the White Paper on Population has just concluded. The House has given its approval and the government will proceed as indicated by the Paper, in spite of the public protests against it.

Be that as it may, there are two instances during the past week which make me feel somewhat sorry for the prime minister.

The first was during his speech which he made on the last day of the parliamentary debate. PM Lee, at one point, held back his emotions when trying to explain to Singaporeans how they are at the heart of government policies. It is a point which several other ministers tried to make during the week. And from the PM’s emotional explanation, one can tell that perhaps the government feels a certain sense of desperation that S’poreans must believe what it is saying.

Editorial

Why the Population White Paper is a missed opportunity.

Contrary to the vitriolic reception it received, the government’s decision to prepare and publish its Population White Paper should be seen as a brave, if foolhardy, move. Few people seemed convinced by its arguments, not surprising given that the citizenry’s growing scepticism about the merits of rapid population growth through immigration had been clearly telegraphed in the last few years.  Thus the government’s determination to push for a paper advocating reducing the proportion of Singaporeans to close to half of the population in the next two decade is, if anything, indicative of the measure of its belief in the necessity of such measures.

Background for Public Dialogue

The recent strike by foreign SMRT drivers due to unfair, discriminatory wages and working conditions prove that we cannot be overly reliant on foreign workers for essential services. (Over 20 percent of SMRT's pool of drivers are reportedly from the People's Republic of China.) But an Occasional Paper released by the National Talent and Population Division on 12 November 2012 projected that an aging population will mean that over 30 per cent of healthcare workers (currently 26 per cent) in Singapore will be foreigners in time to come. SingHealth, the country's largest public healthcare cluster, recognises the risks and has recently said that it will be reviewing its business contingency plans in the wake of this strike.