This week, Singaporeans were stunned yet again by some mysterious survey findings that fly in the face of the lived experiences of the people in Singapore.
The CNA-IPS Survey on Race Relations suggested that everyone was multicultural and some Singaporeans found racism a problem. TOC has been trying to get hold of the raw data so as to do its own independent analysis but it appears to be a closely guarded secret.
The next best thing then would be to conduct our own survey to match what IPS has done and then analyse the data generated from there.
However, TOC does not have the resources to do a reliable survey that can match the academic standards of IPS. Since the original survey was done through a private research firm that was commissioned to collect the data on behalf of IPS, TOC is exploring if we can engage the same firm to replicate the same survey or one that is as close to it as possible, and then report the findings. Unfortunately, research firms charge a hefty fee for the service and it remains to be seen if this ambitious idea has any chance of getting off the ground.
In the meanwhile, one of the best investigative journalists around is trying to conduct a parallel analysis using the limited resources we have.
Gangasudhan has over the years torn down many deceptive statistics that have been presented to Singaporeans, such as deconstructing the poorly conceived National Service Survey by IPS, showing how the AHPETC conservancy charges are commensurate with all other Town Councils and drawing out the real picture of SPH’s financial performance. In addition, he is the one who exposed the convoluted financial meandering in the columbarium saga, revealed the chequered past of the company behind the operations of the Singapore Sports Hub, addressed the fear mongering in the mainstream media about copyright infringement lawsuits by a local law firm and deconstructed the positive spin in the mainstream media to mask the shocking performance of Temasek Holdings.
Now, he is attempting to independently draw data so that we can get a clearer picture of the discrimination that exists in Singapore.
If you, like us, are sick and tired of mysterious statistics that paint a picture you can’t believe is true, then support us to conduct this parallel analysis. Instead of having to ask questions without getting answers or being provided answers that we know deep down can’t possibly be true, let us as a community establish the truth ourselves and shove that evidence in the face of the mainstream rhetoric. At least then we can start to have real conversations that go towards solving problems rather than pretend they don’t exist.
For this to work though, we need to get as many people from as widely from the community as possible to respond to this survey. To make it simple and investigate one issue at a time, the survey has just five questions – hence the title of The Five Question Survey (FQS).
If all our fans on Facebook respond to the survey and ask just one other person to respond, we would easily surpass the 2,000 respondents of the CNA-IPS survey 50 times over.
If this survey attracts a good sample of respondents, we will continue this effort as a series of surveys covering other issues as well. We are certain that all of us want to know the findings of this survey but those findings are only possible if all of us participate.
So go to https://goo.gl/forms/3URqZf7KxnKVjbor1 and lock in your responses now, and then share the link with anyone and everyone.
