As most of our readers would be aware, The Online Citizen (TOC) held a fundraising dinner on Saturday night (6 July) at FiftyRafflesPlace. Given that the venue of the fundraiser was a fairly upmarket one with high profile attendees such as prominent opposition politicians like former Peoples’ Action Party (PAP) Member of Parliament (MP), Dr. Tan Cheng Bock, Workers’ Party …

As I read Leon Perera’s post on the the “building of a democratic society” in the Singaporean pledge, I cannot help but dwell on the meaning of the word “democratic”. As a child reciting the pledge in school every weekday, I knew how to say the word before I knew what it actually meant. Even now as an adult. I …

While I understand the need for a strong and stable government, I would have to disagree with former Prime Minister, Mr Goh Chok Tong when he disagrees that the role of the opposition should be one of “check and balance” as he feels that means the government is not doing things right. This opinion seems rather contradictory to me. Firstly, …

The nagging question of Ho Ching’s salary as CEO of Temasek Holdings does not appear to be one that is about to disappear into the sunset. Indeed, it appears to be one that is raised periodically by opposition politicians, media outlets and the like. According to reports, it would seem that this is an issue that raises the heckles of …

I guess it was of no great surprise that the arguably controversial “Fake News Bill” has passed. Despite the valiant attempts of the Workers’ Party (WP) Members of Parliament (MP) to fight against the passing of the bill, they were but a minority in an overwhelmingly Peoples’ Action Party (PAP) dominated Parliament. Many of the concerns that have been raised …

It is rather heartbreaking to have to see student Monica Baey (Baey) having to go public in order to get some measure of recognition for the trauma that she has had to endure as a result of fellow student Nicholas Lim (Lim) attempting to film her as she took a shower. Now, I don’t condone vigilante justice but it is …

I would think most Singaporeans would agree with me that laws are in place to ensure that everyone is clear on what the boundaries of accepted behaviour in society is. In other words, laws are enacted to reflect the values of society. Given that social mores change over time, it is also safe to say that the law is never …

Reading an article which talks at length about how historian PJ Thum (Thum) has been misquoted by a Facebook page gave me some food for thought. Thum had said in earlier times that “Equally, your post could be completely accurate and factual, but could be deemed “misleading” because you omitted a fact (accidentally or otherwise). Given that it is impossible …

The Law Society of Singapore seems to have remained noticeably silent in the wake of the publication of the “fake news” bill.  Can their silence be taken as tacit agreement with the stance of the government in relation to alleged “fake news”? The “fake news” bill has already been criticised as unduly arbitrary and harsh. Given that the law could …

While Singaporeans are still processing the contents of the “fake news” bill, which is likely to become law after being debated in Parliament some time this month, it would appear that the government has already started to take actions as if the bill has already become law. It would appear that the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) has taken part …