Civil Society

Over two thousand Singaporeans and permanent residents gathered at Hong Lim Park yesterday for the inaugural SG Climate Rally – Singapore’s first climate rally. Covering the park in a sea of red, the crowd braved both haze and heat to collectively urge the government to take stronger action in mitigating the climate crisis. The tagline for yesterday’s rally was “This …

The recent saga of couple being investigated by the police for wearing T-shirts with anti-death penalty messages at Yellow Ribbon Prison Run brought the country together to talk about this matter in a non-violent way. For those who are not aware of this issue, Mohammad Nafiz Kamarudin, founder of non-profit organisation Happy People Helping People Foundation, revealed on Sunday (15 …

While Yale-NUS College remains keen on upholding academic freedom, the institution remains steadfast in doing so within legal boundaries, in light of the cancellation of a programme aimed at introducing its students to dissent and resistance in Singapore. College President Tan Tai Yong told TODAY yesterday (17 Sep) that while dissent and resistance are “legitimate objects of study and investigation …

On Tuesday (17 September), Singaporean historian Dr Thum Ping Tjin took to his Facebook to state that the country’s laws are created to be extremely broad in order to “effectively make all public expression of any opinion illegal”. His post was referring to an incident involving Mohammad Nafiz Kamarudin who was disallowed by the Yellow Ribbon Project Singapore from participating …

The decision of Yale-NUS College to cancel an upcoming programme on dissent and resistance in Singapore is concerning, said Yale University President Peter Salovey. In a statement on Sat (14 Sep), Salovey said: “When I learned of this impending decision, I expressed my concern to the president of the National University of Singapore and the president of Yale-NUS.” “In founding …

The Yale-National University of Singapore College of Liberal Arts (Yale-NUS College) has reportedly cancelled an upcoming programme titled ‘Dissent and Resistance in Singapore’, set to be led by renowned local playwright Alfian Sa’at at the end of this month. The Straits Times today (14 Sep) noted that the cancellation of the programme already took place earlier this week. The programme, …

Civil rights group Function 8 took to its Facebook on Friday (13 September) to highlight their disappointment towards the civil servants in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for their failure to respond to several of the group’s correspondences. It added that the Ministry’s feedback unit does not even send out an automatic acknowledgment e-mail to the senders. “Function 8 …

After almost three months of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, Chief Executive Carrie Lam is reportedly due to announce the withdrawal of the government’s controversial extradition Bill. A government source told South China Morning Post reported Wed (4 Sep) that Lam’s decision to withdraw the Bill was to “streamline the legislative agenda” ahead of the reopening of the Legislative Council (LegCo) …

The Keeping Hope Alive 让希望活下去 Facebook group and community, an private initiative by Fion Chua, works with the less privileged in Singapore, focusing on helping to provide a better quality of life. According to the group page, they conduct frequent door-to-door knocks are HDB flats to talk to people and look out for those who might need help. In one …

People’s Voice Party (PVP) chief Lim Tean, alongside PVP’s “Shadow Cabinet” members Leong Sze Hian and Nassir Ismail, paid what he has dubbed a “courtesy visit” to Malaysian Member of Parliament (MP) Maria Chin Abdullah yesterday afternoon (26 Aug) in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. Ms Chin, who is well-known for her significant role in the Bersih protests that …