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The Polemic
Cultural revolutions, wilting flowers
Feb. 16 | By Choo Zheng Xi (Editor-At-Large) and KJ We wonder if Rear-Admiral Lui Tuck Yew knows that our city was the subject of a Hollywood film. No, not Ivan Heng’s cameo in Luc Besson’s Fifth Element, but a full Hollywood film shot on scene in Singapore. In...
Unraveling his story
Jan. 9 | KJ Dedicated to Khairulanwar Zaini The Fajar Generation has spoken, so has one intrepid historian. There is a growing realization that simply regurgitating our dominant history is inadequate, if not misleading. The dominant history dominated everything...
We, the citizens of no country
Nov. 2 | KJ >> TOC Columnists Remember when you were a child, you earnestly believed in the tales that adults told? The monsters under your bed that would awaken if you didn’t sleep by nine. The ghastly diseases that would beset you if you didn’t eat...
Fascism that works
Oct. 23 | KJ He was a leader who held a nation in his thrall. From the excesses of empire and occupation, he arose with a voice so clear it could not but give his people hope, give his people dreams. He arose and gave them such ravishings of riches never before...
Requiem for a dream
Sep. 19 | KJ PM Lee Hsien Loong’s call on young Singaporeans to ‘dare to dream’ is revealing in itself. Against the reality of Singapore, it sounds almost like a taunt: perchance to dream, but only if you dare. I was a schoolteacher for a time. The hours...
The Emperor’s new clothes
May. 28 | KJ In a letter that appeared in the Straits Times forum online (“Whatever the issue, let’s learn to argue well”, 27 May 09), Ms Lisa Li, a GP teacher, made the case for arguing well. She says: “… given that Singapore will always have a diversity...
Disadvantageous Mandarin
Mar. 19 | A response to MM Lee KJ There is a lot to be said for Singaporean-Chinese, myself included, to be ascribed a ‘mother tongue’ that is not really my mother’s (or for that matter, my father’s), one that we have to learn from scratch, in effect as...
