SINGAPORE

Sacred Cows and Forward Singapore

by Yusof Sulaiman
Posted on: 18 Jan 2023 09:00

The Political Dictionary defines a ‘sacred cow’ as “any programme, policy, or person that is regarded as being beyond attack or untouchable”. Sacred cows in nation-building can take the form of policies, social norms and institutions. Singapore has her fair share of sacred cows covering existential themes such as multiracialism, meritocracy, equality and so on.

From time to time, these underlying premises or foundations of the state are challenged especially in the context of domestic shifts in socio-economic status, changes in societal aspirations and new secular (and non-secular) trends.

The Seniors: What can Budget 2023 do for them?

by Dr Ameen Talib
Posted on: 18 Jan 2023 09:00

Population issues have been a concern for a long time. One of the earliest theories surrounding this was the Malthusian Growth Model of predicting an unsustainable increase in population back in the 1700s. Singapore’s population is moving towards one quarter of the population being made up of seniors. The current Old-Age Support ratio is 4:1. The support ratio is the ratio of people who can offer support against seniors who require others to support them.

Count On the Intangibles to Form the Singapore Identity

by Norman Sawi
Posted on: 02 Nov 2022 09:00

Perhaps we can learn a thing or two about identity by taking the cue from our children. Let me explain.

I have two boys, and the older one, Danial, who is turning seven this year, has outgrown previous ‘cartoon’ identities he grew up with.

Gone are the simple Paw Patrol, Tayo, and Super Wings characters he used to identify with, replaced with the relatively more complex characters like Boboiboy, Darius from Jurassic World’s Camp Cretaceous, and journalist rat Geronimo Stilton.

Making Sense of Jihad Today and its Relevance to Singapore

by Sheikh Mohamad Farouq Abdul Fareez
Posted on: 15 Jul 2022 09:08

The command to wage jihad (meritorious struggle or effort) and the reminder against neglecting it appears in many verses of the Quran and the Prophetic traditions. Some consider disregarding this injunction as blasphemous and worthy of humiliation and scorn from Allah swt. As a result, we are witnessing groups such as the Islamic State (IS) who have sanctioned their ‘eye for an eye’ campaigns by instrumentalising concepts within the Islamic tradition such as jihad and recruiting others to join them.

From Integration to Inclusion: Reconstructing the Minority Narratives

by Mysara Aljaru
Posted on: 15 Jul 2022 09:03

With Singapore opening up after two years of COVID-19 restrictions, it almost feels like the country is back to how it was pre-pandemic. Log on to social media or switch on the news, we’ve been flooded with stories of resilience, stories of perseverance, and also stories of love and support. However, we also had to confront an ugly truth – are we as harmonious as we like to say we are?

The Karyawan

SINGAPORE

The Seniors: What can Budget 2023 do for them?

EDITORIAL BOARD

SUPERVISING EDITOR

EDITOR

EDITORIAL TEAM

EDITOR, THE KARYAWAN