25 January 2025: Okay, you can start the GE countdown now

It's been such a messy week, I gave up trying to stick to my schedules and to-do lists. I'm going to try to regroup over the weekend and return to regular programming on Monday. This is a plea with the universe to not try any funny business.

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Syed Suhail bin Syed Zin was executed in the early hours of Thursday morning—the first execution of the year. He was an avid reader who especially appreciated the philosophical works of Arthur Schopenhauer and loved Indian sweets so much he could single-handedly devour two boxes. He didn't have an easy life, but he was loved by his family and friends and loved them back. He wanted them to remember him not as someone cruelly murdered by the state, but as a man full of life, joking, laughing, smiling.

In his final letter to us, Syed wrote about how he'd felt rejected and isolated from society for much of his life: "I inadvertently created a world in which I genuinely believed that society hated me and wanted me removed from the picture. Even life was moving too fast for me to keep up."

But learning that there were people fighting for him to live changed things:

In 2020, when I was called up for my scheduled judicial execution, I was informed by a group of friends who had always been with me in spirit, in thoughts and in prayers that I deserved a second chance. They felt I deserved compassion. The love I felt was an unselfish kind, a love that is not confused with feelings of attachment. The love I received instead was unconditional and its intent, to encourage me to be the best version of myself. 

I was humbled then, and for once in my life, I felt shame. It’s a good kind of shame because I felt I belonged and was accepted, warts and all, which meant that I had always been part of the community. The shame was strong enough to remind me that although I had done wrong, I was still part of a community that accepts me with their encouragement, that I do possess the potential to repent and mend my ways. I doubt I’ll ever get to see the light of day outside these walls to put my repentance to practice, to do some good for a change. However, the intent in my heart to do good and to do no evil would have to suffice. I have changed, and I feel good. I have agency of perseverance. 

Syed fought hard and, despite all the barriers he faced on death row, found ways to speak out for himself and his fellow prisoners. His courage had ripple effects that can still be felt in the anti-death penalty movement today. He will not be forgotten.

Rest in Power, Syed.

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Here we go: the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee has been formed. There's no set deadline for the committee, and previous reviews took anywhere from three weeks to seven-and-a-half months, so I'm not going to even pretend I can guess when Polling Day is going to be. Voter rolls are open for inspection and must be updated by 1 April, so if you want to go on holiday but also make sure you won't miss your chance to vote, go in March.

Speaking at the Workers' Party's latest Members' Forum, Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh held back from identifying candidates—no point giving one's rivals too much of a heads-up—but promised that his party would try "to deploy a balanced team, in terms of youth, experience and value-add, amongst other criteria". He also emphasised the importance of "cohesion and unity" and reminded attendees of the ever-present risk of an opposition wipeout in Parliament.

This seems as good a time as any to bring back the We, The Citizens spreadsheet of party manifestos. It's currently still based on the parties' GE2020 manifestos, but I'll be updating it once the GE2025 manifestos are out. I've also included The People's Manifesto that was launched in 2024, so you can compare the political parties' offerings to what a group of Singaporeans from different backgrounds and walks of life decided were the most key reforms necessary in our country.

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Here's some transnational POFMA for your weekend. On Wednesday, Indranee Rajah, a minister in the Prime Minister's Office, POFMA-ed an article written by Michael Barr, an associate professor of international relations at Flinders University, for East Asia Forum (EAF), a platform run out of the Crawford School of Public Policy that sits in the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific. Barr had written an overview of Singapore's 2024 political landscape, from the leadership transition to Iswaran's downfall and the ongoing Lee family feud.

This isn't the first time EAF has been POFMA-ed. The website was briefly blocked in Singapore once before, in September 2023, because they hadn't followed a Correction Direction's instructions to a T: instead of publishing the Correction Notice at the top of the page like the POFMA Office demands, they'd put the government's "correction" at the bottom. The access blocking order was only cancelled later because the author of the piece, an academic at the National University of Singapore, asked for the article to be removed from the platform.

I don't see Barr asking for his piece to be withdrawn, and EAF has once again published the Correction Notice at the end of the piece, together with its response. "We respectfully disagree with this POFMA Direction and its threat to block access to the East Asia Forum site in Singapore is not consistent with free and civilised disagreement. We shall continue to engage the POFMA Office in good faith and hope to resolve this issue," they wrote.

They also pointed out that "[in] three of the four claims the ‘POFMA’ direction is not based on Barr’s words as they are written. Rather, it attributes words to Barr and then bases its notice of ‘correction’ on false allegations." Shoving words into people's mouths to then get upset about seems to be a POFMA modus operandi at this point. Some people should just book themselves a silent meditation retreat and touch some grass.

I'd just typed "blocking EAF in 3... 2..." and then I saw the announcement that an access blocking order has been issued. God, they are so predictable.

On a separate but related(ish) note, I'm pretty sure this New York Times video on tyranny, featuring none other than Li Shengwu, is going down like a lead balloon with the PAP. Do we also need to keep an eye out for a POFMA order against the NYT?

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