Kit Sun Cheah

Tag: Politics

  • The New Age of Book Burning

    This week saw two attempts by book burners to take down offensive literature. One was successful, the other failed. Both attempts are instructive for authors to prepare for the realities of modern-day publishing and digital book burning. The Case of Amelie Wen Zhao Born in Paris, raised in China, and now living and working in…

  • 9 Deaths in Peacetime

    In the past 16 months, 9 servicemen in the Singapore Armed Forces have passed away. The latest death occurred on 23rd January, when Corporal First Class (NS) Aloysius Pang was struck by a moving howitzer barrel during a maintenance operation. The following are my thoughts, first penned on Facebook. — The purpose of the military…

  • Should Homosexuality be Decriminalised in Singapore?

    The repeal of Section 377 in India has sparked a debate in Singapore over Section 377A of the Penal Code, which outlaws sex between men, even if it were mutually consensual. Leading the charge to repeal is Johnson Ong, who filed a constitutional challenge against Section 377A. Ong’s belief that abolishing S377A will put an end…

  • The Art of Turning Gangsters Into Friends

    I’d never known my grandfather. He passed away after shortly after I was born. Nonetheless, he lives on in my father’s stories. One of them was about how he befriended a group of gangsters. In the early 1980s, the Cheah family operated two shophouses in Singapore, specialising in curtains and interior design. My grandfather ran…

  • Silicon Valley Strikes Again

    The past week has seen the giants of Silicon Valley crack down on conservative voices on their platforms. Candace Owens was locked out of Twitter on Sunday after she copied and edited old tweets from New York Times editorial board member Sarah Jeong. The following day, Infowars was banned from most social media platforms. On Thursday, Microsoft threatened to…

  • Twenty Million Dollar Diplomacy

    Singapore needs the world. The world doesn’t need Singapore. This is the heart of Singapore’s foreign policy. A tiny island surrounded by much larger neighbours, whose only resources are people and proximity to the Straits of Malacca, Singapore cannot afford to isolate or be isolated by anyone, least of all the great powers of the…