Singapore Society Research Articles

'Singapore's Opposition Community - Grassroots Activists in the Concrete Jungle'

Based on data gained from qualitative research techniques, this paper presents and discusses the opinions of leading Singaporean oppositional grassroots activists about the state of play in Singaporean politics and civil society and likely developments over the next ten years. Our interviewees show that the Singaporean grassroots opposition activist community, while small, is passionate and committed to taking its country away from the right-wing authoritarian pathway. Those activists more interested in civil society and NGOs than contesting elections are eager to expand and deepen the civil society in Singapore. We also find that certain school-age opposition activists have already decided that the official establishment ideology, as taught in school textbooks, is not the reality of Singapore’s history as they understand it. Activists will continue to focus on the income-inequality problem and human rights issues surrounding Article 377A of the Penal Code (which continues to make homosexual sexual acts between males illegal), the Internal Security Act (which allows detention without trial), and use of defamation suits by ruling-party politicians to bankrupt opposition party politicians and activists.

Interview with Singapore Film Director Ken Kwek

INTERVIEW WITH SINGAPORE FILM DIRECTOR KEN KWEKKen Kwek is a Singapore filmmaker whose fresh satirical comedy Sex.Violence.FamilyValues (2012) stirred the relatively calm waters of the city-state’ s film production. It consists of three stories: “Cartoons,” “Porn Masala” and “The Bouncer”. In “Cartoons”, a mother is called by the kindergarten teacher concerning the drawings of her son; the “Porn Masala” is about the shooting of a pornographic film about a middle-aged Indian man having sex with a young virgin; in “The Bouncer”, a nightclub bouncer becomes anxious when he realizes his daughter is about to perform as a pole dancer there. The three stories challenge, through irony and unexpected twists of the plot, some conventional per- ceptions of contemporary Singapore society. Apparently misunderstood by some, the movie was banned in Singapore after its scheduled premiere in October 2012, but was eventually re-released in March 2013. ...

Theoretical discussion on forms of cultural capital in Singapore

This article is a theoretical discussion on five forms of cultural resources that constitute cultural capital for children in the meritocratic yet stratified society of Singapore. These five forms of cultural capital are namely ‘academic’ tastes and leisure preferences, use of Standard English, access to and dispositions toward information communication technology, acquisition of learning skills, and confidence/learning dispositions. They cover two important aspects of cultural capital—namely objectified and embodied components—that may vary in levels with social class and that mediate the influence of social class on children’s academic achievement. Equally importantly, the focus on one societal context—in this case, Singapore—recognizes the contextual specificities of cultural capital in form and consumption pattern among individuals.

The ecologies of civic competence: students' perceptions from one Singapore school

A growing body of research suggests that traditional assessments of democratic participation overlook students' present realities, and fail to capture the knowledge, skills and dispositions necessary to resolve public issues in the twenty-first century. Addressing these concerns, we employed an interpretive perspective in examining students' perceptions of civic competence in one Singaporean school. Analyses of qualitative data reveal students' perceived lack of civic competence to effect systemic change within their school environment and in the larger political arena. This perceived lack of civic competence can be attributed largely to rigid and hierarchical classroom, school and political structures, and the pragmatic focus of Singapore society. We discuss findings in light of civic education research, policy and practice.

Dissociative semantic breakdown in Alzheimer's disease: Evidence from multiple category fluency test

BackgroundCategory-specific semantic dissociation particularly in terms of biological and non-biological dichotomy has been described in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We re-examine above finding by performing multiple superordinate category verbal fluency test in AD patients. MethodWe analyze the baseline neuropsychological assessment performance of food and animal fluency test of AD patients from a tertiary hospital that collected prospectively over 5 years period and correlation was calculated by Kappa test. The analysis is stratified according to literacy level (primary: 0–6 years education and secondary: >6 years education) and disease severity (MMSE score: mild 19-24, moderate 13-18 and severe <13). ResultA total of 296 AD patients were analyzed and only fair to moderate agreement between food and animal category fluency test was found especially in the mild AD cases (primary: kappa 0.42; secondary: kappa 0.40). Kappa agreement level increases when disease progress especially in the secondary education group. Food category, which is a more relevant semantic knowledge to Singapore population, is generally more affected. Higher educated subjects appeared to have less semantic dissociation effect when disease progress. ConclusionDespite less primed in daily life, biological category of semantic knowledge appears to be affected less during AD process in highly urbanized Singapore society. Brain appears to have special protective mechanism towards living things. However, education level seems have a modulation effect towards the biological protective mechanism.

Singapore's Cultural Experimentation: Gay Rights, Stem Cells, Casinos and the Evangelical Response

Since the early 1990s the Singapore government has been taking a more liberal stance on controversial issues such as gay rights, embryonic stem cell research and the gaming industry. My paper analyses the Singapore state's utilitarian justification and its authoritarian enactment of these liberal policies. The first part looks at the underlying motivation for the cultural makeover. I frame my analysis around the reaction of the Singapore Christian community to these developments. I focus on the criticisms of the state's ‘liberal’ agenda made by Evangelicals, and describe how the People's Action Party (PAP) regime has defended these policies on utilitarian grounds. The first part ends with a comparative analysis of how the ‘cultural war’ debate was played out in Singapore and the USA. In the second part I examine the procedural aspects of this cultural experimentation. I start with a review of Singapore's political reform. I show that civil society in Singapore has attained a new openness. Yet there remain constraints, leading critics to label the PAP-led government as a ‘soft-authoritarian’ democracy. Singapore's cultural policies, I explain, are essentially an ‘elitist’ state-engineered top-down development. This is in contrast to the experience in the USA, where grassroots activists exercise tangible bottom-up influence on how cultural contests are resolved. My main thesis is to argue that Singapore's recent cultural liberalisation is guided by social–economic expediency notwithstanding the alleged moral risks, and that these are state-commanded liberal experimentations, imposed by the ruling elite upon a constituency that is still largely conservative in moral outlook.

书评：

Book Review of Majorie Topley's 'Cantonese Society in Hong Kong and Singapore: Gender, Religion, Medicine and Money'. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press; Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2011.

Are English and Chinese Versions of the Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life Equivalent? An Exploratory Study Based on the Universalist Approach

ObjectiveTo translate and culturally adapt the UK English Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQOL) into Chinese for Singapore. MethodsTranslation was integrated into investigation of conceptual, item, semantic, and operation equivalence. Conceptual equivalence, item equivalence, and operation equivalence were assessed by literature review, expert judgment, and cognitive debriefing. Semantic equivalence was studied by using an optimized procedure including forward and backward translation, clinician review, and cognitive debriefings. Cognitive debriefings were done with five Chinese-speaking diabetic patients at polyclinics. Reliability, responsiveness, and construct validity tests were used to evaluate measurement equivalence. English- and Chinese-speaking diabetic patients by convenient sampling at a Diabetes Society of Singapore's public event were recruited for the measurement equivalence study. Mann-Whitney U tests, chi-square tests, and descriptive analyses were used for group comparisons and Spearman's correlation coefficients for construct validity tests. ResultsForty-two English-speaking and 26 Chinese-speaking diabetic patients (45.5% females) with a mean age of 54.2 ± 10.07 years were recruited. Chinese-speaking respondents were more likely than the English-speaking group to be unemployed, less educated, and with poorer family functioning (P < 0.05). Conceptual equivalence, item equivalence, operation equivalence, and semantic equivalence were all demonstrated. Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency and intraclass correlation coefficient for test-retest reliability were 0.94 and 0.65, respectively. Distributions of responses were found to be similar except for some difference that can be justified by different demographic background. Convergent validity was suggested by weak to moderate correlations between “Present QOL” on the ADDQOL and EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire (r = 0.268; P = 0.185) and six-dimensional health state short form (derived from short form 36 health survey) scores (r = 0.351; P = 0.078); divergent validity was shown by a weak correlation between ADDQOL average weighted impact (AWI) and ADDQOL “Present QOL” scores (r = 0.027, P = 0.896), a moderate correlation between ADDQOL AWI and six-dimensional health state short form (derived from short form 36 health survey) mental scores (r = 0.247; P = 0.224), and a positive correlation between ADDQOL AWI and family functioning scores (r = 0.288; P = 0.182). ConclusionsThe ADDQOL has been translated and culturally adapted successfully into a Chinese version for Singapore. Our study provides justification for further research with large sample sizes among the Chinese-speaking population in Singapore.

Reforming the Right to Legal Counsel in Singapore

This is an opinion prepared for the Criminal Law Committee of the Law Society of Singapore on an arrested person’s right to legal counsel in Singapore. Specifically, it deals with the following: (1) it summarizes pertinent aspects of the law relating to the right to legal counsel in Singapore; (2) it surveys a number of ASEAN and Commonwealth jurisdictions to determine how long after apprehension the right to counsel is generally accorded to arrested persons, and compares the legal position in these jurisdictions to the situation in Singapore; and (3) it examines two rights ancillary to the right to legal counsel, namely, the right to be informed of the right to counsel, and the right to inform third parties such as family or friends of one’s arrest.

The Quest for Leadership Legitimacy among Singapore Malays

Much has been written about the problems and concerns affecting the Malay ethnic minority in Singapore. These include issues such as their socio-economic situation, relatively low educational performance, and increasing incidences of social ailments like high rates of drug addiction, divorce and youth delinquency. In the context of Singapore's multiracial and multi-religious fabric, little has been articulated about what is here argued to be a core issue of the ‘Malay plight’, namely, the legitimacy of the Malay political leadership. Apparently both the ruling-party-affiliated Malay politicians and their Malay opposition counterpart have been at odds with their perceptions and predispositions towards this particular issue. It is here that a bold, albeit controversial, alternative model called the ‘collective leadership’, was publicly goaded by the Association of Malay/Muslim Professionals in both their 1990 and 2000 National Conventions, which requires due consideration. Perhaps at a time of a changing Singapore society, this alternative or its variant could go some way towards mitigating, if not resolving, the long-standing Malay plight, and thus, benefit not only the Malay minority itself, but Singapore as a whole.

Nurses’ perceptions of the barriers in effective communication with inpatient cancer adults in Singapore

This study investigated the factors affecting effective communication between Singaporean registered nurses and inpatient oncology adults. In oncology nursing, where conversations entail emotionally loaded topics and patients' receptivity is greatly affected by their life-threatening disease and its trajectory, effective communication is crucial. This is a qualitative study situated within the interpretivism paradigm. Ten registered nurses from the oncology wards of a major teaching hospital in Singapore were interviewed. Data were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Factors that influenced effective nurse-patient communication were found in the characteristics of the patient, the nurse and the environment. While there are common factors influencing communication in all contexts of practice, this study has suggested that a multicultural community such as Singapore presents special challenges in the oncology inpatient setting. Language barriers are significant, particularly between overseas trained nurses and patients who cannot converse in English. Cultural taboos also increase nurses' discomfort when discussing sensitive topics. Additionally, the government's promotion of Singapore as a medical 'hub' increases the cultural and ethnic mix of inpatients. A particular concerning finding is Singapore society's poor perception of and lack of respect for nurses, which is partly contributed by Singapore's 'user-pays' health system and lowly-paid foreign nurses. Nurses should be mindful of how patients' disease trajectory and psychological state affect communication. Nurses should also take patients' cultural background into consideration when approaching sensitive topics. Language and cultural induction classes should also be made available, especially for overseas trained nurses working in Singapore. Nursing Associations in Singapore need to work on programmes that will increase the prestige of nursing. Further research involving a more representative sample is warranted to understand how Singapore's 'user-pays' health care system affects effective nurse-patient communication.

Frontiers in Optical Bio-Imaging and Microscopy

The symposium Frontiers in Optical Bio-Imaging and Microscopy took place at the Suntec Conference Centre in Singapore from 26 June to 1 July 2011 as part of the wider Materials Research Society of Singapore’s (MRS-S) International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technologies (ICMAT) series. This symposium was held over six days and was chaired by Colin Sheppard, Brahim Lounis, Dave Fernig, and Jonathan Hobley, combining their respective knowledge on optical design, biological imaging, spectroscopy, and photochemistry. The parent biennial ICMAT event has been held on six previous occasions since its inauguration in 2001 and aims to promote multidisciplinary materials research, not only in Singapore, but especially in Asia and beyond. In this context the subject of this particular symposium typifies the scope of the ICMAT series, since modern microscopy is no longer just an exercise in advanced optics – it is in fact a combination of optical design, the chemistry of probe design, and chemistry required to attach novel probes to relevant targets that wewish to observe. In addition, the spectroscopic and photochemical features of probes need to be understood and harnessed in order to enhance their usefulness. For this reason, modern advanced microscopy can truly be considered to be a highly multidisciplinary research field. In the field ofmodern optics, it is no longer enough to simply envisage a concept in imaging alone; once the concept is born, it is often necessary to work with organic chemists and preparative nanoparticle scientists in order to produce an appropriatemodel probe system for the desired observation. For example, the most modern super-resolution techniques of PALM, STORM, and STED all require specific fluorescent probes with well tailored photochemistry in order towork. Equally recent developments in photo-thermal tracking of biomolecules require specifically designed noble metal nanoparticle probes as labels for the biomolecule of interest. Probe design is therefore now nearly as important as optical design in this field. Each of the individual component parts of a new bio-imaging methodology is of equal importance in the success and applicability of the technique. This Research Front comprises a selection of papers that exemplify the current trends in modern microscopy and optical methods presented in the Frontiers in Optical Bio-Imaging and Microscopy symposium, with particular emphasis on the chemical design of probes and the observation of chemical phenomena. In particular, two papers deal with advanced optical design, and three papers deal with advanced probe design. In optical design, Yakovlev et al. present work on the use of stimulated Raman photo-excitation coupled with acoustic detection as means of locating and imaging specific chemical signatures in a sample. Siebenhofer et al. describe the development of a novel optical design for determining the nanosecond kinetics of processes in bio-mimetic films based on Brewster-angle reflectometry. In probe design, Free et al. present work on the development of monovalently labelled silver nanoparticles stabilised by peptide shells that are resistant to ligand exchange and nonspecific binding for use in bio-imaging applications. Paramelle et al. describe their work on the stabilisation of gold nanoparticles for use as bio-imaging probes. In particular, they show how the shell design affects the overall stability of the nanoparticle. In this work, they present a rapid screening protocol for determining nanoparticle stability. Zhang et al. describe the preparation of polyethylene glycol-protected gold nanorods that are bio-compatible for use inmultiphoton luminescence imaging in cells. In this way, their paper describes both state-of-the-art nanoprobe development and cutting edge imagingmethodology. The next ICMAT event will be held in the summer of 2013, and it will once again combine multidisciplinary research in biology, materials science, and optics. We will be looking forward to hosting international scientists in Singapore once again for this event.

Tracks in the City: Technology, mobility and society in colonial Rangoon and Singapore

AbstractAround the turn of the twentieth century, electric tramways made their appearance in the cities of Asia, but despite being a universal technology, and despite the considerable impact they had upon life in these cities, the history of tramways in Asia has hardly ever been studied. Trams, wherever they ran, mobilized the urban population to a degree unseen before—their track network could restructure the urban topography and re-evaluate its segments, as independent villages became suburbs and residential quarters rose or fell in status, and add to the segregation of workplaces and residential areas. The two cities of Singapore and Rangoon, which have been selected because of their comparability, provide two contrasting examples of how trams functioned and eventually failed in an Asian urban environment.

Editorial introductions

Editorial introductions

Population aging, older workers and productivity issues: the case of Singapore

This paper examines the issues and challenges facing the productivity of an aging society in Singapore. While the older workforce is recognized as an increasingly essential labor supply in the era of rapid demographic aging, there are challenges to the employment of older workers, including employers’ negative stereotypes of older workers and concerns with labor productivity, as the current cohort of older workers in Singapore tends to be less educated, and many are employed in low-skilled jobs. The paper follows with a discussion of the measures adopted by the state to encourage, enable and enhance the employment/re-employment and productivity of older workers. Such measures include the enactment of re-employment legislation, training and financial grants for companies to put in place the re-employment policies, skills upgrading and work training programs to enhance employability of older workers and the promotion of age-friendly workplace. However, under the shadow of an inevitable decline in labor forc...

Economic burden of Parkinson’s disease in Singapore

This study was carried out to evaluate the economic burden of Parkinson's disease (PD) and factors independently associated with individual components of total cost in Singapore. A consecutive sample of 195 patients with PD (mean age: 68.2, men: 51.8%) attending a tertiary neuroscience clinic were identified and interviewed using standardized questionnaires including a financial burden questionnaire, two Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) questionnaires and the Beck Depression Inventory questionnaire. Annual total cost of PD from a societal perspective was SGD11345 (USD10129) per patient, with direct cost accounted for 38.5% and indirect cost 61.5%. The main cost components for direct medical cost, direct non-medical cost, and indirect cost was pharmacotherapy (50.4%), home care (76.1%), and productivity loss (97.9%), respectively. In multiple linear regression analysis, higher education, younger age and longer duration of PD were associated with higher total cost. Parkinson's disease exerts a considerable burden on patients, health care system and society in Singapore. As productivity loss accounts for a large share of the economic burden imposed by PD, treatments and health care programmes with potential for returning patients to higher productivity are urgently needed.

The State and the New Society: The Role of the Arts in Singapore Nation-building

This paper takes an historical perspective on the trajectory of Singapore's arts and cultural landscape from 1965 to 2000. It examines the arts and cultural field as an ideological site within which the People's Action Party government constantly sought to reinvent or vision a new society. From harnessing the arts for the task of creating “civilised” and “cultured” citizens immediately after independence, as well as to play out multicultural fantasies, to the government's ‘Global City for the Arts' project in the 1990s for economic imperatives, arts and culture has not only been ideologically instrumental for nation-building purposes but also malleable to the ruling elite's changing visions of Singapore society. The PAP government's deployment of art to establish orthodoxy is a recurring feature in the paper, including its cooption of “renaissance” themes as early as 1980, thus purging ideals of romanticism from public discourse. The paper concludes that Singapore's cultural policy, although driven by economic impulses, will continue to be an important ideological instrument for nation-building.

Service Learning Outside the U.S.: Initial Experiences in Singapore's Higher Education

ABSTRACTService learning in higher education is an American creature. But outside the U.S., practices that resemble American service learning or that have begun self-consciously to describe themselves as “service learning” may also be found. This article gives an account of a proto-service-learning course on civil society in Singapore and discusses some similarities and differences between the U.S. and Singapore contexts in which the practices of service learning have evolved, identifying how this civil society course in particular was both a product of as well as a challenge to Singapore's somewhat different priorities in higher education, political culture, and attitudes to social justice and cultural diversity.

Possibilities for an Inclusive Society in Singapore: Becoming Inclusive Within

AbstractThe envisioning of Singapore as an inclusive society has witnessed the most progressive systemic and policy developments concerning people with disabilities in recent years. The building of “heartware” in society (as in the will, values, and attitudes of its citizens) in order to realize the vision of an inclusive society, however, requires both change from within and change from without. For the vision of an inclusive society to be realized, an inclusive system needs to be upheld and supported by people who are inclusive within. The seeds for the possibilities of change in society toward inclusivity of diverse others (e.g., persons with intellectual disabilities) lie within the individual and imply that at the core of such change is personal interior growth and transformation. The sustainable and successful transformation of Singapore in becoming an inclusive society, in addition to the external social and educational changes, depends on individuals who are willing to embrace interior change and personal transformation to become more inclusive of themselves and others.

English in Globalisation, a Lingua Franca or a Lingua Frankensteinia?

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