Kirsten Han

Singapore Scapegoats Doctors and Drug Users — And Rejects Real Solutions

The case of Dr. Jitendra Kumar Sen shows how the Singaporean approach collapses the nuances of drug use into a “war on drugs” that punishes and outcasts users — and medical practitioners. Dr. Jitendra Kumar Sen, a general practitioner, wasn’t trying…

Will the Queen’s Passing Prompt Discussions of Colonialism in Singapore? Nope.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II is an appropriate time to talk about British colonialism. These discussions aren’t happening in Singapore. When Singapore’s Parliament sits on Monday, they will observe a minute of silence for Queen Elizabeth II, who…

The Problem With Section 377A

What you need to know It’s good that Section 377A of the Penal Code, which criminalizes sex between men, is being repealed. But what has been won should should not be mistaken as an act of progressive change by the ruling party. After over a decade…

Southeast Asia’s death penalty needs regional reconsideration

Southeast Asia is a hotspot for capital punishment, even though enforcement varies. Out of all the countries in this region, only Timor-Leste, Cambodia and the Philippines do not retain the death penalty in law. Change is urgently needed, yet also…

Singapore wants to kill, but it doesn’t want anyone talking about it

2022 is shaping up to be a brutal year in Singapore as the authorities ramp up the speed of executions. Four men have already been hanged this year for drug offences — if not for last-ditch court applications that resulted in stays of execution or…

Singapore’s proposed online safety laws look like more censorship in disguise

It looks like Singapore’s government is appointing itself Guardian of the Internet again. Earlier this month, the Ministry of Communications and Information announced a proposal for two codes of practice that would require social media companies to…

The Death Penalty Makes Us Forget Our Humanity. Don’t Let It.

When fighting against the cold machinery of death, we must all the more cling on to empathy and care for one another. The afternoon before Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam was put to death, I sat in the public gallery of Singapore’s apex court. In the…

Death penalty: Singapore’s growing abolition movement

Public support for capital punishment isn’t as overwhelming and unshakeable as the government often portrays it to be. The sun baked the concrete and tarmac as mourners walked behind a hearse carrying Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, wailing and crying…

The Looming Execution of Abdul Kahar Is Inequality and Injustice Taken to Its Extreme Conclusion

Singapore intends to hang Abdul Kahar bin Othman on Wednesday. If the state gets its way, they will be ending the life of someone who never got to live a full life. Kahar is the eldest son in a family of seven children. His father died at a young…

Singapore’s Elastic Commitment to Accountability

Raeesah Khan’s case shows that the latitude we’re willing to give to untruths and screw-ups varies depending on what the ruling party might be able to get out of it. 2021 was supposed to be a year of celebrating Singaporean women, as declared by the…

When Disabilities Meet the Death Penalty

Rozman bin Jusoh was hanged in Singapore for drug trafficking on April 12, 1996. He was still in his early twenties then, but his youth wasn’t the main problem. In the course of his trial, he’d been found to have an IQ of 74 (the average is 100), and…

Administrative cruelty is the core of capital punishment

I never thought I would be so happy to hear someone had tested positive for Covid-19. For most of us, infection is treated as a calamity, or at the very least a major inconvenience. For Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, it was literally a lifesaver.…

Killing Vulnerable People Won’t Protect Singapore From Drugs

While other Hindu families in Singapore and Malaysia were preparing to celebrate Deepavali last week, Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam’s family had to rush to make some very different arrangements—possibly the last they might ever make for him.…

Singapore’s new ‘foreign interference’ law leaves journalists like me with an impossible puzzle

The Singapore government is now free to act on suspicions of foreign influence, and their targets will struggle to clear their names Singapore’s parliament has passed a controversial anti-foreign interference bill, just three weeks after its first…

Singapore’s new anti-foreign interference law is troubling. I should know, I’m a target

After two years of foreshadowing with no payoff, the Singapore government finally introduced its proposed anti-foreign interference law in September. The Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Bill, or FICA, was presented for its first reading in…

One-party rule in Singapore?

The People's Action Party has won every election since 1959 - but it hasn't always been a fair fight, writes Kirsten Han Singaporean elections are a curious beast to describe to outsiders. On the surface, everything looks above board. There aren’t…

Singaporeans Are Upset About Covid Restrictions. Will They Notice Migrant Workers?

Singapore has now introduced differentiated rules based on one’s vaccination status, and there are people who aren’t happy about it. Under the current rules, people who are fully vaccinated — generally defined as having passed at least 14 days since…

Youth Activists Are Pushing the Limits of Singapore’s Politics

TO READ MORE Enter your email to get instant access to this article and to receive our free email newsletter: What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review: A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having…

Youth Activists Are Pushing the Limits of Singapore’s Politics

There’s only one place in all of Singapore where citizens can organize protests and demonstrations without prior police permission—Speakers’ Corner, in Hong Lim Park. In June 2019, at the last in-person Pink Dot rally before the coronavirus pandemic…

What it’s like to be singled out by members of Singapore’s ruling party on social media

In May, Sarah Bagharib, a communications specialist for a humanitarian aid organization in Singapore, discovered that one of her wedding photos had been turned into a life-sized cardboard cutout for a state-sponsored Hari Raya Aidilfitri event. Even…