socialservice.sg presents: "Before the Ballot"

Singapore’s members of parliament receive an allowance to engage legislative assistants to help them with their parliamentary questions and speeches. Different members adopt different strategies and use the allowance differently. Some have larger teams who split the allowance, and in other instances volunteers may also be involved. Across two episodes, we learn more about the roles, responsibilities, and motivations of legislative assistants, the process behind drafting and re-drafting parliamentary questions and speeches, as well as how parliamentarians and their teams integrate feedback from walkabouts.

Today, in this first part, we hear from Louis Ng Kok Kwang, a member of the governing People's Action Party. He was previously on this podcast, highlighting his advocacy for social work and social workers in parliament.

This episode is part of the "Civic Engagement and Action" series of the podcast's sixth season (https://socialservice.sg/podcast/). The feature photo is by VENUS MAJOR on Unsplash.

On this podcast, we've moved away from direct features of charities and social service agencies, not only because there are so many with interesting stories, but also because a greater focus on systemic trends and structural solutions - involving multiple parties - feels more productive. Nevertheless, the story of Glyph Community (https://www.glyphcommunity.com/) and one of its founders, Lim Si Hui, was very compelling.

Glyph is a charity offering non-academic enrichment programmes to disadvantaged children, and 26-year-old Si Hui herself dropped out of university to work at and manage Glyph full-time. Given her young age, leading a direct-service charity, I was interested in how she managed staff and volunteers, challenges she's faced, and how she navigated the broader social work and social service space in Singapore as a young leader.

This episode is part of the podcast's sixth season (https://socialservice.sg/podcast/). The feature photo is by Alaric Sim on Unsplash.

Today, we’ll pick up from where we left off previously, focused on the “Future of Asian Philanthropy” reports published by the Asia Philanthropy Circle (APC). We focus on the second report, “Strategies for a Better Future”, in this episode, and we’ll also link our last episode covering the first report. You’ll again hear from Bradley Wo - previously Knowledge Resources Manager at the Asia Philanthropy Circle, or the APC - and APC’s COO, Stacey Choe.

Read the full “Future of Asian Philanthropy” reports. The first is titled “Scenarios for Asia in 2050”, and the second “Strategies for a Better Future”.

This episode is part of "The Future of..." series of the podcast's sixth season (https://socialservice.sg/podcast/). The feature photo is by Kelvin Zyteng on Unsplash.

Did you know that Asia is home to more billionaires than any other continent in the world? Wealth Report predicts that the region will see its fastest growth in ultra-high net-worth individuals between 2022 and 2026. The Asia Philanthropy Circle (APC) recently released two reports focused on the Future of Asian Philanthropy. The first is titled “Scenarios for Asia in 2050”, and the second “Strategies for a Better Future”. “Scenarios for Asia in 2050” lays out a set of four imagined scenarios for an Asian society in the future, while the second report, “Strategies for a Better Future”, identifies strategies and recommendations for philanthropy today to shape how society will develop.

Today, we have invited two guests to tell us more about these reports. Bradley Wo and Stacey Choe will share more about the reports and how they have been using them to generate conversations towards crucial partnerships in achieving a better future. Today, we’ll focus on the first report.

Bradley was previously APC’s Knowledge Resources Manager. In addition to this report, he also worked on APC's book, “The Philanthropist’s Guide to Giving”, and other publications on cross-border giving. He previously studied Chinese high-net worth philanthropy at Peking University and is currently at New York University for his MBA. Stacey is APC’s COO. She served as the Membership Services Director at the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network for four years before her last role as Director of Policy Engagement. In her earlier life before the social sector, she specialised in marketing communications and market entry in corporate and government roles, and also worked in China for three years.

This episode is part of "The Future of..." series of the podcast's sixth season (https://socialservice.sg/podcast/). The feature photo is by Matt LaVasseur on Unsplash.

Centred on the Singapore government's plan to enact new legislation to prohibit workplace discrimination, the Association of Women for Action and Research, or AWARE, published a position paper with recommendations to address gaps in coverage and implementation related to the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices. Today, we speak with two people who were part of the team behind the position paper, Apoorva Shukla and Daryl Yang, asking them about AWARE’s advocacy for anti-discrimination in the workplace, thoughts about the Tripartite Committee’s proposals, and various forms of workplace discrimination.

Apoorva is an Executive at AWARE's Workplace Harassment and Discrimination Advisory, or the WHDA, where she supports victim-survivors of workplace harassment and discrimination, and advocates for workers' rights in Singapore. A lawyer and activist, Daryl recently returned to Singapore after completing his Masters in Law on a Fulbright Scholarship at UC Berkeley, where he wrote his thesis on the evolution of Singapore’s approach to workplace discrimination. 

Relatedly, in our last episode, we spoke to Max Soh from the Disabled People’s Association on related topics for people with disabilities, which you should check out if you’ve not already done so.

Here’s a link to AWARE’s position paper. If you have faced discrimination or harassment at your workplace, contact WHDA at 6777 0318 from Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm, or email them at [email protected]. Follow AWARE on social media: @awaresingapore on Instagram, @awarenews on Twitter, and AWARE Singapore on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Here are some additional references: (a) A "Chicago Law Review" article; and (b) Consent as core to mediation.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced in 2021 that the government would enshrine into law the current workplace anti-discrimination guidelines. Since then, the Tripartite Committee on Workplace Fairness, comprising the Ministry of Manpower, National Trades Union Congress, and the Singapore National Employers Federation, has been reviewing the current guidelines. The Tripartite Committee then released a report with 20 recommendations of what the anti-discrimination law should contain. The main recommendation was that the law should prohibit workplace discrimination in respect of (i) age, (ii) nationality, (iii) sex, marital status, pregnancy status, caregiving responsibilities, (iv) race, religion, language, as well as (v) disability and mental health conditions.

After the report’s release, several organisations released their responses to the report with their own recommendations. Today, we speak to a representative from one of these organisations, Max Soh, who is the Research and Policy Manager for the Disabled People’s Association or DPA, Singapore’s only cross-disability non-profit organisation. Max joined DPA in 2021 and manages the organisation’s various research and policy related initiatives. In addition to being disabled himself (visually impaired since birth), he brings experience with disability and disability advocacy through his prior involvements with disability organisations especially internationally. In this episode, we talk about the work of DPA and what DPA feels should be included in the anti-discrimination law for people with disabilities.

You can read DPA’s response. A transcript of today’s episode is also available on our website.

GST hikes, inflation, and high HDB resale prices. Wherever you go in Singapore, you can’t miss the hottest topic nowadays: the rising cost of living. If you tak boleh tahan, that’s understandable. But what can Singaporeans do about it? Today, we’re joined by three organisers, Kokila from Workers Make Possible and the Transformative Justice Collective, Kumarr from Workers Make Possible, and Adi from Workers Make Possible and NTU Financial Aid Friends, to talk about how Singaporeans can make their voices heard on these issues.

The trio are part of Manifestival, a joint effort by various civil society organisations and independent media platforms to encourage democratic, public discussion on important issues that matter to all of us in Singapore. We ask them about how Manifestival came about, the three townhall series that Manifestival has organised in the past months, and their takeaways from having ordinary Singaporeans share their honest thoughts in such public spaces.

Here's the link to the Labour Day event.

This episode is part of the "Civic Engagement and Action" series of the podcast's sixth season (https://socialservice.sg/podcast/). The feature photo is by Nicholas Chester-Adams on Unsplash.

With Samantha Lee, we preview the 2023 episodes for our "The Future of…" mini-series, where we chat big ideas with Singaporeans engaged in social initiatives in Asia and beyond. These are the episodes we referenced today:

This episode is part of "The Future of..." series of the podcast's sixth season (https://socialservice.sg/podcast/). The feature photo is by Rayson Tan on Unsplash.

With Isaac James Neo, we preview the 2023 episodes for our "Civic Engagement and Action" mini-series, where we have conversations about expanding communities and spaces for sustained civic engagement and political participation. These are the episodes we referenced today:

And here is the article Isaac wrote for "Jom" (subscription needed): "Pragmatic resistance: adaptation or co-option?"

This episode is part of the "Civic Engagement and Action" series of the podcast's sixth season (https://socialservice.sg/podcast/). The feature photo is by Gregoire Jeanneau on Unsplash.

With assistant professor Tan Shin Bin (Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore), we explore her latest journal article centred on Singapore's Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP) as an ethnic desegregation policy. She shares about ethnic and socio-economic segregation as they relate to the EIP, their inverse relationship for majority public housing subzones, and future areas for study. We also chat briefly about research data and methodology at the end.

You can read the journal article (paywalled): Do ethnic integration policies also improve socio-economic integration? A study of residential segregation in Singapore.

This episode is part of the "Making Research Sense" series of the podcast's sixth season (https://socialservice.sg/podcast/). The feature photo is by Shermin Ng on Unsplash.