Democracy Classroom: Singapore’s Cost of Living Crisis Event Recap

This is Community Corner, a space for our members to catch up on events that they have missed, read team recommendations, and write to us!

The Democracy Classroom: Singapore's Cost of Living Crisis event was New Naratif's answer to the warm response that we received from Singaporeans on our long-awaited return to Singapore during our previous Democracy Classroom event. With an out-of-control cost of living crisis facing Singaporeans as well as a looming Presidential Election, we asked and heard from ordinary Singaporeans on the effects of the cost of living crisis and what the Singaporean government, and ordinary citizens, could do to alleviate the issues.

A long awaited return to Singapore's shores

Members only

Log in or

Join New Naratif as a member to continue reading


We are independent, ad-free and pro-democracy. Our operations are member-funded. Membership starts from just US$5/month! Alternatively, write to [email protected] to request a free sponsored membership. As a member, you are supporting fair payment of freelancers, and a movement for democracy and transnational community building in Southeast Asia.

Related Articles

Political Agenda: Singapore’s Invisible Population

There are almost a million low-wage migrant workers in Singapore, but they often face physical and social segregation, and are excluded from data on Singapore’s resident population. We talk to Dr Stephanie Chok of the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME) and Debbie Fordyce of Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) about the issues this invisible population face.

In Conversation with Tan Wah Piow

Thum Ping Tjin talks to Tan Wah Piow about childhood, his time in the University of Singapore, his activism, his fraudulent conviction and the PAP government’s attempted abuse of the National Service Act, his subsequent flight and exile from Singapore, all the people who helped him along the way, and his reflections on Singapore’s politics and political activism today.

Notes From a Changi Jail

Jolovan Wham, the well known Singaporean human rights defender and activist, talks to PJ Thum about his most recent stint in jail for civil disobedience. They discuss Singapore’s arbitrary laws, his experience with jail, issues with the criminal justice system, and why he is advocating for prison reform.

Political Agenda—Are Singapore’s Hawker Centres Dying Out?

Singapore’s hawker centres have been described as a “cultural institution”, a source of pride as much as a source of good eats. Yet the hawker industry is in crisis today, with rents and overhead costs rising even as hawkers are pressured to keep their prices down. In this episode, PJ Thum heads to Chinatown Food Complex to speak to three hawkers about the difficulty of surviving, not as cultural symbols, but viable businesses.