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.
This week, Tehmina Kaoosji takes a look at the sustainability of the palm oil industry in Malaysia, Adam Bemma speaks to young Thai rappers pushing boundaries, Kirsten Han interviews a Singaporean performance artist upon his release from prison, and Stanley Widianto reflects on co-writing a piece about Indonesia’s notorious blasphemy law. Hosted by PJ Thum.
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.
This week, Adam Bemma speaks to the wife of a community worker disappeared in Laos six years ago, Mark Tilly talks to architects about the development and urbanisation of the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, Calum Stuart interviews Edmund Bon on the likelihood of Malaysia legalising medical marijuana and Aisyah Llewellyn looks at why it’s so difficult to sort out Indonesia’s violent football culture.
On 6 September, the Indian Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality when it ruled on Section 377 of its penal code. The historic ruling on this colonial-era law gave a boost to Singapore’s LGBT movement, prompting a renewed push to repeal Section 377A of Singapore’s Penal Code. New Naratif sits down with Ready4Repeal co-author Johannes Hadi, Clement Tan of Pink Dot and PhD candidate Pamela Devan to talk about the anti-gay law and other LGBT issues in Singapore.
This week, Adam Bemma speaks with a Syrian refugee stuck in the transit lounge of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Victoria Milko visits churches in Yangon trying to keep ethnic languages alive, Calum Stuart talks to Michael Tatarski about online freedom and the cybersecurity law in Vietnam and Teguh Harahap reflects on his experience writing about LGBT “exorcisms”.
New Naratif turned one on 8 September 2018 and we marked the occasion with our members with a live recording of Political Agenda! Managing Director PJ Thum and Editor-in-Chief Kirsten Han reflect on a rollercoaster year and take questions from the audience.
In this week’s episode, Kirsten Han visits a modernist building in danger of demolition in Singapore, Samantha Cheh talks to PJ Thum about anti-LGBT pseudo-science in Malaysia, and Febriana Firdaus examines the challenges faced by local journalists in West Papua. Hosted by PJ Thum.
Crazy Rich Asians opened in the US a week-and-a-half ago and was welcomed as a milestone, a “moment” and a win for representation. But how does it portray Singapore, in which the story is set? We sit down with Ruby Thiagarajan of Mynah Magazine, Aisyah Amir of The Local Rebel and Yale-NUS undergraduate Faris Joraimi to talk about representation, inequality and Crazy Rich Asians from a Singaporean perspective.
This week: child marriage in Malaysia with Tehmina Kaoosji, an interview with Aisyah Llewellyn about writing Crisis and Complicity, and a long-form profile of Singaporean blogger Roy Ngerng.
This week, we talk nationalism and National Day in Singapore with political scientist Dr Ian Chong and theatre director—and former National Day Parade creative director—Glen Goei.
This week: educating child labourers in Myanmar with Victoria Milko, a new train line in Cambodia with Mark Tilly, and reporting on grief with Aisyah Llewellyn. Hosted by PJ Thum.
