Brian Charles

Sep 12, 2024 | jom.media | Philip B. Holden |Harpreet Singh Nehal |Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh |Brian Charles

Lee Kuan Yew was a 73-year-old senior minister when 30-year-old Harpreet Singh Nehal publicly challenged him. The backdrop, to that 1996 televised forum on the Singapore Dream, was that political leaders had become increasingly concerned about the perceived lack of grit amongst the “post-independence generation”: those, like Harpreet, born after 1965.

May 31, 2024 | jom.media | Harpreet Singh Nehal |Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh |Philip B. Holden |Brian Charles

Singapore’s next general election (GE) is due by November 2025. Given the recent leadership handover by former Prime Minister (PM) Lee Hsien Loong to new PM Lawrence Wong, there is considerable speculation that the government may call it sometime this year.

May 17, 2024 | jom.media | Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh |Brian Charles |Pradeep Krishnan |Harpreet Singh Nehal

Under Lee Hsien Loong’s leadership, the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) has transformed Singapore from a regional economic powerhouse into a rich global city. A state previously lumped in as one of four East Asian tigers, part of a broader, post-war industrial miracle, is now, from Bollywood to Silicon Valley, spoken about breathlessly on its own terms, sui generis.

Jan 12, 2024 | jom.media | Brian Charles

Dear reader,This week’s essay, our first political piece of the year, addresses last year’s romantic affairs involving politicians: Cheng Li Hui and Tan Chuan-Jin of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP); and Leon Perera and Nicole Seah of the opposition Workers’ Party (WP). But first, let’s take a step back to appreciate the significance of the global political landscape in 2024. This year, over 60 countries, in which over 4bn people live, will be holding elections.

Jan 11, 2024 | jom.media | Brian Charles |Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh |Harpreet Singh Nehal |Daryl Yang

It all happened so quickly. Last July, within a matter of days, four Singaporean politicians were forced to resign because of extramarital affairs. On the morning of July 17th, Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister, announced that two of his colleagues from the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP)—Tan Chuan-Jin, Speaker of Parliament, and Cheng Li Hui, member of Parliament (MP)—were leaving politics after failing to end their affair, which he had first learnt about and told them to end in 2020.