Louis Ng and Louis Ng Kok Kwang: The complicated relationship between civil society and mainstream politics

Academic Views

Twenty years ago, Louis Ng was known as the passionate animal rights activist who personified the spirit of independent advocacy in Singapore’s civil society. Ten years ago, Louis Ng Kok Kwang was officially announced a ruling party candidate for the 2015 General Election. This year, he quit electoral politics. LIEW KAI KHIUN, an independent scholar […]

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Keeping academic freedom on the agenda


Academic Views, Editorials

ACADEMIASG EDITORIAL — If there is no gap between stated policy and actual practice, we would expect university administrators, bureaucrats, and political leaders to be fully and enthusiastically forthcoming in responding to the points that academics have raised through our study.

2022-01-26

Democracy, Singapore-Style? Biden’s Summit spotlights questions of how to categorize regimes


Academic Views, Explainer

Putting aside the Summit’s controversial invitation list, how do experts characterize Singapore’s political system? AcademiaSG editor and political scientist Chong Ja Ian surveys more rigorous measures that are widely used. Singapore’s recent non-invite to the US-organized Summit for Democracy has created some discussion about the country’s regime type and status, including some debate over the […]

2021-12-20

First CHS, now CDE and New College: A tale of three top-down decisions


Academic Views

Peter Ooi and Melody Madhavan, alumni of Yale-NUS College, consider several proposed mergers in faculties and programmes at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and raise concerns about the lack of stakeholder consultation prior to their announcement. In many policy areas, decision-makers in Singapore are increasingly cognisant that making decisions the right way is just […]

2021-09-12