Occasionally, Jom publishes essays outside the paywall. These are on issues we think are in the public interest, and deserve a wider airing. In the past two years, we have published nearly 50 such pieces. Read some of these if you’d like to see samples of our work. We hope they’ll convince you to subscribe. And even if you’re here with no intention of doing so, we hope you’ll enjoy these offerings and consider it time well spent!
Arts and Artists
Yee I-Lann: Mansau-Ansau’: not all who wander are lost (March 25th, 2025)
Jom’s arts editor wanders through Yee I-Lann’s stunning survey show at the Singapore Art Museum. The Sabahan artist may insist she’s a poor weaver of mats, but she’s certainly a powerful weaver of worlds.
Movement as survival: the migratory paths of ‘Eclipse’ and ‘The Troupe’ (February 21st, 2025)
At the Singapore Fringe Festival, two plays grapple with forced displacement just as Jom’s reviewer ponders privilege, power asymmetries, and the deeply personal decision-making processes that shape the choice to stay, or to leave.
Why it’s really hard to write a bad review in Singapore (July 12th, 2024)
The arts critic in Singapore contends with numerous disparate forces pulling at her, all at once.
Country and its Citizens
Don’t buy your own ‘koyok’: why we must reform primary education (February 14th, 2025)
Singapore’s primary education system is riddled with problems and is fundamentally unsuited to 21st century demands, writes the co-founder of an NGO calling for far-reaching reforms.
Why Singapore’s elderly continue to work: reserves and CPF demystified (January 17th, 2025)
A primer on the structural issues that dictate the government’s approach to our CPF, our reserves, and our retirement.
My authoritarian brain (August 23rd, 2024)
By living abroad, a Singaporean journalist becomes more aware of her own social conditioning, and attempts to rewire her “authoritarian brain”, in the process opening herself up to more of life’s possibilities.
Health and Healing
Seize your life (August 16th, 2024)
“How could I compete when other people’s brain waves march to the beat of a steady hand–and mine dance to jazz?” asks the young writer who was handed an epilepsy diagnosis in childhood.
I object: mental illness is not a crime (March 28th, 2024)
Proposed amendments to laws will give the police greater powers to arrest those who are “mentally disordered”. One mental health researcher and advocate warns about the risks of these well-meaning changes.
The youthful faces of caregiving (Aug 4th, 2023)
Four young caregivers give us a glimpse of what it is like to hold the delicate balance of love and care in their hands.
Mental health: my journey and our life’s foundation (September 23rd, 2022)
By confronting her own mental health problems, Jom’s co-founder hopes for a Sngapore in which we can talk about mental illness openly, without fear of stigma.
Margins and the Marginalised
What the Chia controversy reveals about us all (April 4th, 2025)
The reaction to Chia Boon Teck’s LinkedIn post was a reminder of how far we’ve come with gender equality, and how much further we have to go.
Their struggle is ours (Aug 2nd, 2024)
Singapore must prioritise the creation of clear, transparent pathways that enable transgender Singaporeans, including youths, to access the appropriate care that they need.
Performing normativities (June 20th, 2023)
Not Without Us: Perspectives on Disability and Inclusion in Singapore is a collection of essays presenting voices that explore the personal and political of living with a disability in Singapore.
Reframing our traditional family unit (Sep 2nd, 2022)
By framing the traditional family unit as fundamental to Singapore’s survival, we deprive ourselves of the chance to shape a more expansive, inclusive vision of love, family, and society.
Jom on S377A (Aug 26th, 2022)
The recent announcement that S377A will soon be repealed is cause for celebration. Yet societal attitudes towards the queer community will not change overnight.
Nation and Nationhood
The young activists fanning the flame of democracy (September 27th, 2024)
A look at the grassroots organisers working to platform marginalised issues and democratise Singapore’s political space.
A National Day baby reviews “National Day Charade” (August 8th, 2024)
Thomas Lim’s Saturday Night Live sketch comedy equivalent of the National Day Parade cleverly exploits our patriotic socialisation and turns it on its head: same emotional manipulation, different socio-political outcomes.
National Service: why we need a deeper discussion (August 11th, 2022)
An interrogation of our contemporary notions of home, community and enemy.
To Singapura, in time (Aug 11th, 2022)
The nation as a concept is so new and limited. For most of recorded history people tended to identify with their city, town or village first. To cherish the Singapore of “Saint Jack” opens up a different kind of belonging.
Politics and Politicians
Is one-party dominance necessary for sustainable, long-term policymaking? (December 6th, 2024)
The notion that stability, security and growth can be achieved only by keeping democracy’s inherent messiness at bay has almost become a national truism. Leon Perera, a former member of Parliament, interrogates it
Singaporeans’ political interests and imperatives: Jom’s first voter sentiment survey (October 18th, 2024)
How are you doing? What matters to you? The first part of our survey attempts to unearth answers to fundamental questions about life in our city-state.
The long shadow of Operation Coldstore (February 3rd, 2023)
Sixty years ago, the "Red Scare" saw Lee Kuan Yew's government arrest and detain over 120 alleged "Communists", some for over a decade. Survivors claim it was a politically motivated purge. Are we any closer to the truth?
The unchanging PAP playbook (November 11th, 2022)
As the ruling People's Action Party gathered for its biennial conference, it has become clear that its 4G leaders plan to stick to its political playbook, even as the politics of fear becomes increasingly self-defeating.