News this week included: Singapore’s 2026 GDP growth forecast at 2-4 percent following stellar first quarter; SCMP analysis of the costs of our regional AI boom; ST commentary on why Singapore isn’t great at nurturing homegrown tech giants; chief justice on the challenge of “truth decay” and “echo chambers”; closing oral submissions at the ministers vs Bloomberg trial; Lim Chu Kang land-use changes for agriculture and defence (and the farms affected); war has not deterred Asian Muslims from the haj; ERP may return to Orchard; identity theft almost leads to S$2.9m fraudulent loan; hullabaloo about performing the azan, the Muslim call to prayer, as part of a Pulau Ubin tour; TWC2’s director on three practical measures to help migrant workers; English or Singlish over mother tongues, says new IPS survey; the first local brain tumour removal through eye socket; ST investigation into the Pokemon trading boom; young professionals earning well, but feeling poor; personal bankruptcies on the rise; a new father builds a baby tracker with AI; over 1,000 new marine species discovered last year, with 90 percent still unknown; and a cute little rat on the MRT!

Below are the issues we explore in depth:

Politics: Time to Koon

Calling himself “an absent husband, father and son”, Koh Poh Koon, senior minister of state for both manpower and health, resigned as a political office holder effective June 1st. He’ll remain an MP for the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP). So rare are such mid-term departures from this well-oiled political machine that some online cruelly speculated, without evidence, about possible adultery with a colleague (as has happened before, on either side of the aisle). More sensible views from professors and analysts touched on the sheer toll of political life.

A Singaporean minister’s workload was pithily captured by Adriel Yong, a co-founder of Clouted and an angel investor, on LinkedIn: “Ministers here run substantive portfolios. often two. plus a statutory board seat or two. plus party roles. plus constituency MP duties from weekly meet-the-people sessions running past midnight, multiple weekend constituency events and weekday house visits.” Yong, suggesting it’s less a failure of character than design, also critiqued the “cascade” effect, whereby a minister sets the “operating rhythm” for their subordinates, which then flows down to others in the ministry and possibly even to grassroots volunteers, all seized by the (real or perceived) sense of overdrive. 

Is it time to rethink ministerial workloads? Among the reasons to suspect little will change are the notions that million-dollar salaries must be accompanied by relentless work; and that some ministers, perhaps power-hungry, might be loath to let go of their sweeping responsibilities and extensive facetime opportunities in this unique retail politics environment created by the workaholic Lee Kuan Yew. Still, Koh’s brave decision should hopefully lead to some introspection in a society trying to promote fertility. It “points to a structural truth about our society: the disproportionate burden of caregiving that remains heavily gendered,” wrote Margaret Thomas, former AWARE president. To be clear, ministers aren’t the only ones struggling to juggle work, family (including caregiving responsibilities), leisure, and rest in our frenetic society—at least they get paid for it, a cynic might quip. (And no, Koh: not everybody has a car.)

The electoral and governance impact on the PAP will be negligible, particularly considering the numerous new, young politicians elected last year. It might be a good time, cracked Ian Chong, associate professor of political science at NUS, for the party to assess how many of Koh’s duties could be replaced by their newest saviour: AI.

Society: Singapore’s AI discourse is skewed and partisan

Following in the footsteps of his namesake, who addressed the ills of the industrial revolution 135 years ago, Pope Leo XIV this week issued his first papal encyclical, an open letter meant to guide the choices of Catholics. Titled “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity), the over 40,000 word document’s subtext is “On safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence”. The introduction’s first line reaches for the scripture’s most devastating parable of delusional utopia. “Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together.”