"Foreigners should not be encouraged to organise and lead Singaporeans in making complaints about the nation.

Information, Communications and The Arts Minister, Dr Lee Boon Yang, made this point in Parliament on Friday when he reiterated the government's position that only Singaporeans can be involved in domestic politics.

Dr Lee said letting foreigners lead Singaporeans to make complaints in public, run contrary to established principles that comments for domestic affairs should be reserved for Singaporeans.

To Mr Siew's (Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong ) point that Singapore had commented on the domestic politics of other countries, notably Myanmar, Dr Lee noted that the situation was different.

He said reactions to what was happening in Myanmar were in line with international sentiments. " Above-mentioned quoted from -CNA 15 February 2008 1842 hrs

Hmm, if Dr Lee says that only Singaporeans can be involved in domestic politics, does this policy presume that Singaporeans can freely be involved in domestic politics without being a victim of the politics of fear?

It seems to me that this policy presumes the presence of a certain vibrant and safe public sphere where Singaporeans can express their emotions and reactions to local politics. But how true is this? How many Singaporeans would gladly attest that we are free to express our political views about Singapore, in Singapore. How many of us would tend to hide behind the excuse of being 'politically apathetic' instead of embracing the opportunities given to us to spread political awareness and recognise that a political life is an everyday reality, whether one admits it or not.

Befitting the context, if some Singaporeans felt like forming a choir or an improvised drama group or even just a book sharing session to express and share political views, would they ever be granted a license from the MDA to perform in public? Would it ever be legal to bring out our political opinions into the public sphere? Is a civil society viable in Singapore in the near future?

These are important questions that we should at least stop in our busy upper middle class lives to think about. These are critical questions that should somehow touch a nerve within you. How long more will we be able to hide behind materialism and economic development and repress our natural desires to be engaged in a political life, whether it is simply hoping to see some real competitive politics on TV or being able to decide what to do with your lifelong savings.

I would like to commend CNA for mentioning Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong's counter-point to Dr. Lee, pointing out the inconsistency of the government's professed policy towards non-interference in other nations' domestic politics. Even if we accept Dr. Lee's caveat that it is in line with international sentiment, the same caveat can be used to support my point that there is alot of unhappiness with Singapore's domestic politics (or lack of), whether emanating from inside Singapore or outside. I believe there is a certain undercurrent of international sentiment that does not exactly agree with the oppressive and authoritarian type of democracy that exists in Singapore. This underlying sentiment may be much diluted and dwarfed by international perception of Singapore as a successful business hub and post-colonial developing country in Asia, and also perhaps the active use of libel laws here.

I will sing in protest, not at the state of domestic politics in Singapore, but to spread awareness among my friends and fellow Singaporeans. Wake up from your dreamy cushy upper middle class life and stand up for your rights, act in the full capacity of a political citizen, for the strengthening and renewal of this beautiful country and state. 'Political apathy' seems like an oxymoron for me, I cannot understand how it can truly exist unless you are truly that easily satisfied with things in life. I will sing, whether in hokkien or teochew or singlish or english or mandarin or arabic or malay if you teach me. If you are willing to hear, I will sing, for I believe certain fundamental things in life like music and liberty are a universal language that transcends many barriers.

Tuesdays and Thursdays can be very confusing mornings for me.

For a start, i have 8am lectures on these days, i usually make it to class right on time, but without coffee. SO the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. It is one of my favourite classes this semester actually, an undergraduate seminar on terrorism, and one of my really relevant undergrad classes since i do intend to specialize in counter-terrorism down the road.

In a weird twist, this is actually my only Political Science class out of 5 classes this semester, hardly believable for a self-proclaimed PS major. But the way this class is designed, it is very similar to NUS small lecture groups, where its is very powerpoint-heavy and requires little to zero student participation, exacerbating the 8am drowsy mood, so it is a tough battle for me to stay awake and fully alert from slide to slide, almost having to resort to secondary school tactics of pinching myself.

This class being a political science class, attempts to deconstruct thephenomenon of terrorism in a very objective, scientific and at times game-theoretical way. Thus i almost always leave the class feeling the need to repress all emotions and think of issues only in a very rational-objective manner.

15mins later, my legs drag me to my next class which is 5 minutes' of cool morning breeze walk away. This is a dramatic arts class focusing on play analysis, where I am submerged into a while of appreciating and being able to identify dramaturgical tools used by playwrights to enunciate and dramatize 'inner subjectivities' of the human psyche, expressionistic presentations of the human condition.

Wow what a dramatic shift that goes through my drowsy tuesday and thursday mornings. One moment it's demanded of me to be almost a-emotional in order to become a good social scientist and critically analyse terrorism. In an instant, I'm floating in a world of subjectivism, which is enjoyable in a way that i like to just kick back and observe my arty-farty lecturer drift across the board and fill it diagrams and mindmaps and doodling wit just traditional chalk. All these done without coffee and in a matter of 3 hours.

It's been 5 weeks into the term but i have yet to figure an optimal way of figuring out how to meaningfully synthesize my contradicting yet dreamy tuesday and thursday mornings, but i better figure it out soon, maybe this cup of coffee will help.