Wednesday

My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore's Bilingual Journey
Lee Kuan Yew
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2011
ISBN: 9789814342032

My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore's Bilingual Journey is the story of Mr Lee Kuan Yew's 50-year struggle to transform Singapore from a polyglot former British colony to a united nation where everyone, while knowing English, knows also at least one other language, his own mother tongue.

The founding prime minister of Singapore tells of why he did away with vernacular schools in spite of violent political resistance, why he closed Nanyang University, why he later started Special Assistance Plan schools, and why he continues to urge all ethnic Chinese Singaporeans today to learn the Chinese language.

Along the way, we learn not only of the many policy adjustments but also the challenges he encountered - from Chinese language chauvinists who wanted Chinese to be the pre-eminent language in Singapore, from Malay and Tamil community groups fearing that Chinese was being given too much emphasis, from parents of all races wanting an easier time for their school-going children, even from his own Cabinet colleagues questioning his assumptions about language.

We learn that there were four changes at the helm of the education ministry in four months in 1975. We learn that there were Chinese-medium schools in Singapore right up to the mid-1980s. We learn of the pain of "teachers who had to switch from teaching in Chinese to teaching in English almost overnight", and likewise that of students who were "caught mid-stream" in the transition from a Chinese medium of instruction to an English one. We learn why the National Day Rally of 1986 was a milestone and why he "was a proud man that day": For the first time since Singapore's independence 21 years earlier, the emcee for the event did not have to use three languages - Chinese, Malay and Tamil - to lead the audience, as finally, English had become a language understood by all Singaporeans.

My Lifelong Challenge is also the story of Mr Lee's own personal struggle to learn the Chinese language, which began when he was six years old and his Hakka maternal grandmother enrolled him in a Chinese class with fishermen's children. In evocative detail, the man born to English-speaking parents recounts his own feelings of rebellion and humiliation at different points in his life, when faced with the Chinese language and his own inadequacy in it.

This book describes in matter-of-fact yet vivid fashion his steely determination to improve his Chinese and reclaim his Chinese heritage, right up to the present when he is well into his eighties. In this book, we learn of Mr Lee's belief in a fundamental difference between the Chinese-educated and the English-educated and how it came about. He describes a scene of English-speaking students at the University of SIngapore hostel revelling in party games even as Chinese-speaking students in the Chinese High School nearby were locked in a deadly face-off with the police in 1956, and gives the dire warning that "if Singapore students all turned out like those in the university hostel, Singapore would fail." Finally, Mr Lee distils his experiences of 50 years into eight precepts which he spells out at the end of his narrative.

The second half of this book is a compilation of essays by 22 Singaporeans. They include Mr Lee Hsien Loong, the current prime minister and son of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, and Ms Stephanie Sun, the well-known pop star. In these essays, the 22 recount their own language journeys, imbuing flesh and blood meaning to cold policy measures wrought over more than four decades.

This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to find more about Singapore's bilingualism policy and its chief architect. It breaks new ground by putting into the public domain information about education matters that has never been publicised. It is also an invaluable resource for all who are interested in the primeval interplay between language and politics.

Monday

Behavioural Economics and Policy Design: Examples From Singapore
Donald Low
Singapore: World Scientific, 2011
ISBN: 9789814366007

Analysts of government have frequently noted how Singapore's policies are grounded in rigorous economics thinking. Policies are designed to be economically efficient even if they are not always popular. This pioneering book takes a different approach. It aims to demonstrate how successful policies in Singapore have integrated conventional economic principles with insights from the emerging field of behavioural economics even before the latter became popular. using examples from various policy domains, it shows how good policy design often requires a synthesis of insights from economics and psychology. Policies should not only be compatible with economic incentives, but should also be sensitive to the cognitive abilities, limitations and biases of citizens. Written by policy practitioners in the Singapore government, this book is an important introduction to how behavioural economics and the findings from cognitive psychology can be intelligently applied to the design of public policies. As one of the few books written on the subject, it promises to stimulate wider interest in the subject among researchers, policmakers and anyone interested in the design of effective public policies.

Thursday

Making Singapore Safe: Thirty Years of the National Crime Prevention Council
Susan Sim
Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2011
ISBN: 9789814361286

This is the story of how the NCPC has quietly worked with grassroots organisations, industry and the government to transform an apathetic public into a proud movement of community activists. It explains how this bold experiment in harnessing the community complemented the Singapore Police's "radical" move to neighbourhood policing, allowing a zero-tolerance approach to crime that is governed by public consensus, not fear. The NCPC story is also about how vulnerable groups - the old, the young, the guest worker - are being empowered to fight back against crime, whether it be molestation, snatch thefts, phone scams, robberies or cyber predation. It is the story of how the Council caused the ban on bar-top dancing to be lifted, and why every fifth-grader will soon be playing computer games in school. This book also tells the NCPC story in images familiar to all Singaporeans.
The Causeway
Singapore: National Archives of Malaysia and National Archives of Singapore, 2011
ISBN: 9789814266895

The Causeway highlights the close social, economic and political links between Singapore and Malaysia through the history of the Causeway. Close to 240 images - which include photographs, maps, newspaper articles and archival documents - tell the human story behind the building of the Causeway and the people who use it, demonstrating the Causeway's role as a people connector between the two nations. This book is another milestone in the close relationship and collaboration between the National Archives of Malaysia and the National Archives of Singapore.
Urban Sketchers Singapore: Volume 01: A Book of On-Location Sketches and Drawings Documenting the Singaporean Urban Landscape
Zaihan Kariyani (ed.)
Singapore: Tia Boon Sim, 2011
ISBN: 9789810892920

This inaugural compendium of sketches documents the escapades of the locally based Urban Sketchers Singapore group while reflecting on urban context and city planning through the eyes of a diverse group of artists and sketch hobbyists.

Anchored by the work of the earliest members, the book aims to represent the island city-state through a varied selection of sketches that show off the wide spectrum of skill, techniques and experience found amongst the urban sketchers of Singapore.

This maiden showcase of work hopes to encourage emerging artists to get involved in the local art community and grow with their peers.

Some notable Singaporean scenes captured in sketches include the spice streets of Little India, the landmark Sultan Mosque, nostalgic old Queenstown and the revitalised skyline of the Marina Bay Waterfront, organised into sections detailing the civic setting of each location.

Wednesday

Criminal Intent II: True Stories From Changi Prison
Wong Kim Hoh
Singapore: Singapore Prison Service, 2011
ISBN: 9789810880026

Criminal Intent II is a second collection of another 14 riveting interviews with offenders who are serving time in prison and ex-offenders who are re-building their lives after their release. The offenders' and ex-offenders' frank accounts of what went wrong and how their lives - and those of their loved ones - have been affected make compelling reading and offer life lessons for all.