Rise of Eco-cities: An Asian model of sustainable development
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: The search for an Asian eco-culture is in line with the international discourse on a new global ethical agenda for the New Millennium, focusing on religion, language, values and rights of minorities and indigenous people. It is marked by out-of-the-box thinking that embraces both […]
Singapore keeps an eye on Kabul after aiding refugee pull-out
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: During the last acts of the United States’ precipitous retreat from Afghanistan in mid-August, Singapore got a piece of action -helping in the historic, if chaotic, airlift of thousands of Americans and Afghans fleeing the Taliban forces closing in on the capital, Kabul. US President […]
Funding-surge for blogger in Singapore PM’s defamation case
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: Critics have decried the outcome of a defamation case in which a political blogger has been found to have impugned the reputation and integrity of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in an article. Mr Terry Xu, chief editor of The Online Citizen (TOC), has […]
Singapore lifts quarantine for German and Brunei visitors
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: From September 8, fully vaccinated travellers from Germany and Brunei will be able to visit Singapore for leisure without having to serve a 14-day quarantine. Under this Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme, they will only be required to take four virus tests and undergo a […]
Reincarnated Straits Times unlikely to see government grip easing
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: A government-backed rescue exercise was mounted recently to save Singapore’s flagship English newspaper, The Straits Times, from possible demise as it found itself unable to reverse advertising revenue losses and a decline in readership subscription. And fortuitously, it took the unseen hand of the year-and –a- […]
Covid-19 upsurge derails Singapore’s normality push
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: Just when things seemed to be looking up, a sudden surge in Covid-19 cases has pushed Singapore off course from the government’s much-heralded plan to move into an endemic phase of living with the presence of the virus as a form of perennial influenza. As daily […]
Run-ins with Lee Kuan Yew cut short young activist’s career
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: On Sept. 27, 1957, a bright 26-year-old activist, Arun Mahadeva, Maha for short, was invited to meet Lee Kuan Yew,34, a United Kingdom-trained lawyer and up-and-coming politician who was soon to become Singapore’s Prime Minister. At the meeting in Lee’s law office, the secretary […]
Cautious easing of tightened Covid-19 curbs in Singapore
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: Singapore is moving cautiously to ease some heightened restrictions following a drop in community cases in the past week. From June 14, five people, instead of two, can gather publicly. However, they will not be allowed to sit down in a coffee shop or restaurant […]
Learn to live with covid-19 in our midst, Singapore PM Lee warns
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: Get ready to live dangerously with the Novel Coronavirus in your midst — this is the new normal into which you have to transit. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, seeking to drive home the stark reality to all Singaporeans, warned this would be the long-term […]
No quick exit by PM Lee as succession plan unravels
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: The punishing impact of the Covid-19 crisis in Singapore has produced three political surprises, upsetting the smooth political successionplan of the city-state’s ruling party. One, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, the front runner, dropped out of the race to be Singapore’s fourth Prime Minister. […]
Singapore, Former President of Asia Journalist Association 
Trump, Kim, and the Three P’s of Summit Diplomacy: 
