Hi everyone,

Isabelle here — one of the editors at Mynah.

If you’re feeling tired of the words “GE2025,” I get it.

Over the past few weeks, the election has saturated nearly every corner of our media landscape. First the anticipation of the Electoral Boundary Review Committee (EBRC) report, then the report itself, then the cries of gerrymandering from the report, then the flood of manifestos, then the analysis of the manifestos, then new candidates, and what’s that, another new candidate! And that’s all before we even get to hustings where it was rallies, headlines, a feckless roundtable, and endless memes.

It’s been even worse since the results rolled in: op-eds, infographics, live blogs, analysis. So. Much. Talk. I’ve been tempted to just throw my hands up and consign my post-mortem of the elections to this single picture of Kenneth Jeyaretnam:

Even for those of us who care deeply about Singapore’s political future, it’s been a lot to sit with—and easy to feel either overwhelmed or worn out.

So why am I writing this? Why is Mynah adding to the noise on GE?

Well, I’ve found that when the noise settles, what lingers are the questions. Not just about what happened, but about what it all means in the long term.

That’s the spirit in which we recorded our latest episode of the Mynah podcast.

The day after the election, we were joined by three guests (a bumper crop!) whose perspectives we’ve long respected and learned from:

• Chong Ja Ian, political scientist

• Kirsten Han, journalist, activist, and long-time watcher of Singapore’s civic landscape

• Lim Jialiang, political observer, hawker expert, and past guest on The Mynah Podcast

The four of them — Ian, Kirsten, Jialiang, and Ruby (our editor-in-chief) — gathered in the days after the election for a frank, wide-ranging conversation. Yes, we discussed the outcome: the PAP’s continued dominance, the opposition’s showing, the inexplicable reality of Ng Chee Meng back in parliament (R U KIDDING). But more than that, we tried to zoom out and ask the harder, longer questions.

Questions like:

• What does this election tell us — or fail to tell us — about how Singaporeans think politically?

• Why is it so difficult to have meaningful, data-informed conversations about voter preferences here?

• And how do we nurture a stronger, more participatory democracy — when voting is something we do only once every five years?

It’s a conversation that resists the urge to hot-take. It’s more about sitting with discomfort, uncertainty, and hope — all at once. And it’s one we hope will offer a kind of breath, especially for those wondering what comes next and what to do now that the dust has settled.

You can listen to the episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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Here are some notes from the conversation:

• News outlets including the Financial Times, Nikkei Asia, Bloomberg, and CNA framed their reports on February’s Budget announcement in relation to the 2025 General Election.

• Alia Mattar on a proposed national anti-scam insurance scheme, from 11:54: The Hammer Show Episode 4 - Let’s Talk about Accountability and Democracy (WP on Youtube)

• Then PAP candidates/now PAP MPs Elysa Chen and Jasmin Lau both gave interviews to CNA, with the former describing how she was “kicked into politics” and the latter when asked about what she would change if voted in, responded by comparing it to a civil service posting where “we don’t go there because we chose to. We go there because we’re sent.”

• Independent candidate for Mountbatten SMC Jeremy Tan’s website that lists his proposed policies, including a substantial number based on the use of Bitcoin.

• Jeremy Tan’s rally speech for Mountbatten SMC, beginning at the 49:20 mark

• Monday of Palestine Solidarity is an informal collective for citizens to engage their MPs on Singapore’s position on Palestine.

• Political scientist Elvin Ong published a journal article titled “Complementary Institutions in Authoritarian Regimes: The Everyday Politics of Constituency Service in Singapore” about how Meet-The-People Sessions in Singapore don’t serve as a form of democratic representation but are a way of entrenching authoritarianism.

• Josephine Teo recounts 'ambush' incidents at Meet-The-People Sessions.

• In 2022, volunteers from the Transformative Justice Collective attended cabinet ministers’ Meet-The-People Sessions to speak about the people’s petition calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. More information about the petition, including how to add your name to it, can be found here.

• The Straits Times reported Chan Chun Sing’s views on how “MPs who have to juggle multiple responsibilities are in a better position to empathise with Singaporeans who are similarly doing so”.

• The story about Ng Chee Meng meeting convicted money launderer Su Haijin – whom we refer to incorrectly as Su Haiyan in this episode – has developed since our recording and now involves a number of former and current politicians.

• One example of how governments can require transparency about potential conflicts politicians may face in their public duties is Australia’s Register of Members' Interests. MPs must declare interests like directorships, private property, substantial sources of other income (including their spouse’s income), and gifts received. Anthony Albanese’s declaration includes a bamboo bicycle from Jokowi, vinyl records and t-shirts from Jacinda Arden, and a “handcrafted orchid in a pot” from Lawrence Wong (which was later surrendered).

• In an interview with the New York Times from 1999 titled “The Dictator Speaks”, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew suggested that Singapore would take on the idea of a Speakers’ Corner, bringing up the case of Dr Chee Soon Juan who had been arrested for breaching the Public Entertainment Act by trying to make a speech. Speakers’ Corner was established one year later on 1 September 2000.

• Kirsten mentions research by Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, that shows that 3.5% of a population participating in protests in nonviolent campaigns results in successful serious change.

• The bewilderingly-named model of Socially Conscious Enterprise Hawker Centres (SEHCs) have been criticised widely by MPs, local media, and hawker experts—including our guest Jialiang in the first episode of The Mynah Podcast—since at least 2018.

• Blackbox Research released the results of their final-week polling after we recorded the episode. According to Section 78C of the Parliamentary Elections Act, publication of election survey results is prohibited between the issuance of the writ of election to when polling stations close on election day.

A little postscript, while I have your attention:

All four editors at Mynah who were in Singapore— myself, Ruby, Karen, and Kristian — spent polling day this year volunteering as polling agents. (All for the opposition, because they actually need the manpower.)

It was a small act, really. We showed up, sat in designated spots, kept our eyes open for any irregularities in the voting process (we barely saw any). But it made the election feel more immediate, more human. I was stationed at Punggol that day and watched people of all ages stream in— some with toddlers, others in wheelchairs, teenagers dressed for a day on the town, millennials who looked like they just rolled out of bed—all there to perform a quiet act of commitment. Sat beside me were two other polling agents that had volunteered their time as well. One of them had been doing this for four elections straight. It reminded me that politics isn't just something that happens online or in Parliament — it happens in the tiny moments of attention we give it. It happens when we’re willing to devote time and effort from our lives to it. And it happens in community.

If you’ve never volunteered on polling day, I really recommend it. It’s not glamorous, but it’s grounding. And more broadly — if you’ve ever thought about getting involved in our political life, start now. There is so much to do beyond the ballot box now that GE2025 is done and dusted. Ask questions. Read widely. And more importantly, act. Join a civil society group. Start organising. Volunteer with a political party or an advocacy group. Show up. The work of change doesn’t begin or end with the polls.