#166 When Subsidies Fail to Reach the Vulnerable: Why Public Healthcare Vendor Relationships Deserve an Independent Audit 当补贴无法惠及弱势群体:为何公共医疗机构与供应商的关系值得接受独立审计
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#166 When Subsidies Fail to Reach the Vulnerable: Why Public Healthcare Vendor Relationships Deserve an Independent Audit 当补贴无法惠及弱势群体:为何公共医疗机构与供应商的关系值得接受独立审计

Outsourcing may transfer work, but it must never transfer accountability Outsourcing is frequently promoted as a solution. It is supposed to reduce costs, bring in specialist expertise and allow public institutions to focus on their core responsibilities. But outsourcing can also become a convenient way to move responsibility out of sight. The contractor blames the…

Some business conversations take an hour. Others take only a few minutes. Both can create meaningful opportunities. #164
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Some business conversations take an hour. Others take only a few minutes. Both can create meaningful opportunities. #164

Some business conversations take an hour. Others take only a few minutes. Both can create meaningful opportunities.#164 Yesterday, I attended two very different events: SIGEP 2026 and the SME Cybersecurity Symposium with ST Engineering. SIGEP brought together businesses exploring franchising, food, hospitality, technology and regional expansion. The cybersecurity symposium focused on a different but increasingly…

#163 Charity Deserves Reliable Technology Too — And So Do Public Services 慈善机构也值得拥有可靠的科技——公共服务亦然
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#163 Charity Deserves Reliable Technology Too — And So Do Public Services 慈善机构也值得拥有可靠的科技——公共服务亦然

What a food bank’s single point of failure and a library’s “haunted seat” reveal about digital resilience, dignity and trust Technology does not have to be sophisticated to be important. Sometimes, it is a barcode scanner recording groceries collected by a family in need. Sometimes, it is a booking portal helping a student find a…

#161 AI Disrupted My Career. Is Singapore’s Legal and Professional Ecosystem Ready for Independent Consultants? AI 改变了我的职业生涯。新加坡的法律与专业生态系统,是否已经准备好迎接独立顾问时代?
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#161 AI Disrupted My Career. Is Singapore’s Legal and Professional Ecosystem Ready for Independent Consultants? AI 改变了我的职业生涯。新加坡的法律与专业生态系统,是否已经准备好迎接独立顾问时代?

中文版在下方 Singapore is entering a new era. Artificial intelligence, automation and corporate restructuring are reshaping the workforce. Thousands of experienced professionals—engineers, transformation specialists, project managers, consultants and executives—are leaving corporate employment, whether voluntarily or through retrenchment, to build independent consulting practices. Government agencies encourage lifelong learning. SkillsFuture encourages us to reskill. Industry bodies encourage us…

#159 Lee Hsien Loong’s Twenty Years: Leadership, Information and the Greatest Challenge of Governance
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#159 Lee Hsien Loong’s Twenty Years: Leadership, Information and the Greatest Challenge of Governance

For two decades, Singapore was led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong through one of the most challenging periods in modern history. He inherited a nation already admired for its stability and transformed it through the Global Financial Crisis, the rise of China, increasing geopolitical competition, digital disruption, an ageing population, COVID-19, and an increasingly…

#151 China’s Artificial Sun, Nuclear Scale-Up, and the AI Age: Why Energy and Circular Infrastructure Will Define the Next World Order
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#151 China’s Artificial Sun, Nuclear Scale-Up, and the AI Age: Why Energy and Circular Infrastructure Will Define the Next World Order

For decades, nuclear fusion has often been described as the energy source that is always “30 years away”. Yet recent developments from China suggest that this assumption may need to be reconsidered. According to Xinhua, China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, better known as EAST or China’s “artificial sun”, achieved a major world-record milestone by sustaining…

#148 Ho Ching, The Enforcers, and Singapore’s Invisible Operating System 何晶、《执法者》与新加坡的隐形操作系统
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#148 Ho Ching, The Enforcers, and Singapore’s Invisible Operating System 何晶、《执法者》与新加坡的隐形操作系统

My previous article, “Professionalism, Restraint, and the Standards We Choose to Uphold,” spoke about slipping standards, public conduct, and the increasingly fragile balance between authority, restraint, and responsibility in modern Singapore. Today, I wish to continue that discussion through a different lens. A woman. A technocrat. An engineer. A steward of capital. And perhaps one…

#147 Professionalism, Restraint, and the Standards We Choose to Uphold 专业、克制,以及我们选择维护的标准
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#147 Professionalism, Restraint, and the Standards We Choose to Uphold 专业、克制,以及我们选择维护的标准

In recent years, Singapore has worked hard to strengthen regional business connectivity across ASEAN. Professional institutions, chambers of commerce, engineering bodies, startup ecosystems, and sustainability communities are increasingly interconnected. This is a good thing. However, with growth also comes an important question: Are we preserving the standards that made these institutions respected in the first…

#144 Asia-Pacific Theatre of War III: Two Boys in The Temple of Heaven 《亚太战争剧场 III:天坛里的两个男孩》
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#144 Asia-Pacific Theatre of War III: Two Boys in The Temple of Heaven 《亚太战争剧场 III:天坛里的两个男孩》

This is not a boy band fan article; neither is this new Indiana Jones movie. This is a geopolitical inflection during a time of turmoil where things either can go well or completely south. I. The Korean Peninsula — The Most Dangerous Trigger Point in Asia In my earlier article, “Asia Pacific Theatre of War…

#143 Smaller Nations, Superpower Pressure, and the Grey Zone of Survival 小国、生存压力,与大国夹缝中的灰色地带
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#143 Smaller Nations, Superpower Pressure, and the Grey Zone of Survival 小国、生存压力,与大国夹缝中的灰色地带

One of the least discussed realities in geopolitics is that smaller nations rarely operate in a perfectly clean environment. Publicly, international relations are framed around diplomacy, trade agreements, defence partnerships, and mutual prosperity. But beneath official frameworks often exists another layer: Influence operations. Intelligence bargaining. Unofficial intermediaries. Economic pressure. Elite networks. Strategic kompromat. Underground financial…