Priest In Geylang The Untold Story Of The Geylang Catholic Centre

Cosmopolitan Singapore—emblematic of globalised capitalism—usually calls to mind a number of clichés: orderly, clean and green, a shopping and business paradise, and a model of sound economic management. Tourists, journalists and passing businessmen cast an absent-minded glance at the local society, noting that the food is excellent, e-communication works well and armoured tanks are absent on street corners. But after 17 years living here, the author shows a different side of Singapore: looking at her from the grassroots. Beyond his personal atypical story, he draws with light strokes of the brush, a picture of a warm and generous people, much less passive than one is often given to think. He also describes the difficulties faced by civil society, and tracks the rapid social evolution in the city-state as it is confronted with major challenges: a nose-diving demography, cramped territory with an infrastructure which cannot be extended indefinitely, and massive immigration which is increasingly resented by the local population. Most of all, Fr. Arotcarena places on record the work and significance of the Geylang Catholic Centre, which makes this priest in Geylang himself a legend. "In essence, Priest in Geylang is more than a much needed missing piece in the history of Singapore. It is a reflection of how political hypersensitivity and unchecked power can lead to the destruction of something good in civil society. This is a part of history that we might never regain, unless we are able to re-embrace the spirit and dedication of Fr Guillaume Arotçarena and his Geylang Catholic Centre volunteers. This insight is something we might have heard murmured in rumour corridors, but never given the clarity of print from the perspective of an insider... you will find no lack of humour, spirit, and a certain contemplative fortitude." -The Online Citizen

Survivors of Operation Spectrum—the alleged Marxist conspiracy—speak up in this volume. For many of them, this is the first time that they cast their minds back to 1987 and try to make sense of the incident. What they did in that period was meaningful and totally legitimate. Their families and friends share the same view. The detainees were subjected to ill-treatment, humiliation, and manipulated television appearances. Under duress, and threatened with indefinite imprisonment without trial, they had to make statutory declarations against their will. It is hoped that with this publication, Singaporeans will know what actually happened and decide for themselves if there was a national security threat that necessitated the mounting of Operation Spectrum. This book is a portal to Singapore’s soul, to the human spirit that can be suppressed or manipulated but never defeated. It is also a signal to the current generation of the task to be completed: to exercise the inalienable rights of free citizens even while the Internal Security Act and other legislation denies these rights. The book also provides a kind of social media map of all those who played along with the defenestration of the innocents. Many of these collaborators with state repression are in positions of public influence and private wealth, some expressing private sympathy while maintaining public loyalty to the regime. Paradoxically, mired as they are in moral compromise, they are less free, and possibly more fearful, than those who were detained in 1987 and now speak with clear voices. Singapore’s future will be the outcome of a contest between an administration-in-perpetuity (in power since 1959) that has big data reaching into almost every aspect of people’s lives, and the upwelling pressure from social inequality. The weakening economy and the declining salience of Singapore’s geo-strategic location will be best compensated for by the emergence of a democratic Singapore. Will a free citizenry emerge to challenge rule by the algorithms of a wealthy elite? Christopher Tremewan Research Fellow in Political Studies University of Auckland Singapore is, in some ways, a model for many people around the world in that it seems to provide the full implementation of a neo-liberal capitalist agenda without being troubled by democracy and human rights. It has achieved prosperity for some (but not all) of its citizens. The price has been a loss of freedom and vitality that still keeps the country in a state of political paralysis. It is a false model, one which the "Marxist conspirators" challenged then and continue to challenge now. This book tells the stories of many who were involved in this troubling episode in Singapore's history and who continue to be affected by it. These stories are a vital part of modern Singapore history and should be read by everyone. I am honoured to know so many of these witnesses who have been willing to take the risk to tell the truth. Professor Shelley Wright Department of Aboriginal Studies, Langara College, Vancouver, Canada

This book provides a detailed analysis of how governance in Singapore has evolved since independence to become what it is today, and what its prospects might be in a post-Lee Kuan Yew future. Firstly, it discusses the question of political leadership, electoral dominance and legislative monopoly in Singapore’s one-party dominant system and the system’s durability. Secondly, it tracks developments in Singapore’s public administration, critically analysing the formation and transformation of meritocracy and pragmatism, two key components of the state ideology. Thirdly, it discusses developments within civil society, focusing in particular on issues related to patriarchy and feminism, hetero-normativity and gay activism, immigration and migrant worker exploitation, and the contest over history and national narratives in academia, the media and the arts. Fourthly, it discusses the PAP government’s efforts to connect with the public, including its national public engagement exercises that can be interpreted as a subtler approach to social and political control. In increasingly complex conditions, the state struggles to maintain its hegemony while securing a pre-eminent position in the global economic order. Tan demonstrates how trends in these four areas converge in ways that signal plausible futures for a post-LKY Singapore.

To Jurong with Love analyses a coherent story of young Singaporeans, Catholics and others, from 1960 to 2000, around a remarkable Workers Centre at Jurong, an industrial estate in Singapore. The Review of Life, the method of formation used by the Young Christian Workers Movement inspired hundreds of young men and women to take their painstaking part in building the new society. I doubt there are many comparable pastoral analyses on this scale of church youth leadership in modern society. This record is rare in the way it pursues young people’s own initiatives and perspectives. While numerous groups of young workers form the core of this story, the players include student groups and specialised chaplains. The approval of the island’s archbishops was constant. How the aims of several generations of youth modulated with shifts of the economy, what succeeded and what failed, what depth was achieved, all make To Jurong with Love a page-turner. It all constitutes an inspiring work-book for those seriously committed to young people becoming active players in church and society. This account shows that ‘fidelity’ is no longer a simple thing if it ever was, but requires endless study of interplaying faith and fact as church and society, workers, races, genders, social and movements. This book will command the respect of anyone even tempted to underestimate youth as agents of our complex new global order. Daily life as a vocation beyond church shines in these 300 pages. Like some recent Acts of the Apostles, To Jurong with Love is a first-hand account of how extraordinary ordinary young Kingdom-builders can be. Bob Wilkinson Former Australian YCW and YCS Chaplain at parish and national levels, and former Pacific YCS Chaplain

This book traces the origins of the Chinese Sisters of the Precious Blood in Hong Kong and their history up to the early 1970s, and contributes to the neglected area of Chinese Catholic women in the history of the Chinese Catholic Church. It studies the growth of an indigenous community of Chinese sisters, who acquired a formal status in the local and universal Catholic Church, and the challenge of identifying Chinese Catholic women in studies dealing with the Chinese Church in the first half of the twentieth century, as these women remained "faceless" and "nameless" in contrast to their Catholic male counterparts of the period. Emphasizing the intertwining histories of the Hong Kong Church, the churches in China, and the Roman Catholic Church, it demonstrates how the history of the Precious Blood Congregation throws light on the formation and development of indigenous groups of sisters in contemporary China.

Be warned, mothers should not read these stories to their children, even though they might contain a lonely elf, a talking moon, a butterfly that wants to be a rabbit, or a boy who was born with a flower as an unfortunate appendage. Hovering within the realm of fables, myths and fairy tales, here are unlikely bedtime stories that are best read on a dark, stormy night, and at the risk of wounding the soul. The first edition of Let Me Tell You Something About That Night: Strange Tales by Cyril Wong was first published by Transit Lounge (Australia) in 2009. Reader Reviews: “Wong takes fairytales and works them into a surreal lustre…the heart of these stories gestures to a time before fairytales were saccharine fantasies. Their magic springs from the fact that they incorporate—within realms crammed with elves and water spirits and weird metamorphoses—an unvarnished sense of life’s desolations…A vivid collection that will enchant and disturb.” — The Age “Cyril Wong’s first prose collection focus on the individual and his moments of despair and epiphany, cutting swiftly to the emotional quick. These fairy tales provide the pleasure of being transported into fantasy realms, yet they also offer the sharp bite of contemporary issues and themes that appeals to a more mature audience than the folkish narratives would suggest.” — The Straits Times, Life! “[Cyril’s] work expands beyond simple sexuality… to embrace themes of love, alienation and human relationships of all kinds.” — TIME (Asia) "Reading Wong's tales is a mind-blowing experience. It is a literary journey as well as a philosophical quest. Conveyed in accessible language is a strong sense of defiance, interrogating many of our established beliefs instilled by (popular versions of) traditional fairy tales regarding sexuality, desire, life and death, etc.” - Aaron Chan, Cha, Asian Literary Journal "These are fairy tales that provide readers with the simple pleasure of being transported into fantasy realms, yet they also offer the sharp bite of contemporary issues and themes that appeals to a more mature audience than the folkish narratives would initially suggest." — Gerund, Goodreads reviewer

Based on extensive interviews and archival material, The First Wave tells the story of the opposition in Singapore in its critical first thirty years in Parliament. Democratisation has been described to occur in waves. The first wave of a democratic awakening in post-independence Singapore began with J. B. Jeyaretnam’s victory in the Anson by-election of 1981. That built up to the 1984 general election, the first of many to be called a “watershed”, in which Chiam See Tong was also elected in Potong Pasir. After their successes in 1991, the opposition began dreaming of forming the government. But their euphoria was short-lived. Serious fault lines in the leading Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) rose to the surface almost immediately after the opposition victories of 1991, and the party was wiped out of Parliament by 1997. The opposition spent the next decade experimenting with coalition arrangements, to work their way back to victory.