Our efforts to destigmatise divorce may have gone too far. If a marriage can be salvaged, let’s teach couples how to give it a chance
Recently released figures from the Department of Statistics (DOS) show 7,382 marriages were dissolved in Singapore in 2024. I never thought mine would be one of them.
In December 2019, I was blindsided when my wife suddenly said, “I never loved you to begin with,” packed her bags and left.
Workers Party rally in Anchorvale, Singapore, during GE2025 (Photo: Laremy Lee)
Singaporeans have long rolled their eyes at the stereotypical Asian parent mentality that often defines societal attitudes towards learning and education.
You know how it is; nothing is ever quite good enough. An A- is dismissed for not being an A. One’s accomplishments are frequently measured against those of others, prompting questions like: “Why you never score higher than your friend?”
Though we have since come to decry this attitude whenever it rears its ugly head, it’s strangely ironic to see that same spirit unabashedly manifest itself after the dust had settled on GE2025.
Much of the public reaction thus far, from those who desire more pluralism in Parliament, has been to lambast and lampoon opposition parties for their perceived failure to wrench more constituencies away from the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).
Worse still is the hand-wringing over Singapore’s supposed failure to mature as a democracy, simply because more non-PAP voices haven’t been elected to Parliament to offer broader, more incisive perspectives.
The dismay is understandable. It speaks to the “divine discontent” in our Singaporean DNA, which then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong described in 2016 in his National Day Rally speech as a function of us being “always not quite satisfied with what we have, always driven to do better”.
Nevertheless, while the disillusionment is understandable, it may be misplaced—highlighting instead an opportunity for a hopeful, collective mindset shift among Singaporeans and their leaders. One that can lay the foundation for a stronger, more resilient future in the next six decades to come.
Described as a meeting of the minds between North Mississippi hill country blues and Singapore poetry, Long Time Coming x Say It Is Like It Is is one of the earliest collaborations between General Lee and me.
The song by the Singapore-based rock ‘n’ roll band is an observation of the roots of modern poverty and systemic inequality in historical injustice, while my poem responds to these themes through a scathing satire of privilege, addressing anxieties about poverty on different points of the ideological spectrum at the same time.
I will be reprising this work together with DeltaV at our upcoming performance, Singaporeana Blues, this Friday, 28 March 2025 from 7-9.30pm at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre.
