The Li Ka Shing Library was privileged to have Catherine Lim launch the inaugural talk for FridayBuzz@theLibrary on 15 February 2008 from 1pm to 2:30pm.

 

FridayBuzz@theLibrary is a series of talks jointly organized by the Li Ka Shing Library and the Office of Student Life with the support of individual faculty in the School of Social Sciences at the Singapore Management University. The aim of the talks is to highlight cultural, literary and social issues in Singapore for our students and the rest of the SMU community and highlight the library’s role as a social and cultural centre.

Catherine regaled us with stories of her political involvement in Singapore and shared her views on political freedom.

She wrote her first political article on “The PAP and the People – A Great Affective Divide”, Straits Times, 3 September 1994 followed by “One Government, Two Styles”, Straits Times, 20 November 1994. She got a strong reaction from the government. One morning, she opened her front door to pick up her newspaper and was shocked to see the headlines screaming “PM : No erosion of my authority allowed : Respect for office must be upheld”, Straits Times, 5 December 1994. For a while she feared for her freedom and visions of being detained crossed her mind. However, nothing untoward happened to her and she continued to write. She has her own blog at http://catherinelim.sg/.

She reasoned that she had passed the “test” and was therefore left alone. She was genuinely interested in the welfare of the nation, she was not connected to or funded by any political groups or external body and she stayed clear of the out-of-bounds markers set by the government.

In fact, as time passed, she saw a softening of the attitude of the government towards her and was encouraged by it. She recognized the strengths of the government; pragmatic and efficient with great problem-solving skills. However, she felt that for a society that was “citizen-compliant and government-dominant” would have people who were only loyal to the “good life” and would lack any real commitment to the country.

Over 90 staff and students attended the session and they engaged Catherine with many questions, ranging from how to become more politically savvy to whether she would encourage someone to become a writer. Catherine felt strongly that political education would be one way to get citizens to be more politically savvy. She encouraged students to be open and to question assumptions. She believes that one must have ideals to strive for and to engage with, for it is these ideals and the struggle to achieve them that would create the sense of identity.

We prepared a book display and bibliography in conjunction with the talk. Three lucky students walked away with book vouchers. The honorarium for the speaker was donated to the Breadline Group upon Catherine’s request.

The next talk is set for 14 March 2008. The topic will be “Media Killed the Theatre Star” by T. Sasitharan who is Director of the Theatre Training and Research Programme.

Yeo Pin Pin
Li Ka Shing Library
Singapore Management University