The inaugural episode interviews the face of Singapore LGBTQ activism, Alex Au, and the second has AWARE founder and long-time activist/ writer, Constance Singam, sharing her views on women and politics, political change, new media influence, etc.
Responding to the interviewer's query on glass ceilings for women in Singapore politics, Singam says:
There's a glass ceiling for both men and women in politics. It's not just women. It's more difficult for women. Women are interested; I'm not saying that women are not politically interested; they are, from my own experience, I see they're interested. When the need arises, they can be easily mobilised; they're there.(via Seelan Palay.)
But, their work, work in Singapore is about 16 hours a day, that alone can put impossible burdens on a person--man or a woman. Then you have the women who are married with children and who have a home to look after. So where is the energy and the time to go beyond that.
Thirdly, we're confronted with the culture, and it's a very, very Asian culture. Which is strange, it seems to be more apparent in Singapore than in the region, like Indonesia and Malaysia, they're also very traditional, but they have more women in politics. Which is why I think one of the biggest problems in Singapore is that we have been de-politicised. (3 Nov 2009)
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Not to derail, but I really like the paint colour of the interview setting!
ReplyDeleteYeah the colour is pretty nice :)
ReplyDeleteIt would be great if you featured the latest episode on local artist and gay activist Ng Yi-Sheng as well: http://seelanpalay.blogspot.com/2010/02/lets-talk-with-local-poet-ng-yi-sheng.html
ReplyDelete