Chitchat Why Jamus Lim join Workers' Party ?

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Jamus talks about his past break-up.

Jamus Lim​

12 hrs ·
One of the darkest moments in my life happened around the third year of grad school in the United States. I had just completed my qualifying exams (yay!), and advanced to PhD candidacy (this means that you enjoy significant relief in tuition fees, and also get to call yourself ABD—“All But Dissertation”). I called my then-girlfriend—whom I had been dating for the past five years or so—to share the happy news.
As it turned out, she had been waiting for my big exam to conclude, before sharing with me that she had decided to move on. I was devastated, of course. This wasn’t a teenage romance, and I genuinely believed then that she was the person that I was destined to marry. We both knew that long-distance relationships were difficult to sustain, but it had persisted for so long that I had come to believe that it would all work out.
It is said that it takes at least an extra month to get over every additional year of being with someone. So I was due for around half a year of pain and anguish. Although I was supposed to launch right into my research, it became impossible; any extended time of pondering led me to dwell on the lost relationship. Eventually, I made do by immersing myself in more coursework, which I reasoned would at least keep me busy, while offering the opportunity to meet new people.
Broken relationships aren’t an uncommon experience for most people. Still, it was a very rough time for me. My faith was challenged, and I found little comfort in the distractions that I had set up for myself. My studies seemed to be meaningless, and I even started to blame the failure of our relationship on the fact that I had chosen to study abroad. I spent a lot of time alone, floating in a mental haze: going for long walks in the woods, listening to sappy jazz songs about breakup, nursing drinks till closing on Sunday night at the bar.
I eventually emerged from my funk when I was able to settle my raging emotions, and be at peace within (and yes, it took about six months). I learned to be comfortable in solitude, rather than sad. I found the release that allowed me to enjoy solo hikes, rainy day jazz, and lonely drinks. The failed relationship taught me how to find myself again.
For all those who are in a challenging moment of your own, I hope you come to the same realization as I did: that there is a future, with you in it, that is surrounded once again by laughter and contentment and solace. I hope you will find it, either on your own, or with the help of others who love you and care for you and want you to return from that dark place. #RedefiningFailure
Postscript: As it turns out, I took so many classes from my attempt at distraction that I ended up with enough credits to qualify for an additional masters in politics, which I petitioned for (and received). And of course, I eventually met my lovely wife a few years thereafter, when I no longer felt the need for someone to “complete” me.

 

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Dr Jamus Lim's wife. Eneida Patricia Alcalde.

 

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Dr Jamus Lim's wife. Eneida Patricia Alcalde.

She is quite attractive.

 

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Jamus offers his thoughts at the Cambridge University Southeast Asian Society.

Jamus Lim​

56 mins ·
This past Sunday, I had the pleasure of offering my thoughts on the implications of the evolving multipolar global order for Southeast Asian economies, corporations, and finance, to a predominantly student audience. The subsequent Q&A also touched on tensions among global poles in international organizations, implications of China’s foreign aid expansionism to the rest of the world, and the relevance of market models for development in the region. Thanks to Ziling Ng—and the rest of the team at the Cambridge University Southeast Asian Society—for the opportunity to ponder ideas with sharp young minds!

 

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from msn.com:

#RedefiningFailure: How Jamus Lim’s broken heart from a failed relationship with his then-girlfriend redefine him and led him to politics​

Singapore — In the tale of Jamus Lim versus a broken heart, it can be safely said that Assoc Prof Lim emerged as the winner.

Using the #RedefiningFailure hashtag in a Facebook post on Oct 14, he recounted how the heartbreak he experienced when his longtime girlfriend broke up with him led to a period of taking more classes instead of finishing his PhD, which qualified him for an additional master’s degree in politics.

In GE 2020, Assoc Prof Lim emerged as one of the newest stars in Singapore’s political scene and helped the Workers’ Party win its second GRC at Sengkang.

“The failed relationship taught me how to find myself again,” he wrote.

His post came right in time for International Day for Failure, which falls on Oct 13. It’s a day when “people are encouraged to throw away the shame associated with failing, whether the failure is personal or professional,” according to mental health advocacy Calm Collective Asia. Hence, the hashtag.


The Sengkang MP wrote that when his girlfriend broke up with him, it was “one of the darkest moments” in his life.

It had been a five-year relationship where he had considered the woman as the person that he “was destined to marry,” and the break-up was devastating.

At that time he was about to start the dissertation for his PhD, but heartbreak left him unable to do so.

“It is said that it takes at least an extra month to get over every additional year of being with someone. So I was due for around half a year of pain and anguish.

Although I was supposed to launch right into my research, it became impossible; any extended time of pondering led me to dwell on the lost relationship.”

Assoc Prof Lim described his heartbreak this way:

“Broken relationships aren’t an uncommon experience for most people. Still, it was a very rough time for me. My faith was challenged, and I found little comfort in the distractions that I had set up for myself. ​

My studies seemed to be meaningless, and I even started to blame the failure of our relationship on the fact that I had chosen to study abroad. I spent a lot of time alone, floating in a mental haze: going for long walks in the woods, listening to sappy jazz songs about breakup, nursing drinks till closing on Sunday night at the bar.”

However, right around the six-month mark, things got better. He writes that he learned to calm down and regain inner peace, as well as be on his own.

“I learned to be comfortable in solitude, rather than sad. I found the release that allowed me to enjoy solo hikes, rainy day jazz, and lonely drinks. The failed relationship taught me how to find myself again.”​

He then offered hope to those in similar situations:

“For all those who are in a challenging moment of your own, I hope you come to the same realization as I did: that there is a future, with you in it, that is surrounded once again by laughter and contentment and solace.

I hope you will find it, either on your own, or with the help of others who love you and care for you and want you to return from that dark place. #RedefiningFailure“

He wrote that because he could not do his research, he concentrated on more coursework, leading to another master’s degree.

“As it turns out, I took so many classes from my attempt at distraction that I ended up with enough credits to qualify for an additional masters in politics, which I petitioned for (and received).”

Later on, he met his now-wife, he added as part of his postscript.

“And of course, I eventually met my lovely wife a few years thereafter, when I no longer felt the need for someone to ‘complete’ me.”

 

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Jamus is pleasantly surprised to run into a peacock.

Jamus Lim​

4 hrs ·
Where I live, it is not uncommon for me to encounter wildlife on my jogging route: mostly monkeys and chickens, but also the occasional wild boar or otter family. So it was a peasant surprise to run into (almost literally) this beautiful wild peacock, which was just chilling by the path, picking at the ground.
The commonest species in Southeast Asia is the green or blue peafowl, evident from their striking, almost iridescent neck plumage. This one looked more green than blue to me, but reasonable people can disagree (keeping in mind that blue-green deficiency does run in my extended family). Perhaps it is also a metaphor for why, like so many things in life, the truth lies somewhere between, and our understanding of the world is enriched by being able to accept such a continuum of views and perceptions.

 

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Jamus loves to cook and eat.

9 hrs ·
I love to cook (I also love to eat, so at least it’s complementary). Like most kids, I first learned the basics of instant ramen (boil the water first, then add noodles) and fried eggs (courage in the flip for over-easy) as a teenager. But during university days—both for reasons of survival and a desire to work a different part of the brain after a long day of staring at equations and graphs—I pursued cooking more earnestly, working my way through around two-thirds of the recipes in a French cookbook.
These days, however, crammed schedules and an overactive toddler mean that we occasionally settle what Germans call Kalte Küche (or “Cold Kitchen”)—meals prepared without the heat of the stove or oven. Admittedly, in Germany, the spread would typically include cold cuts, but since we don’t really eat meat, we generally settle for copious amounts of cheese, along with fruit and various other cured vegetables. It’s a nice change from the usual tapao hawker fare we have on weeknights when we’re too tired to cook, although Mom—a traditionalist for East Asian cuisine—considers such meals “not real food.”

 

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Jamus speaks on minimum wage.

Jamus Lim​

13 hrs ·
Two Fridays ago, I joined Ng Kok Hoe and Raj Joshua Thomas on a panel, organized by the Roosevelt Network at Yale-NUS, on the state of the minimum wage in Singapore. The discussion naturally dwelled on the Progressive Wage Model (PWM), but wandered into various aspects of the Local Qualifying Salary (LQS), universal minimum wages, and minimum income standards, the final aspect being especially pertinent in light of the recent report released by Kok Hoe, You Yenn, and their respective teams.
The very engaged audience—I would expect no less from inquiry-driven Yale-NUS College undergrads—went into quite a bit of detail on the nitty gritty of the alternative policies, such as implementation challenges in deliberating sector-specific wage floors, adjustment mechanisms to accommodate changes to the minimum wage (by government diktat, independent commission, or wage indexation), incentives for upskilling in the PWM, and potential labor substitution effects arising from the PWM versus the LQS. Thanks to Shaharaj Ahmed and the rest of his gang for putting the session together, and for the gift of what may (alas) be soon-to-be-collectible YNC coasters.

 

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Jamus got his booster shot.

Jamus Lim​

10 hrs ·
I just had my booster shot at the facility at #SengkangGRC Community Club this morning. As I’d shared previously, I believe that vaccination—while certainly presenting risks—confers more benefits than costs, and I encourage all that are comfortable with taking the shot to do so. Our two-year-old isn’t eligible for a vaccine, and we live with my 70-year-old Mom, so a big motivation for me to be vaccinated is to protect them, my loved ones.
At the same time, I understand that not everyone is able to take the jabs, and the #workersparty has (and will continue to) voice out for those who are unable to be vaccinated for medical reasons (along with many, many other questions on COVID19-related public health policy). I am glad that the government has already taken some steps to ensure that there isn’t inadvertent discrimination of individuals that are unable to choose, and I hope that they will continue to review their protocols to ensure that any unfairness is minimized, even as the country moves toward normalization in our daily lives. #makingyourvotecount

 

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Jamus will be delivering an Adjournment Motion.

Jamus Lim​

3 hrs ·
For the upcoming sitting of Parliament, I will be delivering an Adjournment Motion. Such motions basically offer an opportunity for any member to speak on a topic of their choosing, for up to 20 minutes, at the end of the day’s proceedings.
When there is more than one member who wishes to speak, the selection goes to a ballot. The Speaker Tan Chuan Jin will crumple strips of paper with the various proposed motions, put them into a box, and select one randomly (in my case, there were 2 others), a process that reminds me of the tikam-tikam I used to play as a child. While this may sound rustic, it is actually truly random; computers, for all their sophistication, are algorithm-followers and generally only generate pseudo-random numbers (there are ways to get closer to random numbers by utilizing computer clocks and execution times, but such numbers will only be truly random with some degree of external human input).
All that as a long, discursive preamble to say that I did indeed win the ballot, and so I will be speaking about how taxes can be designed for a dynamic and fair economy. #makingyourvotecount

 

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Jamus speaks on mental health in the workplace.

Jamus Lim​

13 hrs ·
On a recent Friday, I joined Evelyn YJ Lee (Prospect Music Therapy Singapore), Evelyn Kwek (Great Place to Work Singapore), and Vera Soh (LinkedIn) on a panel—where I was overjoyed to be in the gender minority—facilitated by Ryan Wee (Sound of Mind), on the topic of mental health in the workplace.
Sharing about #mentalhealth matters is gradually becoming less taboo in a more traditionally-conservative society like Singapore. As someone who traffics in the domain of the brain, I am keenly sensitive to the importance of keeping the most energy-hungry organ in our body well cared for! For those who are interested in our wide-ranging conversation, the (ultra-professionally-produced) recording is available here:

(the session commences around the 15-minute mark).

Thanks to the rest of the team for setting things up, and to everyone for the intriguing and engaging conversation. Those who wish to catch the other sessions in the festival should also check out the website: https://www.soundofmind.sg

 

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Jamus questions disparity in rewards for Olympians and Paralympians.

Jamus Lim​

3 hrs ·
Earlier this month, Parliament honored the Olympians and Paralympians for their sporting achievements in #Tokyo2020. We celebrated, in particular, our most decorated athlete, swimmer Yip Pin Xiu (who happens to be a Paralympian). Parliamentary plaudits aren’t the only way we’ve rewarded our sportsmen and sportswomen. This year, the Major Games Award (MGA) promised a million for an Olympic gold, and the Athletes Achievement Awards (AAA) granted $200,000 for a Paralympic gold.
Some have questioned why this disparity exists. Five years ago, PAP MPs Alex Yam and Tin Pei Ling, as well as #workersparty NCMP Daniel Goh, raised asked questions about the seemingly unequal reward and recognition accorded to able-bodied versus disabled athletes. I posed questions in a similar spirit this year, asking what the parameters were for choosing the cash incentives, and asking why the distinction between the MGA and AAA existed, given how these occur at a comparable international levels.
The response by Minister Edwin Tong was that the awards were administered by different NGOs (the SNOC and SNPC), and funded privately, and hence dependent on their generosity. But I found the response incomplete. After all, the major donors for the SNOC and SNPC are the Tote Board. The Board is a government agency, and its activities are regulated by various ministries. Its subsidiaries contribute hundreds of millions to nation-building efforts, and indirectly to the budget via betting taxes. Given this context, it was difficult to see why the government decided that it couldn’t exercise greater influence over the amounts granted by the two award programs. If so, the question remains whether the differential amounts may be justified.
One argument is that the comparative lack of viewer demand for the Paralympics means that there is little economic justification to rewarding Paralympians with the same order of monetary compensation as Olympians. But athlete rewards are seldom determined solely by market forces. If so, U.S. women footballers would be paid more than their male counterparts, and soccer and sepak takraw and silat should get different MGA amounts.
Others instead argue that Paralympians compete in finer categories, and since their field of competition is correspondingly smaller, they deserve less of a reward for rising to the top of that narrowed field. To me, this is again a distinction without a difference. Fields widen and narrow every year, for all sorts of reasons; we don’t tell those born in dragon years that their wins mean more, nor women bodybuilders that face a smaller pool that their gold is somehow lesser. We just say, in advance, that it is the potential competition, based on geographic scope, that we pay attention to. Lest we forget, Paralympians in different categories are competing not on the basis of their classifications, but in spite of them.
Truth is, we should support our athletes regardless of whether they win or lose. We shouldn’t treat sporting achievement as transactional. That’s how we build a truly rich sporting culture. But if we are going to offer cash rewards, I see neither an economic nor moral argument for distinguishing the rewards we offer to able-bodied versus disabled sportsmen and women.
So the recent announcement that the AAA will be doubled is a wholly welcome move. It doesn’t quite equalize the amount with the MGA, but it is a positive move, and one
that makes us a more equal, compassionate society. #makingyourvotecount
Postscript: As an aside, it has always struck me as strange when I or our Party are accused of “claiming credit” for policy changes, since I believe our role is to serve as a channel for peoples’ feedback, just as government’s role is to reflect population preferences. So, if credit is to go anywhere, it should be to the people. Nevertheless, we do celebrate when such feedback is taken on board, not as a pat on the back, but because it means that society is changing for the better.

 

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Jamus celebrates Halloween.

Jamus Lim​

1 hr ·
Tonight is the last day of October, which is #Halloween, a commonly-celebrated festival in a number of countries. Growing up here, I never fully embraced the American practice of braving the cold in scanty costumes or painstakingly decorating the house with spooky detailing. Being the globalized city that we are, I wasn’t entirely surprised to see that #Anchorvale residents had also chosen to get into some Halloween fun of their own.
Now that I have a daughter of my own, I also have a better understanding of the fun that kids derive from dressing up and going house-to-house trick-or-treating for candy (which they would proceed to overdose on the following morning). We’re staying away from the sugary treats, but we did get the little one into an Amazonian costume of her own! #SengkangGRC

 

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