A way to look at what Singapore has achieved in the last five decades or so is to celebrate the collective conscious of that “being” called the “Singapore worker”. Granted that there were leaders who showed the way but a nation, especially a new one, couldn't have progressed unless each and everyone had faith in those dreams and worked hard towards achieving it. We dedicate this issue to that “being”, who made today's Singapore possible.

And if you can do it once, you can do it again. Thus, the government focussing on a “Singaporean core” to restructure the economy is a good thing and augurs well for the country's future. But till such time this restructuring is complete, stagnant or declining real wages and negative labour productivity growth remain a concern. The situation is all the more precarious for cleaners, who contrary to popular perception are mostly locals.

Another concern for Singaporeans in recent times has been the discrimination they face from employers who sometimes prefer to hire overseas workers. How far the newly introduced Fair Consideration Framework will go in allaying such concerns can only be known after the framework is implemented in a year's time.

We also analyse the recently published report by the Institute of Policy Studies on strengthening the National Service in our section, Majullah Singapura!

A special two-part feature detailing the lessor-known history of the role played by the Indian National Army during the Japanese occupation of Malaya in 1940s winds up the issue.

Finally, a word about our website. We have introduced a new web-only section, diary, on newzzit.com.

Our e-newspaper comes out every fortnight and a lot of relevant events happen between each issue, which we feel must reach our readers. Additionally, while doing field reporting, we observe lots of stuff that doesn't necessarily translate into a Newzzit story but is an interesting read nevertheless. In a nutshell, this section is Newzzit's reporter diary.

Do have a look.

- Gaurav