Forums and debate
Most of what I understand about how decisions actually get made, I learned in rooms I did not organise. Some I was in to listen. Some I was in to argue. The difference between the two turned out to matter less than I expected.
What the results do not show is what the practice built: the ability to hold a position under pressure, listen to a counterargument and adjust without losing the thread. That transfers to everything else on this site more directly than any trophy does.
SGLaw 200 Youth Forum 2026
Where I first met the Prime Minister, in a room that disagreed about what the rule of law is for.
The Albatross File 2026
Declassified documents on separation, and how contingent it all looks once you can see the room.
S. Rajaratnam Lecture 2025
An hour on foreign policy, delivered to a room that mostly already agreed.
Observing protests in Koreatown 2024
The only entry here where nobody was speaking to me. I stood and watched.
Visiting Capitol Hill 2024
A building I had read about for years, and which is smaller and busier than it looks.
Visiting Singapore Parliament 2023
Sitting in the chamber where the laws I write about actually get passed.
Dialogue with SM Teo Chee Hean on Geopolitical Uncertainty 2023
Geopolitical uncertainty, explained by someone who has to plan around it.
National Youth Council Pre-Budget Dialogue 2023
Where I learned that a budget is mostly a list of things someone decided not to fund.
Speaking on record
Moments from across the rounds at the MOE-ACJC Intercollegiate Debating Championship. 2025.
Winning speech at the Ideological Turing Test, where you argue a position you do not hold. John Locke Institute PPE, 2025.
Representing Switzerland in the CSTD at Yale Model United Nations, debating AI in education. 2026.
In the rounds
Best Delegate, Yale Model United Nations Singapore, 2024, 2025 and 2026. Champion and 1st Best Speaker, Thoburn Cup 2022. Best Speaker, Ideological Turing Test, John Locke Institute PPE Summer School 2025, arguing a position I did not hold before an international cohort.
Alongside the competitions, I have hosted or moderated more than ten school events since 2023, most of them in front of 500 to 1,000 students. The full record is here.
Debating and Model United Nations, 2023 to 2026.
What these rooms taught me is not on any results sheet. How to hold a position when someone competent is dismantling it, and how to tell the difference between being persuaded and being outmanoeuvred.