Shannon Ang, a sociology graduate student at the University of Michigan, penned a case study on the number of PMET (professionals, managers, executives, and technicians) retrenchments in Singapore, which was at the centre of the legal case between the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). Ang’s piece is not focused on the court’s decision or on taking sides, but is instead premised upon the better use of statistics to make arguments.
After weeks of criticising the media for leading with eye-catching headlines of research findings but disappointing with thin exposition of the research methodology, TODAY – from a large-scale study with many different findings (many of which were aptly summarised in the news report) – did an excellent job of highlighting an interesting and seemingly paradoxical observation: “That while Singaporean respondents supported better labour conditions for foreign domestic workers, this sentiment did not necessarily translate into good employment practices” (TODAY, Dec. 19).
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