My latest novel, entitled ‘Miss Seetoh in the World’ was launched on November 24. It is published by Marshall Cavendish and is now available.

It’s a very special one for two reasons: firstly, it came at the end of the longest break—7 years!—in my writing career, and secondly, it is the first novel to have a strong political component which might just make it my most controversial work of fiction.

Synopsis

Miss Maria Seetoh, a teacher of English and Literature in St Peter’s Secondary School in Singapore, sees herself as a ‘simple soul who only wants to be a good and happy person’, and has a dream to write stories about ‘simple, ordinary people going about their daily lives’. However, God/Providence/Fate/Chance, etc. decrees otherwise. She is thrown into the tumult of a disastrous marriage that begins as strangely as it ends, a failed love affair that ‘hollows her out’, and a controversial teaching career that ends with her abrupt resignation. Most of all, she is caught in a political event as shocking in its causes as in its consequences.

Set against the backdrop of modern-day Singapore, a hugely successful city-state grappling with changes and challenges that could corrode the very soul, the novel ultimately examines, with wit, wry irony and warm understanding, the unchanging quandaries of the human condition, when love and sex, religion and politics, tradition and modernity, can all come together in an unruly mix, to show human nature at its most depressing and its most inspiring.

Together with writers from all over the world, I did a reading for 15 minutes of an excerpt from a story entitled ‘The Solace of Guilt’ taken from my book of short stories ‘The Woman’s Book of Superlatives’ on 21 Sept, 11.40am Singapore time.

The reading was part of a global project organised by The International Literature Festival Berlin to mark the United Nations Peace Day 2010.

It is the first project of its kind, and its purpose is to enable writers from all over the world to show solidarity with those who are oppressed and caught in conflict. I am absolutely thrilled to have been part of this event which gave writers the opportunity to voice their concerns about social and other human problems.

You can view a recording of my reading here:

Part 1 of 3

Part 2 of 3

Part 3 of 3

I have always believed that the most important thing in my life is to leave a legacy, not just of material wealth, but of values, not just to my family but to all my readers, in Singapore and the world, for as long as my works are read. A huge ambition indeed!

And then something happened that gave this ambition new urgency and immediacy. In August 2009, I escaped a horrible death in the narrowest possible of escapes. I was waiting for a taxi by the roadside outside my condominium, to meet friends for dinner, when a sports car, rounding a corner, went out of control, spun crazily towards me, missed me by mere inches, and crashed into a tree beside me. Dazed, I picked myself up from the ground without a scratch.

Since then, in a near tragedy-turned-epiphany, I have been profoundly moved, both by the sheer good luck of it all, and the urge to waste no time in working on my intended legacy of values. They are simple values—of kindness, compassion, tolerance, a sense of humour, a zest for life, a passion for truth, goodness and beauty, and most of all, of always keeping faith with one’s beliefs and convictions, that is, of being one’s authentic self to the very end, warts and all!

And I will begin by sharing these values with you, the readers of my website, under the rubric of ‘Vignettes’. Since, in a less direct way, over the years, I must have conveyed similar values through my novels and short stories, this new endeavour, derived entirely from true experiences, may be said to be on a parallel track with my fiction.

I have written, and will continue to write, as long as I can, short, simple, from-the-heart articles and stories, based on a whole range of personal experiences, including recollections of my childhood and observations of current events in Singapore and the world. And they are exactly that and no more—personal reflections, with no pretensions whatsoever to any philosophical or literary purpose.

Indeed, they are little haphazard pieces, each standing on its own. They have no unifying, overarching theme, covering, instead, a wide diversity of unrelated topics, whether of religion or common superstitious beliefs, death or the amazing manifestations of the will to survive, scientific technology or the enduring power of traditions, human idealism or human faults, follies and foibles, all conveyed through simple musings and anecdotes.

They have no overall permeating mood, swinging, instead, from serious to light-hearted to playful, from gently admonitory to downright harsh and scathing, from wildly celebratory to unrelievedly gloomy. So one moment, I’m sharing with you my sobering thoughts on the meaning of life, and another I’m enthusing about the sheer pleasure of watching babies or eating a special home-cooked laksa or recollecting a most memorable romantic encounter!

In short, with the characteristic self-indulgence of a writer, I’ve given myself the widest possible ground for the free roaming of sense, mind, heart and spirit.

Despite its rather chaotic nature, I hope ‘Vignettes’ will have some interest for those of you who, like myself, continue to engage this very complex, often perplexing, but always fascinating thing called Life.

You will see a random excerpt of Vignettes each time you visit catherinelim.sg, or you may choose to read all available pieces using the links below.

• Brebowathi's Hair
• Happy Birthday, God
• A Moral Quandary
• MM's Admission Of His Mistake Re Mandarin Teaching In The Schools
• Remembering Ah Kong Fondly
• Swearing With Gusto
• 'Why Don't You Get Into Politics?'
• For All Mothers
• 'Do You Love Me?'
• My Favourite Word
• With God At The Negotiating Table
• People Who Need People
• The Three Last Words
• 'Are Your Characters Based On Real People?'
• My Wonderful Ah Soh
• The Littlest Things
• Falling In Love---Regularly
• The Ten Commandments Plus One Caveat
• 'Please Advise Me; I'm At The End Of My Tether'
• A Doggerel For A Diplomat
• An Eternal Debt Of Gratitude
• A Gastronomical Chauvinist
• The Fork In Doreen's Road
• The Obs Ob
• Please, Pope, Say It's Not True
• A Toast To Grandparenthood
• A Shocking Case Of Taboo-Breaking
• The Question
• A Woman's Revenge
• I Like Singlish
• The Collector
• A Much-Loved President
• Oh, Those Annoyingly Contradictory Proverbs!
• A New Feminism
• A Most Awful Scenario
• Great-Grandmother With Bound Feet
• My Runaway Imagination
• An Impossible Ideal?
• The Thin Line
• What Do Hugh Hefner And Mother Teresa Have In Common?
• God And The Big Bang
• The Best Advice
• The Euthanasia Debate
• 'Just Think Of How Far We Have Come!'
• The Loveliest Love Poem
• A Portrait Of My Mother
• When A Child Dies
• The Cabby's Complaint
• A Techno-Bodoh In Singapore
• A Climate Of Fear In Our Society?
• Stan's Stunning Story
• The War Of The Sexes And The Henpecked Husband
• The Sincerest Form Of Flattery
• 'Be Selfish, Yes, Be Very Selfish'
• A Requiem For Myself
• Feasting At A Smorgasbord Of Religious Goodies
• No Greater Shame
• Ghosts
• An Intellectual Parlour Game
• The Sheherazade Strategy
• Lee Kuan Yew, Sui Generis
• Regrets? Aplenty!
• 'How Can You Like Him? He's Gay!'
• The Other 5 Cs In Singapore
• Adultery, By Any Other Name
• Scorpion
• Coping With The Guilt Of Abortion
• That Something Called Nothing
• Gotcha!
• The Juggernaut Of Science
• The 24-Hour 'Cooling Off' Period Before Polling Day: A Sign Of Pap Insecurity?
• The Bugis Street Habitue
• The Information Quandary
• For All Aspiring Writers
• Home, Sweet (And Sweetest) Home
• That Cheating Game
• 'Why Should I Die For My Country?'
• A Most Desirable Trait
• An Inconvenient (And Ugly) Truth
• Remembering Poor, Mad Ah Han
• Touch
• 'There, But For The Grace Of God, Go I'
• The Laughable---And Likeable---Humsub
• In Praise Of Filthy Lucre
• A Good Woman In Singapore
• God And Henry Ford
• Managing One's Own Death
• An Obscene Arithmetic
• The Enduring Lure Of The Fortune-Teller
• No Atheists In Foxholes
• Thank You For The Example
• The Dirtiest Words In The PAP Vocabulary
• Wonderlust
• My Favourite Person
• That F Word
• My Moral Advisory
• God In A Parallel Universe
• Is Singapore A Humorless Society?

There has been so much debate following my letter regarding the Aware controversy, that I just have to respond to it, to provide a kind of summing up and drawing of conclusions.

This will be my last piece on the subject, following the 3 recent pieces—my remarks as reported in the Sunday Times, my first letter posted on this site, and an unpublished letter to the Straits Times Forum. In all, I have said everything I wish to share with fellow Singaporeans on an episode that will surely go down in the history of Singapore’s development as a civic society.

In this final piece, I want to express my deep appreciation to all of you who have written in on the controversial issue of homosexuality. I am really pleased to have provoked such a diversity of views from committed Christians to ardent secularists, from entrenched conservatives to freewheeling liberals, from anxious parents to young, independent-minded persons demanding to be heard and understood. There has also been an amazing diversity of expositional modes, from philosophical argument to scriptural exegesis to the personal anecdote, conveyed in tones that range from calm and measured to animated to pure vitriol.

And in all this clamour of voices, nobody told anybody to shut up!

It is exactly this diversity and expressiveness that marks an active, alert and robust citizenry that Singapore has often been accused of lacking. I expect that never again will Singaporeans be described as apathetic (Dare I hope, as a long-time political commentator, that the same critical voices will also be heard in the other, even more controversial arena of political issues, so that at long last, we will truly have matured as a society?)

So whether you are a fundamentalist Christian, a Buddhist, a Kabbalist, an agnostic, an atheist, a Raelian, a Scientologist, a New Age sun-worshipper, etc., you are absolutely entitled to your views. Any criticism of you can never be of your views as such, but for your imposing them on others.

It is surely one of democracy’s most thrilling paradoxes that while you may passionately disagree with another’s views, you are expected, with the same passion, to defend his right to them.

Which brings me to the special dilemma of you parents whose concerns regarding the homosexuality issue were the focus in my first letter, and will again feature large in this, my second. If you are an abiding Christian with strong beliefs regarding the outright condemnation of homosexuality, do you have the right to impose them on your children? The question is more meaningfully phrased thus: Should you whose role it is to be models, guides, protectors and nurturers, instil your religious beliefs and values in your children, indeed, enforce them, even if this is seen as going against the prevailing trend in society and the world at large?

The answer, in accordance with custom and common sense, is a clear yes, since you act only for their good and would never deprive them of what you yourselves hold dearest—the religious values to which you owe your entire well-being. Should this guidance then include measures such as blocking out harmful moral influences that, for instance, the Aware CSE program is alleged to be? Assuredly so, if you are convinced about the harmfulness (although there must still be some puzzlement as to how this had escaped, for so long, the combined vigilance of teachers, principals and Ministry of Education officials whose judgment parents traditionally trust).

Clearly, stern, even harsh strictures are all in order in the carrying out of your sacred parental responsibility. It is sacred, for upon it rests the very stability of society.

But it remains the special parental quandary, unique to our changing times, that as soon as your child reaches adulthood, society does an about-turn and is on his side as he asserts his independence and individuality. Suddenly you discover, to your dismay, that while you yourselves had meekly submitted to your parents, your own offspring are going in exactly the opposite direction.If the very crucial matter of sexual identity is involved, your sons and daughters are likely to forge out their own path, whether through covert or overt means. Either will result in deep anguish, confusion and heartache all round, as indeed so many personal anecdotes have revealed.

Only understanding, acceptance and love on your part—indeed, to a heroic extent in each case—can prevent such unhappiness, not recourse to holy books or revered tradition. As real life goes, in the event of a clash between human needs and divine ordinance, it is usually the former that wins in the end, for two reasons: firstly, because what is prescribed as moral law by religion is non-negotiable, and secondly, because human needs are underwritten by that strongest of forces, biology itself. If acceptance of a child’s homosexuality is too hard a pill to swallow, estrangement from one’s flesh and blood must be even harder. Many parents have come to realize this truth, and in time have let love transcend all emotions of disappointment, anger and frustration. This transcendence is both peril and privilege, pain and triumph, that only parents can understand, and for which they are to be appreciated and honored.

Being a compulsive story-teller, I can only end this letter to you concerned parents with another story on this engrossing theme. Or rather many stories from my wide circle of relatives, friends and acquaintances: it’s astonishing how virtually every family in its extended form has at least one gay member, and how virtually all of us know at least several gays. And it’s heartening to observe how easily, once the religious hurdle is cleared, for parents and children to pick up once more that natural bond of loving and connecting. My stories all have a happy ending, precisely because in the end, a universal, biologically endowed (and hence God-given?) attribute of parents prevailed—the desire to see their children happy, even if it is not exactly on their terms.

The following is a letter regarding the Aware saga, that I had sent to the Forum Editor of the Straits Times, but that was not published. You can see how keenly I’m following the controversy which, with its many implications for the social and moral life of our society, has clearly gone beyond a mere fight for power among women.

After the new Exco of Aware was overwhelmingly given a vote of no confidence at the Extraordinary General Meeting on 2 May, the president announced that they would ‘graciously’ step down.

Graciousness, alas, was the biggest casualty in the long-drawn out Aware controversy. Both the old and the new leaderships of Aware had missed the opportunity to rise above petty politics to demonstrate this attribute which, with its concomitants of courtesy, respect, goodwill and, above all, tolerance, is the one thing which our society most needs at this stage in its development.

The missed opportunities:

• when the old leaders simply could not accept the change of leadership at the Annual General Meeting on 28 March. It was clearly a Machiavellian plot, but since it was done constitutionally and democratically, the old leaders could have responded with a dignified and gracious exit, instead of going on a rampage of shock, anger and accusations.

• When the new exco behaved with appalling arrogance during their brief period of control. They openly showed disrespect for the old Aware stalwarts, peremptorily dismissed staff, changed the locks in the Aware premises, etc., when graciousness called instead for a reaching out to the opponents to forget past issues and work together.

• When the new exco ignored calls from the government and the heads of religious bodies, to keep religious and secular matters separate. A gracious bowing out, especially after the pastor of their church had publicly apologized for having encouraged them in their anti-homosexuality stand, would have earned public respect even at this late stage in the saga.

• When at the EGM on Saturday, both sides gave full vent to their emotions in acrimonious exchanges, heckling, barracking, etc, ending with noisy triumphalism on the part of the victor and sullen shock on the part of the defeated. By the time the meeting ended, it was clear that the gap between the two sides had widened to make reconciliation in the near future improbable, and the rainbow coalition that a minister had suggested, virtually impossible.

In our multiracial, multireligious society with its many potentialities for division, polarization and rancour, the mechanisms and processes of democracy are not enough for the achievement of harmony, and need the softening, ameliorative power of this best of human attributes, graciousness. Unfortunately, it took a severe beating in the Aware debacle.