There is something very delightful about seeing one’s books on the shelves, anywhere, even if it is on one’s own shelf. But imagine my surprise and delight when I spotted a book that some friends and I worked on at the end of a year long civil society project, at the Siem Reap airport. Sitting on the shelves at the “Monuement Books” is a copy of “Building Social Space in Singapore: The working Committee’s Initiative in Civil Society Activism”, published in 2002.

Seeing that book again reminded me of that year of hard work, passion and the belief that individuals can make a difference to the development of their society. In that book we recorded a very unique and important initiative – the coming together of activists on a common platform – in the history of civil society activism in Singapore. No such mobilisation of grassroots organisations had been attempted in Singapore since independence.

The book, its title clearly visible, against a red background, is on the right