At the opening reception of Indignation 2008 held on 1 August 2008, Russell Heng, one of the founders of People Like Us, announced PLU’s newest initiative: The Rascals Prize. This is a biennial award worth S$2,000 for the best research work related to the subject of LGBT and Singapore.
The Prize rules can be found here. Submissions are invited for the first award, with closing date 31 January 2009.
PLU instituted this prize in keeping with its mission statement, in which one of the objectives stated is to promote informed understanding. PLU believes that encouraging research in this field will add to a body of knowledge that can only benefit discussion of GLBT issues.
Works will be judged purely on their academic merit. Whether or not the authors’ conclusions help or hinder PLU’s advocacy aims will not be any consideration.
To this end, while PLU has instituted this prize, the judging will be done by an independent jury. The following well-regarded academics have volunteered their time to judge this competition:
a) Professor Michael Hor Yew Meng, NUS Law Faculty, also Chief Editor of the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies. He has written extensively on criminal law in Singapore.
b) Associate Professor Quah Sy Ren, Acting Head of the Chinese Division, School of Humanities and Social Science, NTU. An essayist and playwright, he is actively involved in the arts and civil society.
c) Dr Sharon Siddique, a partner in a regional research consulting company based in Singapore. Prior to that, she was Deputy Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies where her research interest covers issues of culture, race and religion.
d) Dr Kenneth Paul Tan, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS. He specializes in Singapore studies and focusing on topics such as democracy, civil society, media, multiculturalism, and meritocracy.
It should be stressed that they have agreed in their personal capacities, and their official affiliations mentioned above are only for reference.
Significance of the name
The Rascals Prize commemorates a seminal event in Singapore’s gay history. On the night of 30 May 1993, police officers brusquely interrupted a regular Sunday gay night at a dance club named Rascals, grabbed the microphone and barked at the crowd. All the patrons were made to line up and those without identification were hauled off to the police station for the night.
Such detention exceeded police powers, and the behaviour of the police strongly suggested intent to harass.
In the early 1990s, police raids on gay outlets were not unknown in Singapore. Typically those affected would feel powerless to object. The difference this time was that a group a gay people did not take it submissively. Led by lawyer Wilfred Ong, they organised a petition signed by 22 people to protest the high-handed police behaviour. To their surprise, they received an official apology!
This incident dovetailed with the effort of another group of people who were starting to meet informally to start a gay support movement. The indignation over the raid on Rascals galvanised them into action and thus People Like Us was born.