The cutting edge of Singaporean political satirical humour can be found at Brown Town. Mr Brown writes with an extremely observant eye on the latest happenings in Singapore, sparing nothing as he writes scathingly and wittily (in a Singaporean way, of course). Most popular is his Singapore National Education series, in which he takes recent news and draws lessons from them. Often, he looks at what the government is doing, which alone provides a wealth of material. It would be side-achingly hilarious, except that it's all painfully true. He's been doing this only since 1997, and originally on an irregular schedule, but easily accumulates so much material that he's up to part 98 now and has made his SNE series biweekly.

Mr Brown is also a columnist for the newspaper Today and while he is equally scathing and funny in his columns, he also has shown a thoughtful and tender side. In one of his recent columns, about the government policy on 'responsible breeding', he questioned the moral implications of such a policy. He wrote touchingly and lovingly about his autistic daughter, a girl who does not fit into the government's vision but who is a human being who is loved and cherished by her parents. The piece is moving and thought-provoking, and reminds us that in the government's obsession with efficiency, economy and equality, all too often they lose sight of our humanity.