Mr Han Fook Kwang is a Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and Editor-At-Large with The Straits Times.

He spent 10 years in the Singapore Government Administrative Service before joining The Straits Times in 1989. He was Editor of the paper from 2002 to 2012.

Mr Han is a board member of the Building & Construction Authority, the Charity Council, and Raffles Institution.

He is the co-author of several books on Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew including, Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas and Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going. His latest book, Singapore in Transition: Hope, Anxiety and Question Marks was published in 2016.

He graduated from the University of Leeds in Mechanical Engineering under a Colombo Plan scholarship. He also holds a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University under a Singapore Government scholarship.

His research interest at RSIS is on the Singapore identity, how it has changed over the years and how it might evolve in the future.

• Media
• Media and Public Policy
• Politics and Governance

Commentaries

• US-China Rivalry: Managing a Deep and Wide Gulf

  03 May, 2024

• Southeast Asia in the Forgotten History of the Maritime Silk Road?

  13 October, 2023

• The Media: Force of Cohesion or Division?

  14 July, 2022

• COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from Lee Kuan Yew

  26 March, 2020

• Singapore’s Multiracialism: A Matter of Identity

  24 April, 2019

• Post-Lee Kuan Yew World: Is His Strategic Vision Still Relevant?

  01 April, 2019

• Democracy in Crisis: It’s the next disruption

  05 March, 2019

• CO18092 | The Maldives: Lessons for Small States in a Changing World

  04 June, 2018

• CO18056 | China’s Rise: Role of Two Defining Generations

  28 March, 2018

• CO17082 | Can Governments Stop Fake News?

  02 May, 2017

• CO17027 | America At War With Itself

  10 February, 2017

• CO16314 | The Disruptive Search for Identity

  28 December, 2016

• CO16280| A Divided America: Good or Bad for the World?

  11 November, 2016

Commemorative / Event Reports

• RSIS Workshop on Geopolitics and Technology

  05 February, 2020

Op-Eds

• “The Wall Street Journal’s Move from Hong Kong is an Attractive Prize for Singapore – But What Gives?”, Channel NewsAsia, 25 May 2024
• “The Art of Listening to the People and Being a Little “Deaf” Sometimes”, Channel NewsAsia, 3 March 2024
• “What to do About Rising Medical Costs in Singapore”, Channel NewsAsia, 14 February 2024
• “The Politics of Reversal, Does it Signal a New Approach for the 4G Leadership?”, Channel NewsAsia, 27 January 2024
• “Amid Ever-rising Premiums, Let’s Make it Easier for No-claim Individuals to Switch Private Health Insurers”, Channel NewsAsia, 9 December 2023
• “Fast Tracking Singapore’s New Prime Minister – It’s Not Business as Usual”, Channel NewsAsia, 21 November 2023
• “Debate over COE System will Go Round in Circles if We Don’t Accept Reality that Car Ownership is Exclusive”, Channel NewsAsia, 20 October 2023
• “Singapore was Built on Lee Kuan Yew’s Ideas – Which are Still Relevant Today and Which are Not?”, Channel NewsAsia, 15 September 2023
• “Why the 2023 Presidential Election Results are Politically Significant”, Channel NewsAsia, 6 September 2023
• “A Horrible July for PAP but Party Leaders Need to Seize the Moment to Put Things Right”, Channel NewsAsia, 23 July 2023
• “For Singapore’s Sake, We Need a Contest in the Presidential Election”, Channel NewsAsia, 23 May 2023
• “Don’t Treat the Poor as Needy and Helpless”, The Straits Times, 7 May 2023
• “What will it Take to Bridge the US-China Gulf?”, The Straits Times, 27 April 2023
• “Why are Banks so Profitable Amid Economic Hardship?”, The Straits Times, 4 April 2023
• “Budget 2023: All Quiet on the Economic Front”, The Straits Times, 26 February 2023
• “How do You Price the Pain from the North-South Corridor Project?”, The Straits Times, 22 January 2023
• “Battle Lines Drawn for Next Singapore GE”, The Straits Times, 18 December 2022
• “Does Singapore Need a Plain Language Act?”, The Straits Times, 13 November 2022
• “A Leader, Team-builder – and His “Management by Walking” Style”, The Straits Times, 9 October 2022
• “Cohesive Society? Good! But to Do What?”, The Straits Times, 25 September 2022
• “Shangri-La Dialogue – Keeping Channels Open in Dangerous Times”, The Straits Times, 16 June 2022
• “Break New Ground, Think Out of the Charity Box to Help the Needy”, The Straits Times, 22 May 2022
• “Funding Public Transport: Is It Time to Relook the Model?”, The Straits Times, 17 April 2022
• “Ukraine War: A Warning on Great Power Rivalry”, The Straits Times, 3 April 2022
• “The Mutating Virus and Its Message to Mankind”, The Straits Times, 2 January 2022
• “Lessons from Travelling in a COVID-19-stricken World”, The Straits Times, 5 December 2021
• “Lessons From An Out-of-the-box Game Changer”, The Straits Times, 7 November 2021
• “Not Too Late to Bridge Fica Divide”, The Straits Times, 17 October 2021
• “A S’porean Story on the Road Less Travelled”, The Straits Times, 3 October 2021
• “Let’s Talk About Race, But Not Just About Race”, The Straits Times, 12 September 2021
• “COVID-19: Time to Have New Mindset in Endemic Phase”, The Straits Times, 8 August 2021
• “Time to Put the Cost of Medical Treatment Under the Microscope”, The Straits Times, 13 June 2021
• “Readers Want a Newspaper That Connects Emotionally”, The Straits Times, 30 May 2021
• “Goh Chok Tong Story: Lessons for 4G Leaders”, The Straits Times, 9 May 2021
• “Search for New Singapore Prime Minister: Start With a Rethink”, The Straits Times, 25 April 2021
• “S’pore Cannot be Caught Napping in Rivalry Between US and China”, The Straits Times, 11 April 2021
• “Important for All to Know the COVID-19 Stories Unfolding in the Community”, The Straits Times, 21 March 2021
• “Same Old, Same Old, Maid Abuse Cases Are a Blight on Singapore”, The Straits Times, 7 March 2021
• “Find Ways to Profit from Safe-haven Singapore”, The Straits Times, 14 February 2021
• “COVID-19 Magnifies Underlying Problems That Need Fixing”, The Straits Times, 24 January 2021
• “To Vaccinate Or Not: Calculations are Different If You Think From the Country’s Perspective””, The Straits Times, 10 January 2021
• “Why the Pre-Covid Normal is Not Good Enough”, The Straits Times, 21 December 2020
• “Singapore’s Successes and Failures: Retuning the Talk”, The Straits Times, 5 December 2020
• “Lesson for Singapore from US Election”, The Straits Times, 21 November 2020
• “Time for Zero-tolerance Approach to Public Hygiene”, The Straits Times, 4 October 2020
• “Time For a Deeper Rethink of Singapore’s Foreign Worker Policy”, The Straits Times, 6 September 2020
• “COVID-19: A Dose of Storytelling is Good for You”, The Straits Times, 16 August 2020
• “Towards A Fair and Just Singapore in Brave New Post-COVID-19 World”, The Straits Times, 2 August 2020
• “Singapore GE2020: ‘Life and Death’ for PAP and Opposition”, The Straits Times, 5 July 2020
• “COVID-19: Make Sure the $93b is Well Spent”, The Straits Times, 7 June 2020
• “COVID-19: How Soon and How Fast to Reopen Economy?”, The Straits Times, 24 May 2020
• “COVID-19: A Defining Moment for Baby Boomers”, The Straits Times, 10 May 2020
• “COVID-19 Shows Why Tackling Inequality Benefits Everyone”, The Straits Times, 19 April 2020
• “Singapore GE a Chance to Change Things for the Better”, The Straits Times, 29 March 2020
• “Coronavirus: Stop Just One Infection, And 3,000 People Will be Safe”, The Straits Times, 15 March 2020
• “How the Human Race Might Stump a Coronavirus”, The Straits Times, 1 March 2020
• “Leadership is More About Character than Competence”, The Straits Times, 2 February 2020
• “US-Iran Conflict: One Missile Strike, Multiple Consequences”, The Straits Times, 19 January 2020
• “2020: A GE Year and the Making of a New PM”, The Straits Times, 5 January 2020
• “The Word of the Year for 2019: ‘Predictable’”, The Straits Times, 29 December 2019
• “There is No One, Easy Solution to PMD Issue”, The Straits Times, 24 November 2019
• “Future of Work? Fix How We View it Today First”, The Straits Times, 10 November 2019
• “Why Immigration isn’t a Numbers Game”, The Straits Times, 27 October 2019
• “Disinformation? Fight with Openness and Transparency”, The Straits Times, 6 October 2019
• “Young Singaporeans will Want a Different City”, The Straits Times, 8 September 2019
• “Wanted: Fresh Ideas for Singapore Economy”, The Straits Times, 25 August 2019
• “Lessons from Hong Kong? Look Beyond Street Violence”, The Straits Times, 11 August 2019
• “How to Make People Pay High Taxes Happily”, The Straits Times, 28 July 2019
• “Let’s Talk Openly About Religion – Yours and Mine”, The Straits Times, 7 July 2019
• “US-China Dispute: Now Better than Later”, The Straits Times, 16 June 2019
• “What are Singaporeans Insecure about? Let’s Talk about it”, The Straits Times, 12 May 2019
• “Truth, Falsehood and Power: Who Decides?”, The Straits Times, 28 April 2019
• “In Post-Lee Kuan Yew World, is His Strategic Vision Still Relevant?”, The Straits Times, 7 April 2019
• “Brilliant Policy! But can it be Simpler?”, The Straits Times, 17 March 2019
• “Democracy in Crisis? It’s the Next Disruption”, The Straits Times, 3 March 2019
• “Looking Up to Leaders to Tell the Hard Truth”, The Straits Times, 17 February 2019
• “SAF Training Deaths: Listen to What Soldiers Say”, The Straits Times, 3 February 2019
• “What is Beauty? I Went Round the World to Find Out”, The Straits Times, 20 January 2019
• “The 4G Question: Whither Exceptional Singapore?”, The Straits Times, 8 January 2019
• “Who will Save Hawker Food?”, The Straits Times, 16 September 2018
• “The Twists and Turns of HDB Flat Values”, The Straits Times, 2 September 2018
• “Is the Ground Sour? Time for the 4G Leaders to Tackle it”, The Straits Times, 26 August 2018
• “Singapore Needs to Get Smarter about Digital World”, The Straits Times, 5 August 2018
• “Government can Do More to Increase Housing Choices”, The Straits Times, 15 July 2018
• “Football and VAR: For Better or For Worse?”, The Straits Times, 1 July 2018
• “Time for Singapore and Malaysia to Discard Old Stereotypes”, The Straits Times, 17 June 2018
• “Ministers, Please Speak Plainly to the People”, The Straits Times, 3 June 2018
• “People Power Rules, But still Needs a Leader”, The Straits Times, 20 May 2018
• “Thinking Aloud: What Qualities Should a PM Have?”, The Straits Times, 6 May 2018
• “Shanghai Dolly and the Long Arm of the Law”, The Straits Times, 22 April 2018
• “4G Leaders Need to Find their Own Way to Forge Ties with People”, The Straits Times, 8 April 2018
• “China’s Rise: Role of Two Defining Generations”, The Straits Times, 30 March 2018
• “Inequality Looks Like This? Help!”, The Straits Times, 18 March 2018