Making sense of a chaotic world

How are National Day speeches over the years a barometer of prevailing public sentiments in Singapore? Unlocking such insights is part of Statistics alumnus Dr LEONG Chan-Hoong’s work.

As Head (Policy Development, Evaluation and Data Analytics) at Kantar Public, he provides evidence-based advice to support policy decisions on many challenging socio-economic issues, ranging from immigration to social integration, economic mobility and human-environment interactions. 

He says, “The future of policy research rests in data and discipline integration - bringing together different sources of evidence and conceptual frameworks for nuanced and in-depth insights.”

These calibrated perspectives can be attributed, in part, to his studies in other fields. He also read a Master’s in Applied Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which opened up a new paradigm in policy design and analysis for him. “GIS is the nexus of human-environment interactions,” he says, where spatial planning impacts human psychology.

For instance, GIS lent insights into his work on neighbourhood spatial inequalities and the impact of such stratification on not just economic disparity, but also racial relations and our social fabric. He cites, as an example, how the relocation of Anglo-Chinese School from Bukit Timah to the heartlands effectively reversed a trend where elite institutions gravitate to upper-middle class residential districts.

Insights gained from the interface between different disciplines are highly relevant in his work. “When I meet a prospective project client and/or deal with a problem statement - I will ask myself - what would a statistician do? And the geographer?,” he says. This process often leads to a more comprehensive 360 overview, and more robust solutions for clients. 

Dr Leong is Singapore’s national representative for the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR). In the future, he hopes to lead a regional think tank to promote intercultural harmony, using advanced social science methodologies and data analytics.