Commonwealth Essay Competition Winners Receive Awards

15 year old Amanda Chong was the overall winner.

Three young Singaporeans who scooped top prizes in this year's Commonwealth Essay Competition will receive their awards on 24 October 2004 from the visiting Commonwealth Secretary-General, Don McKinnon, in the presence of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Amanda Chong, Samantha Anne Leong and Arjun Balasubramaniam beat entrants from across the Commonwealth in the annual competition aimed at promoting creative writing in the English language.

Fifteen-year-old Amanda Chong was the overall winner of the 2004 Competition with her essay, 'What the Modern Woman Wants'. Samantha Anne Leong, also 15, wrote about Manchester United fans in Singapore, while Arjun Balasubramaniam, 12, penned an essay about life as a penguin.

Prime Minister Lee himself won the Commonwealth Essay Competition's Alwyn Ezra Prize in 1970, when he was 18. His essay focused on the importance of education as a form of human investment. 

The 2004 awards ceremony is to be held in conjunction with the opening of the 10th Anniversary Biennial Conference of the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management.

The Commonwealth Essay Competition is organised annually by the Royal Commonwealth Society.