“I know this is bitter medicine, which is why I need you to feed it to your members in a way that they will be willing to swallow it,” Sharon said a little impatiently. Subordinates who questioned her instructions or actions never failed to irritate her. But a grassroots leader like Sasukumar was not a subordinate and Sharon reminded herself she should not take his compliance for granted. “Look, implementing this unfavourable policy is but Phase One. Both you and I will be taking some bullets. Give it a few months. Once the tension is under control, we will move on to Phase Two. I will push to lift the alcohol ban and make it known that you put in a lot of effort to lobby for the ban lift. Not only will the merchants of Little India be grateful for the role you played in reinstating alcohol sales, I will nominate you for the Public Service Star.”

Sasukumar wet his lips. If the Public Service Medal was a rare flower in the desert that bloomed once every ten years, the Public Service Star was an even rarer breed that blossomed once every fifty years. Attaining it would mark the pinnacle of his community service journey. He would just have to figure out a way to make the Little India Shopkeepers Association swallow the bitter pill.

How’s the filming going?

It was a text message from Yu Chin.

It’s a wrap. Will you be home for dinner?

Sharon had had to work through most of her meals since the day of the riot. She looked forward to a quiet dinner at home with her husband. They needed to talk.

Elvis wants you to join us for dinner at 8pm. He wants to prep you for the press conference tomorrow morning.

Sharon felt a mix of resignation and excitement. As much as she missed having a quiet dinner at home, she was invigorated by the anticipation of yet another discussion with Elvis. The man had proven himself a master politician. She had so much to learn from him.

Sharon made it a point to arrive at the Crystal Jade Palace restaurant an hour early. She checked in to the private room Yu Chin had booked, fired up her laptop and studied the list of links Masri had emailed her. The diligent young grassroots leader had gone the extra mile and added his summaries and reviews for Sharon’s reference. She was amused to note that he had devised a double-column five-star grading system to differentiate between those that were popular and had lots of followers, and those that were influential only because of their radical ideas and incisive analyses. One of the blogs scored the maximum of five stars for both columns and it was this link that Sharon immediately clicked on.