Tuesday, July 1, 2008 14:06
Singapore Press – rushing to infernal self-condemnation
In Main Stories, Top Story • 2,699 views • 27 Comments
TOC thanks Mr Law Sin Ling for allowing us to re-publish the following article. Mr Law is the Secretary General of the National Solidarity Party.
Law Sin Ling
It was not pleasant news for Sunday, or any day. A life was lost through yet-to-be-determined circumstance. Murder was insinuated by the newspaper. The reporter was not obliged to sanctify the incident. He opted instead to let loose a devilish instinct from a more primordial period of human civilisation. He opted to bestialise his upbringing.
Browse the literature freely and one will inevitably experience an uneasy sense of literate discontinuity, like a crudely constructed out-of-place road-hump on the evenly-tarred surface of the information expressway, or a pernicious chasm in the civil humanity continuum.
Consider the indisputable factual morsels:
(a) The stabbing did not concern Mr. Tan Lead Shake in the first person. He was neither the proven culprit nor the victim.
(b) His shod preference for slipper was of no concern to the case even by the wildest imagination.
(c) His defeats and that of his father in past General Elections were of no relation to the case.
(d) No photograph of a single adult member of the affected family was featured, with the exception of that of Tan’s in an impassive pose. Has he been adjudged guilty by association? Did the paper commit prejudgement?
So who is Tan Lead Shake? And why did the paper see it appropriate to print his derogatory nickname (“Slipper Man”) on the front page in a font size readable from 5 metres away? Why did the paper judge it sensible to devote 78 words and 3 paragraphs of readers’ precious weekend emphasising his status as an Opposition politician who had a history of losing in national elections? And mocking his retired father for similar failures was supposed to be the paper’s idea of relevant reporting and (cut the crap already) building a cohesive nation?
Be under no fairy-tale illusion. This is Singapore, a supposedly first-world democratic country where members of the Opposition are casually labelled, under the bestowed blessing from the ruling PAP government, such spectral descriptions as bicycle-thief, riff-raff, psychopath, and snake oil peddler; verbal abuses one would not catch the PAP stalwarts shrugging off without launching into threats of lawsuits for libel against anyone who absent-mindedly tosses one in their direction.
The reporter, Aw Cheng Wei, is sans aucun doute guilty of making a despicable biased swipe at an Opposition politician during the latter’s moment of grief and emotional turmoil over a veritable domestic (read – private) tragedy, guilty of an abominable absence of professional ethics, and guilty of a display of a stupid and shameful anti-social disposition to diminish the values of another (especially when the subject is down) for the devious sake of fulfilling the haughtier need to satisfy and appease an esteemed one, be it that of his or that of his powerful protagonists.
And such was his haste to accomplish his pestiferous mission that he committed the most heinous sin of his profession – getting a fundamental fact hopelessly wrong – Tan Lead Shake is NOT a member of the Singapore Democratic Alliance as the reporter claimed he was.
It remains to be determined which of Aw’s peers, sharing his malevolent tendency, would rush to brazenly betray their thicket of putrid inner value. And it will be of immense interest to observe which other institutions (notably government agencies) would trade in their decency under the demands of a higher order.
If the same standard of journalistic sludge was applied to the stricken missus of Minister Mentor Lee (the chief of the PAP) dying under public resources from brain haemorrhage, readers would have been abundantly served sordid stories from Mrs. Lee’s family and the sparks of all their domestic contentions. But alas, the Fourth Estate is all too mindful of the source of their patronage.
Singapore’s national papers have undoubtedly descended into the moral realm of no-return in the course of near 50-years of strong-arm rule of the PAP government, whose obsession with subjugating free speech had effectively peeled away any last meaningful modicum of self-restraint and dignity within the mass media.
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27 Comments
Jackson
gunslinger
The phrase “opposition politician” appears too many times in the reports. How can he be a politician just by being a member of a political party? I doubt he is ‘active’ in politics.
Singaporean
The reporter, Aw Cheng Wei, should be careful of retribution.
The next tragedy news in the papers could be anyone, inclusive of your parents, siblings or relatives.
Don’t play with fire, you will get burnt!
Show respect, others will accord the same respect back to you.
singapoor
our good for nothing reporters and editors devote front page to full pages for this story. they make sure the articles comes with photos.
contrast this with the coverage of news about our former first lady suffering her third stroke. hardly much coverage. no photos. nothing or little…..
our bo liao journalists may be thrilled and excited to know about the first case but i am sure the rest of singapore is more excited to know about the second case.
who said journalists only write/publish news that sells…. singapore journalists dont!!!
sianz
thing is ….why do they have to keep like reminding ppl that he is a member of oppostion party???
Harry
To profit from the tragegy of a dead man is most obscene and wicked. The mass media and their pap masters are just so out of touch with the mood of the Singaporeans especially the young. In any first world countries this type of report would have resulted in huge public outrage. The independent commission on the media will no doubt start an investigation on whether the paper has abuse their priviledges. Singaporean values and judgments have been perverted by such abuse of the mass media by the pap government.
Give them a chance
Give them a chance to learn lah. They are desperate lah. Let them blunder so we can have more chance to make fun of them lah. Nowsadays, they are behaving more and more like clowns. It is not everyday that you can get such entertainment and amusement at this level to brighten our day.
Reading LSL’s article, I can’t help but recalled the admonishing words directed at our local journalists by the late David Marshall. “You poor prostitutes.” he said. While it would be wrong to tar all with the same brush; I’ve followed some occasional and uncharacteristically heroic reporting that goes against the grain of what we’ve cynically come to expect from them. Yup, and to Mr.Marshall’s words I add, “And you swallow too.”
Observer
I watched the Chinese news over Channel 8. Same thing, the words ‘opposition member’ 反对党人 was repeated several times whenever Mr Tan was mentioned, it has become the prefix of his name. Just switch Mr Tan with another member under PAP, do you think you will see the news goes like this… “PAP member Mr Tan’s brother was fatally stabbed”? With a few lines later further mention that the suspect is Mr Tan’s wife?
Observer
Observer interrogating Observer,
Oh dear, it is certainly interesting to see another Observer commenintg. I think I need to take a haitus from this blog. Scary. It certainly wasn’t me commenitng (9) above.
intent
This is cheap. Really hitting below the belt. I really hope people would stop reading/watching the MSM. Anyone who can’t read the propaganda in that headlines is really naive.
pet shop
‘dogs trying very hard to score point infront of it’s master’ . Just called & cancel ‘Shit Times’ subscription this afternoon. saving up the daily 70 cents paper money to buy incense paper for the dog’s master final day party. should be coming soon. endure !!!
huizhong
He was reporting all the truth, whts the fuss?
Saint Splattergut
To Pondefecator’s comment:
David Marshall FTW XD
lim
If one currently reads NST (new straits times not NSP)’s coverage of the latest anti-Anwar claims, then one would know what is truly propaganda….
eg Security Guard see anwar visiting condo (one month ago but not on days of alleged abuse… = he was there…)
I still can remember the comedy of Anwar’s original “crime”. Prosecutor mentioned a few days when the crime occurred, Anwar produced evidence that shows he was not there. Then court shifts dates to 1 month long without specific dates…. That after stealing Anwar’s diary. The best part, the court convicting on the basis of a stained mattress… lol. Imagine they can do that to a DPM, the kind of message they send…
So far, none of the Singapore newspapers have fabricated anything to link Mr Tan to the murder. If anything, I think a lot of people appear to have sympathy with the poor guy.
DavidSeeLeongKit
THAT’S WHY:
> I refer to it as “our shamelessly pro-PAP (instead of pro-Singapore) Press/TV Media”
> Other netizens gave the nicknames of “The SHIT Times” and “MediaCOCK TV”.
> Our former Chief Minister David Marshall aptly described our Media as “PAP bootlickers, running dogs and poor prostitutes”.
mkta
And in another thread posters are complaining about the lack of freedom of speech. In the end I suppose readers of news on the Internet will only see all this as a “slug-it-out” between media, that ‘The Online Citizen’ can claim to own some small part of. Funny that I should have mentioned ‘freedom of speech’ earlier (and here, instead of the other thread), but let me just say that I consider the democratic desires, if I may put it that way, in individuals to be a passing phase in life, and an on-off thing as well, instead of being a true wish that it is beneficial to other members in society. I think everyone has to be careful of the noise he or she is making sometimes. Because, and maybe one speaks from personal experience, someone can also come out of nowhere and you won’t even know what hit you. You won’t even know why. Oh ho ho ho
Up to now still got people say nothing wrong bcos the press report the truth. The qn is whether it’s relevant, whether the emphasis is correctly directed, whether news got hidden motives, whether the press serving the political propaganda agenda of the gov is right.
To the people who think truthfulness in reporting is reporting the truth, i say ur education has failed, n u r not truthful to ur moral value.
lim
When one looks at past cases involving PAP members, it has been pretty similar. Mr Lew Sin Pau’s political past as a PAP MP was not really an issue in his corruption case but nevertheless, the press reported it (and in the same light cast some doubts over PAP’s MP selection process).
Same thing happened with Teh Cheang Wan, when he committed suicide.
Let’s face it, when something happens to the PM’s brother or his wife, inevitably the PM and/or MM names get dragged in. The press doesn’t need to do so but they do it anyway….
In any case, I don’t really see how mentioning Mr Tan’s position (former?) as a opposition politician or his choice of footwear makes a difference to public perception.
If case involve PAP MP past or present, he come under scope of examination. If their family members in news, shld they come under same intensity of examination? If it proven a PAP MP involve indirectly in acts by their family members, he come under scope of examination. But if he not involve in act, Y victimize him? Simple logic.
lim
How is it “victimize”?
My understanding is that saying anyone wears slippers or is an opposition politician is not defamatory or slanderous. I wear slippers too. Messrs Chiam, Jeyeretnam, Low and Sylvia Lim (non-related) are all opposition politicians. I think they deservingly wear that badge with pride.
Y’know, there is a story about what happens to people who cry wolf all the time. Can I ask, where is the wolf in this case?
Oscar Choy
For GOD sake, the fact that this article invite many interesting comments, pro & cons, good and bad, attack and defence or otherwise. Today has done its jobs. The paper sells!!! Have you bought one?
Erudio
A family tragedy involving death. The newspaper use nick name of person who is not the culprit or dead to sell news n thus the newspaper. N fer gd measure make his electoral losses look “dismal” (yes, Sunday Times 6 Jul 2008 really used “dismally”)
“Wear the badge with pride” indeed! Wat can we expect fr the pro-gov people in SG. They R not the ones grieving, they speak like ones who r detached fr human emotions n basic decency in conduct, no sense of occasion, arrogant n robotically PRAGMATIC, just like the gov, just like the press.
I send my sympathy to Tan Lead Shake.
patriot
WE ARE IN MUCH NEED OF HONOURABLE SINGAPOREANS, AT THE VERY LEAST, SINGAPOREANS WITH CONSCIENCES.
IT IS SCARY TO SEE A SOCIETY THAT HAS NO RESPECT FOR JUSTICE.
patriot.
antz
In singapore,it’s real difficult to really have full,transparennt democracy.Unlike other asian neighbours where politicians can openly be criticised or undermined by the public.
Singapore is a place where u gotta to line in two’s,hold hands listen to what the teacher says cos ‘it’s for the future and for your own good’ and be obediant.
cos the reason is pls duly remind of our roots.
In the first place we should not be even a country. There is ppl out in the street especially the young who do see the real out of it.
I shouldn’t be surprise if for another century ‘full’ democracy’ or ‘freedom of speech’ will exist in singapore…
theonlinecitizen
To the one who posted under the nick “outercomm”,
Your comments are disallowed to be posted. The reason being that it is a cut & paste from another website – and it is 3,173 words-long. (Yes, we counted the number of words).
Please refrain from cutting & pasting such long postings from other websites.
You may, however, post short excerpts of them and provide a url link to the website.
Thanks.
offlinecitizen
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=593200550
aw cheng wei, this one?
As usual, because of the fact that the media is government-controlled, we’re seeing the innocence of a young man being tarnished by his political opponents. I do agree with the fact that the words, “Slipper Man”, is inappropriate since a murder case is involved. After this issue is done with, I foresee Singapore’s media freedom to further drop to below 160.