I appreciate your comments. And like I said, my suggestions are ‘extreme’. (Meaning that they are not practicable for as long as the PAP remains in power.)

I am unclear however on how the MDA is a devolution away from MICA; I thought MDA was a sub-department of MICA? By the way, I used the word “agency” to sound more “politically correct” (in case anyone from MICA or Straits Times was surfing this post). As I explained to Jackson further up in this conversation, what I am really envisioning in the penultimate is a sort of formalised “fourth estate”, complete even with its own electoral or nomination process- possible since it will contain the ELD itself (plus a few other surprises which merit their own articles).

However, to be practical as smallvice urges us to be, even a Temasek Corp situation is preferable; then people can start twisting more arms from there.

And although I need more words (and time) to fully elaborate, the idea of autonomy is much more than just autonomy from the government (though that is a significant part). There are other societal factions we need to take note of. The principle of autonomy is to keep this “fourth estate” free from the control of the government and all other political and non-political factions, while allowing each group its own fair say.

The most important part is – although it is not expressly mentioned – I am not asking for a new Act or Executive Order (We have that, right?), but an addition of a new section to the Constitution. Not achievable in the short-term, but I just want the idea to sort of float around until the opportunity comes.

Rgds,
Arix

I’d like to point out though that the idea of devolving information management to an independent agency is good in theory but may not work in practice.

Firstly, info management has already been devolved away from MICA to the Media Development Authority (MDA). It is in the MDA that is where the censors and all those hardworking “information managers” work. MDA does have some autonomy, but not as much as you would probably like.

What you are probably asking for are independent “commissions”, e.g., an Elections Commission, etc. I agree that this is a good thing, but from the example of countries like Bangladesh which also have “independent” elections commissions, things aren’t necessary that way in practice.

So even if we were to have an independent Info Management Commission, you can bet they will be as independent as Temasek is from the Government.

Yep, I admit the likelihood is nadir … at the moment. But we technically have some infant community media repositories already. For instance, Melanie Hlewitt’s SGReview. Anyway, the problem with repositories is that they are passive. We shouldn’t just store information; information is only useful if it is actually used.

And I tried to check out YouthQuake, but apparently WP didn’t even publicise the event on its own website even. The only YouthQuake I managed to google was a concert in Alabama, USA.

Rgds,
Arix

Donaldson,
See why my suggestion is extreme now?

Rgds,
Arix

Yes, we need a new framework, but the likelihood of a new framework is close to zero. Taking a more practical approach, a community-run independent media depository is more likely to work.

I am acutely aware of how MSM like to sweep PAP’s failures under the carpet and tell us to move on while MSM constantly paints the Loyal Opposition in a bad image.

MSM also doesn’t report any Loyal Opposition activity, unless it is a direct engagement between the Loyal Opposition and the ruling party. As a result, it appears to the general public that many Loyal Opposition political parties are doing nothing.

For example, there was no publicity on MSM for WP’s Youthquake Forum that took place in August 2008.

Well Ok, I used the name “MICA” so I wouldn’t sound too radical. Probably, “National Information Management Agency” would be better. On arts, did you notice that the proposal doesn’t include anything on the NAC or else? My idea would be to make arts run totally from NGOs that are linked to the government through Liaison Officers in MICA. Sadly, not enough words to write all that in.

The Stats Dept and Registries are cardinal information recording agencies, so I don’t really get why they don’t fit under a Ministry of Information.

As for the ELD, polls are a means of information gathering too, and are a form of feedback. But more importantly, the ELD needs to be under a government agency or quasi-governmental agency to have access to funds to run. The new “MICA” is not really our traditional MICA any longer; if you really wanted to take it to penultimate point, it is a fourth branch of government that can stand independently alongside the legislative, executive and judiciary, providing a much-needed counter-balance especially to the executive.

Rgds,
Arix

Whoa! Hold on! Are you suggesting that all these departments will come under MICA? Already, I felt MICA has a dichotomous role: information and arts. While there are overlaps, I do think they are quite separate.

All these statistics department and registries can be banded together as an independent ministry, but they should not go under MICA. And certainly not the ELD. I think ELD should be an independent department of its own.