Those cliche statements exposed a proclivity of Shan and his contemporaries in the cabinet to regurgitate some standard, committed to memory, SOP lines to please their masters.

It is groupthink stuffs as strongly held by them as a used toothpick. I am fairly confident that as soon as the master leaves the scene, such robotic statements would also be discarded and expunged from their memory.

I feel that they are so Honest, Fair, UnBiased that their interest is always to Serve the Country more than themselves, if any.

This is what i call Serving the People with the highest level of Integrity. This is what i call Public Service. What a public servant!

Shanmugam, you are so great, generations of youths will remember you for your good deeds. You really earn your money in a respectable way. You should be elected by the citizenry in a SMC given your credibility. You are sure to win hands down, by a landslide.

you the man!

The beauty about this deliberate campaign to make itself look pretty by disguising the Kangaroo as a humane Human Being, by at least three big kangaroos, when their Emperor happens to be visiting the US, is that it reflects the deliberate plan and pains they had gone into this in order to blur the perceptions of the world. This reminds me of the story of the Little Red Ridding Hood who was being conned by the greedy wicked wolf. This is tragic.

Perhaps the end justifies the means. But how long can the veil of rationalistic and perverted reasonings last? One can fool all the people sometimes. One can fool some people all the times. BUT one can never fool ALL the people ALL the time!

Why are we seeing more and more of the Emperor Without Clothes these days? Even highly trained professionals are stooping so low to help convince all of us (and the world at large) that the Emperor is wearing clothes, when they themselves are living it up in the same Nudist Camp with the Emperor, exposing their own nakedness for all to see!

Tragic!

If not , tell me the Why.”

“Reporters Without Borders is an international non-governmental organization that aims at defending journalists and media assistants imprisoned or persecuted for doing their job and exposes the mistreatment and torture of them in many countries. It fights against censorship and laws that undermine press freedom, gives financial aid to journalists or media outlets in difficulty, as well to the families of imprisoned journalists, and works to improve the safety of journalists, especially those reporting in war zones. Website: http://www.rsf.org/”

So how can kangaroo even sue those Reporters that are without any Border ? Anyway, Singapore can make history and cuckoo by suing RWB, and insist that suing take place in the tiny red dot with summary judgment as usual. After all, suing is done entirely using state money without accountability to citizens anyway. With each sue, our kangaroo reveals its tail little by little.

If not , tell me the Why.

Frankly if it is left alone, yes if it is left alone, to grow without any interference, it will grow from strength to strength. So do not worry to much about its credibility, it should least bothers you as you are not going to lose a single bit.

I salute your high mission in wanting “to goad both sides to evolve to a higher level of debate.”

Blah blah blah only with such a development can Singapore nurture a new generation of politically-conscious citizens. What a sterile goody-goody pretentious unwanted deed.

“If TOC continues in its campaign to discredit the Government at every turn in the hope…What I’m trying to do is not to side with PAP or anti-PAP forces, but…”

The PAP has discredited itself by allowing (itself) to be dominated by one man and famiLEE. The PAP government is wasting public money by having two irrelevant positions, MM and SM, and also by appointing a over-paid president who is like having a permanent hoilday.

The PAP government can redeem itself if they allow for a non-SPH newspaper to function freely, non-PAP linked TV and radio stations to operate freely.

In fact , it should be a notch lower because the PAP government does not even allow private satellite dishes to operate.

Yes, I like to bark at different trees because barking at the same tree all the time without any positive response is self-defeating, if not downright boring.

The PAP is the PAP. They are the way they are. Barking at them will not change them. In fact, going by experience, in response, they will harden their position. Anyway, they are but just one political option for Singapore out of potential many.

We should not waste time and energy pointing out the many apparent inconsistencies in their position which are well known by now.

If TOC continues in its campaign to discredit the Government at every turn in the hope that this will encourage people to vote against the PAP at the next GE, its wishful thinking will not bear fruit. More likely, the credibility of this whole website will increasingly by called into question. That would be a pity.

What I’m trying to do is not to side with PAP or anti-PAP forces, but to goad both sides to evolve to a higher level of debate. Only with such a development can Singapore nurture a new generation of politically-conscious citizens.

Take a close look and monitor it closely; see for yourselves and draw your own conclusions.

Netizens should be more aware of the Cyberwar being launched by certain powerful people against the commoners using the Internet as a platform to make themselves heard.

It is quite obvious to me that TOC is one of those that are being targeted, especially when articles and comments reveal the wrongs, hypocrisies or contradictions being perpetuated in our society by the people in power, their stooges or their armies of minions.

Therefore, readers should be more discerning and awaken to hidden agendas of certain websites and commentators. Read in between the lines!

Such a strange title. Our clowns never defeat anyone, they just bulldoze their way through using highfalutin nonsense and twisted logic.

A better title could be
“Law Minister versus “Reporters without Borders’” straw man”

I believe that K Shamugam – I wonder what the initial “K” in his name might stand for – actually did raise the case of Kenya and Haiti in New York in terms of how Singapore might have ranked in this survey.

But I ask this: did he, or the innumerable civil servants who carry out his research tasks while he takes credit for their work, actually take the pains to find if the media in Kenya and Haiti REPORT those rapes and other atrocities that occurred in the countries BEFORE railing about THEIR superior standings in the RSF report before whining in New York?

Thanks for pointing out Melanie Kirpatrick of WSJ.

Cheers
Donald

Additionally, the RSF rankings have only become a feature in Singapore’s political landscape only in the last few years. (I don’t know as yet if they had actually been doing this for much longer.) But Singaporeans ourselves have been railing against the lack of openess for much longer. RSF is only confirming what Singaporeans have always known: we don’t have much to crow about in the department of free speech/expression and the free flow of information in our publicly funded institutions such as the media.

However, there is one point that Donaldson raised that I disagree with:

Re: “Anyway, from 1 Sep 2008 to 1 Sep 2009, our dear government did not initiate any law suit against any journalists. This is a big factor why our press freedom ranking improved to 133rd.”

Melanie Kirpatrick of WSJ was sued earlier this year.

But I would attribute the improved standings to the *pressure* exerted by the openess in the centrist media online such aas this one. So many things would have gone unreported if not for the centrist media online first reporting them right down to the language of openess.

This is actually a salute to the centrist media establishment online.