Criticism & Commentary

The government is convinced that making its presence felt in social media will reap dividends. On their own, though, such efforts will probably fail. Increased communicativeness will be more persuasive only if the context – the communication environment – changes. The element in the communication environment that is critically lacking, without which any additional communicativeness would be futile, is trust. That trust cannot grow if the media are forced to side with public policy against public opinion 100% of the time, if we lack independent institutions to scrutinise the work of the executive, and if the government continues to conflate party interests with national interests. Full Story

The Seng Han Thong controversy has produced a flash flood of protest in the midst of a climate already fouled by the SMRT debacle. Many readers disagreed with what I had to say. Some of that disagreement is fundamental, and in those cases I don’t expect any meeting of minds. For other readers, though, let me address three separate issues in what, I hope, is my final contribution to this particular debate. Full Story

Opinion shapers should reserve their racism allegations for slam-dunk openings: where the perpetrator has no plausible defence. The Choo Wee Khiang incident in 1992 was one such case. Alternative online media, if they had existed then, would have kept the issue alive, making it far more difficult for the government to sweep it under the carpet. But they can only play their role effectively if they are seen as credible. Full Story

As an MP (and NTUC leader representing workers), Seng Han Thong can certainly be faulted for not distancing himself explicitly from the view he was citing. He should have known better. But so should the editors of what, by default, is Singapore’s leading citizen journalism website. Omitting to mention that the speaker you’re quoting is quoting someone else can be a little misleading. Full Story

Singaporeans’ weak civic responses and an over-reliance on the law may be an unintended consequence of successful inculcation of a key government doctrine: that only a strong state can deal with the visceral pulls and permanent fault lines of race and religion. Distrusting citizens’ ability to talk through differences, some Singaporeans seem trigger-happy in their zeal to police the frontiers of religious harmony. Full Story

Citizens need the right to extract information from their government, said new opposition MP Pritam Singh. "The disclosure of official documents, apart from introducing substantive accountability and transparency in government-decision making processes, will likely provide Singaporeans with valuable insights on why decisions were made the way they were by political leaders in the past," he said. Full Story

PAP backbencher Baey Yam Keng has provided one of the most considered establishment assessments of new media in the post-GE period. In contrast to the moral panic that has been sweeping through government ranks, Baey argues that there is no need to over-react, and that the government should instead adapt by being more open-minded to criticism and by loosening its grip on mainstream media. Full Story