TR EMERITUS

By Darkness of the Brotherhood Press:Today is big cycling day – I have only 15 minutes to spare, so lets skip the foreplay and dive straight into the deep end – tell me! What does it take to produce and free and independent press? Don’t think – it’s a simple question. OK, allow me to paraphrase it to make it simpler for you: what would be required to seed the supreme good and drive out the dystopian bad from our newspapers? Did you say government should free up our press? Well you know what? You’re dead wrong! Now before dwell deeper into how to build a better newspaper; it may be a good idea to discuss why a free and independent press is so important; if like me, you’re been following the sex in the city reportage surrounding the untimely deaths of both Widjaja and Allan Ooi; many things can be said here about slip shod reportage; they’re really too many to point out – you could just as well take your pick – everything from mind bending innuendos that is designed to cast doubt on the character of the deceased; right up to perhaps oblique references which suggest they may even be mentally unsound to perhaps good olde fashion character assasination – all would have made perfect sense; if only it wasn’t so easy to compress these accounts into a postage stamp and rubbish them within the time, it takes me to drain my bladder – that’s the cost of a lousy press – instead of news – all we get is gibberish. Some in academia have forwarded the idea; one way of revivifying the fledging fortune of our press is by giving it more leeway and latitude to report and comment on current affairs – I don’t buy into this simplistic straight line account as its really closer to alchemy than anything that resembles cold cut logic; the problem with the freeing and opening up theory is it suffers from the same set of elusions it tries to inspire i.e by simply ‘opening’ up on a regulated press. It assumes endless opportunities for a broader all inclusive national discourse that will hopefully recruit an eclectic class of readers who may be willing to indulge in a spot of literary Sudoku. That however is only holds water if you can believe for one moment the press corps is able to step up to the plate and play that sort of higher value added editorial game that world class newspapers excel in – truth suggest the ST may not even have those base line intellectual capabilities. And one reason for my lack of faith in the press corps is due to the overwhelming evidence to suggest the condition I often describe as “department thinking” is now currently so prevalent amongst journalist, that it has calcified and even fossilized to levels which makes real cultural change impossible – its conceivable they (ST) may no longer be able to play the role of the fourth estate any longer. This should prompt us all to consider very seriously whether; the whole idea of freeing up the press instead of driving out the bad by further freeing up minds may instead produce the reverse effect; life I am afraid is not so simple; decamp from authoritarianism and state control and magically happy democratization takes root like one of Jack’s bean stocks – that didn’t happen when the former soviet union bought into the whole idea of democracy – what preceded instead was balkanization and something akin to civil war. The same holds true for the Iraqi hubris; does everyone pine for democracy? Yes, they do; the only problem is what the Iraqi’s really want is democracy of a variant that has nothing to do with the Pax Americana ideal and theirs is really closer to an Iranian inspired theoracy. As we can well see opening the press alone by freeing it up further is not nearly enough to give the ST an extreme makeover to make it a sleek long legged liquid eyes WSJ. Neither do I buy into the idea of populist punditry that so often forwards the theory: one reason why our net these days resembles a zoo, is because the MSM isn’t allowed a freer hand to shape the collective consciousness by being able to write what they want –  that homily sugary idea would only really make sense - if you did not know for one moment the human raw material that one may expect to work with to turn a flabby press into a first class outfit may in fact be harder that raising the Titanic – tragic realism suggest complacency may be so riven within the ranks of the press corps what we may have instead is something closer to the idea of a ‘crippled press,’ – and if that’s true; you may even have to entertain the valedictory belief they may be even incapable of stepping up to the role demanded of them of what we usually associate with the fourth estate. Here history steps in and gives us a clue into what it really takes to build up a free and independent press – it would seem for a free press to come about – one may even need to throw out all our templates about how to build a better newspaper – as history suggest very strongly the crèche that usually produces the best journalist are not the zoo keeping type that is endorsed with the appellation of government approval to write what you want providing you disagree with me under my terms – but rather good journalist, good editors, good newspapers seem only to emerge directly from the bedrock where they have to struggle perpetually in the discomfort zone. It stands the test of reason; against the acute reality that he (the journalist) may actually be the vanguard that wordsmiths against big corporations, big power and big politics -  his version of reality is the only thing that separates us all from the mind dumbing version of reality that state imposed officialdom tries to forward - this effectively demolishes the myth of freedom to write in comfort may in fact produce nothing but rather more of the same to even suggest it is worthless as a way of building a better newspaper; if anything the entire crushing weight of history suggest without the fear of state inspired harassment, persecution and bullying it may not even be possible to produce such a thing as a credible journalist. As in this desolate cold place where the oppositional writer puts his writing instrument on creamy paper; writing ceases to be writing in the truest sense and instead what emerges is its not designed to change anything as much as it strives to preserve something intact; that which is preserved may be the reality; things are never as simple as they often held out to be; it could be something worthy; something dreamy like having the right to read poetry or even a battle royale that attempts to take on the necessary lie of every successful regime. I suspect here freedom does little to inure the oppositional writer with the right spirit to tease out the nuances and to seek out the greys in our omnipresent binary world. If anything when that day comes when writers and the guilds they belong too and this includes journalist, bloggers and even the lone diarist are singled out for wreaths and honors and described in post scripted terms as exemplary models who we should all emulate by politicians; it probably also means real writing, deep spirited discourse along with the grist of the social narrative that continually seeks out the truth has dwindled to near nothingness, that I am afraid also means the thing we’re talking about when we use the word, ‘truth’ has reached a terminal end. OK. I need to go cycling now; please do feel free to spell check and correct for grammar – bye for now – may write again, so check on down here from time to time. Darkness 2009 [The Brotherhood Press 2009]  Read More →

EDITORS' NOTE: The following is an email interview between Chief Editor Eugene Yeo and Institute of Policy Studies on 2nd March 2009. Synopsis: In the last year or so, Singapore’s socio-political blogosphere appears to have undergone a dramatic transformation. Sites such as The Online Citizen and WayangParty.com have moved beyond armchair commentating and reacting to the news to proactive news-gathering and other activities in the offline world. These sites and the people behind them, together with the content posted online by more overtly activist groups and individuals, is putting into practice the full potential of citizen journalism by their first-hand reporting and, even agenda setting. A paper reviewing the state of play and future outlook will be delivered by Senior Research Fellow Tan Tarn How and Research Assistant Tan Simin, to be followed by a discussion. (Source: Institute of Policy Studies) IPS: How did you join Wayang Party, and in what ways did the website mission speak to you? Eugene: wayangparty.com was set up by two forumers of the old delphi Sammyboy forum in November 2007 to be a "watchdog" of the Workers' Party. Subsequently, one left and some joined us. It was meant initially to be a blog to house the speeches of WP leaders and for us to post some senseless rants. As you can see for yourself, our blog was updated infrequently in the early days and for a while, we have more readers in Malaysia than Singapore. Our readership started to pick up after our coverage of JBJ's funeral and the minibond rallies and subsequently it exploded. We didn't really intend it to happen. All we did is to write truthfully what we feel about certain issues of the day and to our surprise, many readers seem to like it. I am not too sure which mission you are referring to. The primary aim of the blog which I can identify strongly with is to advocate for a free press in Singapore and to raise public awareness of the issue amongst our fellow citizens. IPS: What do you hope to achieve with your time at Wayang Party? Eugene: To be frank, blogging is just a hobby to me to pass time. I don't really seek to "achieve" anything with it. Nevertheless, I do recognize that we have a social responsibility to our readers, many of whom turn to our blog for alternative news and analyses not found in the mainstream media. My "vision" for wayangparty, if that is a correct word to use, is for it to be a voice for ordinary Singaporeans - for the hawkers, taxi-drivers, bus captains, toilet attendants, karang guni men, blue collar workers etc. There is a great gulf between blogosphere and reality. Netizens write in colorful language and engage in war of words with one another as if they know alot, but how many of them have actually been to the ground and talk to the folks in the HDB heartlands ? If we have the Ah Peks and Ah Sohs talking about wayangparty.com's articles in the kopitiams one day, then we would really have achieved something. wayangparty.com is meant to be a grassroots blog, not some elitist exclusive club for linguists and purists. We will be setting up a Chinese section soon and we will get our readers to distribute flyers in their constituencies to extend our reach to those who seldom surf the net. (Note: The Chinese section has already been set up with three in-house writers and translators) IPS: Is there a reason that you chose to be anonymous, and do you think that affects your effectiveness? Eugene: Well, we chose to be anonymous as we want to keep our personal lives and work separate from blogging which was never one of our priorities in life. I do acknowledge that our credibility is a notch lower than bloggers who are known in real life, but to me, impact matters more than credibility and I guess it's not exaggerated to say that wayangparty did manage to generate some impact even though its writers are largely anonymous. IPS: How many page views or unique visitors do you have on average, and is it rising (and from what figure, say, six months ago). What were their higher numbers ever, and for what articles? Eugene: We now have an average of 10,000 to 15,000 page views a day and 4,000 to 6,000 unique visitors compared to 1,000 page views and less than 500 odd visitors half a year ago. The highest number of page views is almost 30,000 two weeks ago and the most viewed article is the piece I wrote about Tan Yong Soon's cooking trip to Paris. The interesting feature is that almost half of our readers are from Malaysia and so we really hope to increase our traffic locally. Also read Straits Times article on the above seminar here  Read More →

Translated by Tan Lee Chong, Chinese Correspondent (Original article by Fang Zhi Yuan here) 上周末在吉隆坡一个业务会议期间，一个香港代表问我，跟随着我们的主权财富基金Temasek和GIC的巨大损失，新加坡有没有任何政治大变动。 他迷惑地凝视着我，当我冷淡地告诉他实际上大多数新加坡人日常生活仍然继续，好象什么都未发生过。 他讽刺地回复我，如果曾荫权(Donald Tsang)(香港特首)在国外失丢香港纳税人的金钱少至一百万港元，在次日百万香港人便会上街示威要求他辞职了。 自从我们的主权财富基金显露了惨败的表现后，不同岗位的人有着不同的指责。我们的领导人正正地责备了意想不到的金融风暴致使全世界受到动乱。有些新加坡人则想知道基金管理人是否要负责任，由於他们提出错误建议，使基金在不宜的时候进入了市场。最惊奇的是那些應该站在最前方要求政府回答的反对派政客们，他们大多数都沈默著。徐顺全博士是一个例外，因他在民主党(SDP)的网站上声称李资政对此次损失要负上责任。 到底谁人由于这次彻底失败而应该被责备呢？ 可哀的事实是：我们全体新加坡人必须最后负担责备，因为我们允许了我们的主权财富基金投资我们的金钱而不受惩罚，而且我们不要求基金管理人对他们的决定负任何责任。 既然没有强烈的反对党在国家议会中愿意尽责去检核执政党，我们则必须依靠我们自己去質询政府怎样治理国家。 当李顯龙总理的妻子何贞夫人在2002年的早期被任命为Temasek控股公司的主管(CEO)时，严肃的问题应该早就被提出，这任命会否出现可能的利益冲突，由于同一个家庭中有两个人控制了我们的经济和储备 (李顯龙当时是财务大臣)。 Temasek在泰国投资的不幸事件造成当时泰国总理Thaksin Shinawatra由于军事政变而倒台。事后，它的主管(CEO) 早应该被傳召到国家议会的一个特选委员会去解释Temasek的投资决定和战略。 在2006年，当李光耀资政被任命为花旗集团(Citigroup)一位国际顾问时，類似事件在其他象新加坡這样发达的国家将立刻引起人们皱眉。李先生上任花旗(Citi)職位是作为正式代表新加坡的资政呢？还是作为新加坡的一名公民呢？再重复一次，我们人民从未问问题，而且从未向政府施加压力去详细查核李资政的行为。 于2008年1月，由李资政当主席的GIC，接受了花旗的“邀请”投资在后者的产权，而仓促地冲进去投资了一百亿星元(S$10 billion)入股花旗集团。在当时，警钟应该早就要敲响了。這宗投资结果是一个灾难性错误，甚而李资政最近亦承认了GIC“太早进了場”。 李资政在上任花旗(Citi)職位作为它的国际顾问后，有无影响了GIC的决定去救助這个困厄的美国银行呢？他在花旗的工作是否接受了任何报酬呢？所有这些合法的问题应该一一被问及。 在国家议会中，如果有一群相当大数字的反对派议員，他们早就暫停花旗的投资交易，直到完成更多的研究去评估它的优点、好处和潜在陷阱。这暫停将买来我们几个月的时间，直至经济前景变得更加清楚，并且花旗毒性财产(toxic assets)的程度警报信号到那时便浮現了出来，一起避免了這宗投资。 国家议会中有93名议員包括提名议員(NMPs) ，但没有一个议員闻悉美国投资宗师吉姆罗杰斯(Jim Rogers)关于新加坡在花旗集团增加股权的半遮半掩的警告。因此给于了李资政和GIC董事们完全的自由去做什么他们認为合适的事。 在Hiliary克林顿被任命为现任的美国国务秘书之前，她的丈夫前任美国总统比尔克林顿公布了克林顿基金的所有捐款人身分和捐款数额，因为有人担心她的官方工作有可能受到这些大捐款人的影响。 单单靠信任就让政治领导人去担任重要的政府职务是不明智的。只有一个适当、包括有检查和制衡（checks and balances）的系统，才可以防止行政人员的贪污和滥用职权。 新加坡人民为了短期获益，例如组屋升级，而牺牲了长期安定，以致不肯投票给更多反对派议员让他们进入议会代表我们向执政党质询问题。一区组屋升级花费的仅是几百万元，与我们的主权财富基金到目前为止己丢失的几十亿元相比起来只是皮毛而己。 纳税的公民长期地倚靠着执政党施送赠品，而它侧拿着选民的投票作为赎金，这真是全国的羞辱。如果一两个集选区（GRC）由反对派市镇议会负责管理，政府能不为Potong Pasir和后港的组屋升级吗？但它是否会冒险把新加坡变成一大块”贫民窟”呢？ 美国总统Thomas Jefferson宣称：“自由的代价是永恒的警惕”。不可以有经济自由而没有政治自由。我们新加坡的公民必须永远保持警惕，保护我们的国家免受不负责任的，腐败的和实行裙带关系的个体的支配。我们是否想要永远做一群精英分子所操纵的农奴，还是做个自由公民亲手計划我们自己的命运，居住在我们叫做家园的这块土地？  Read More →