1	1	5	Straits Times, liberalising, news, media

Let me ask you to do something. Pick up your copy of last Sunday's The Straits Times and look through it carefully. Yes, I am asking you to open that accursed paper - the paper which has taken upon itself to make occupying the bottom spots of freedom rankings its sole goal in existence.

Before you use the papers to pick up the droppings of your dog, let me point out something particularly interesting in last Sunday’s edition. I was flipping through it, expecting little challenge beyond that of my ability to recognise the alphabet, before seeing two articles which sharply contrasted with each other.

First I saw this interesting article:

“Dr Poh: Why I parted company with PAP” By Cai Haoxiang and Jeremy Au Yong

Former Barisan Sosialis leader and Operation Cold Store detainee Poh Soo Kai returned to Singapore two years ago after living as an emigre in Canada for nearly two decades. The 77-year-old doctor wants to tell his side of the Singapore story before it is too late.

Besides merely recounting the life events experienced by this early dissident, the article also touches on how his life had been adversely impacted by the long period of detention, which raises the question of the morality of detention without trial... which makes it a not too bad piece of journalism.

My faith in the discerning discretion of The Straits Times journalists renewed, I flipped over a few pages, and saw this:

Safer junction in Seletar

THEN: The junction just outside the club did not have a traffic light, a situation that caused chaos and confusion. Construction work at Seletar Aerospace Park also meant that heavy vehicles were often moving around the junction, making road users, including some 3,800 club members, apprehensive.

NOW: On July 12, four weeks after the story was published, traffic lights were commissioned at the intersection between Seletar West Link and Seletar Club Road.

Said a Land Transport Authority spokesman: 'We will continue to monitor the traffic patterns around that area and make adjustments, if necessary.'

Club members are happy about the addition of the lights, although some still have reservations about driving on the roads, given how narrow they are and the many heavy vehicles there.

Once I saw this article, Singapore’s suicide rate almost bumped up by one and my family was trying their utmost to pull me away from the window.

The above article, copied almost in full, provides a horrifying insight into how terribly inane a self-proclaimed “leading”, “respectable” and “mainstream” newspaper can become when forced to limit itself to material that resides only within the Out-of-Bounds markers.

It is the sad state of affairs in Singapore when a hundred words can be devoted to covering the placement of a traffic light on a road, and that readers are expected to read about the traffic light on the road, and nod their heads in agreement before retiring to contemplate on the relevance and ramifications of the bloody traffic light on the god-damned road. 

Yet, this is merely the continuation of the old, what has become tradition, and accepted in Singaporean media.

The first article, nonetheless, represents to me an odd hope that there is a liberalising force or faction within The Straits Times, one that can allow such an incongruous juxtaposition of stories to take place.  The only other contrast within the same publication, as striking as that which we have just observed, can only be seen in the Soviet newspaper, Pravda - Once used as a mouthpiece of the USSR, the liberalisation that followed Glasnost created a short period of time which critical commentary of the USSR was placed alongside disinformation and un-informing information…. A similar situation which we have just witnessed on a Sunday afternoon...   

 A fool’s hope? We will have to wait and see.