Trapper's Swamp

Our Minister for Information, Communication and Arts, Rear-Admiral Lui Tuck Yew, professed his love for the compliant and obedient, unabashed government mouthpiece mainstream media:

Unlike some foreign newspapers, the media here in Singapore has not gone for aggressive journalism; they have not gone for aggressive campaigning. They have taken the position that they will investigate thoroughly before they publish.

That probably has nothing to do with a complete monopoly of the mainstream press, nor the fact that it is not an independent media. Nope. Who needs to be aggressive when there is no competition? However, take a look at the average consumer of local mainstream media: they buy into it, hook, line and sinker. When we have an uninformed citizenry, it is little wonder that our government loves the tool that enforces such ignorance. ST is now trying to get schools to use its Forum letters to teach national education:

The use of media articles as a dynamic, relevant source for teaching will be among the tips and ideas teachers will share at The Straits Times’ fourth annual Teachers Forum on Sept 24.

The forum will begin with two plenary sessions on the benefits of using authentic materials like newspapers to develop critical thinking.

I can only laugh while pointing out two obvious problems. First, if you need to establish mainstream media as dynamic, relevant and authentic, it has already failed. Second, using ST Forum letters to inspire critical thinking? Someone is clearly not thinking. You cannot develop critical thinking without questioning everything and everyone aggressively, which is a duty of journalism that the ST has failed for as long as I can remember. This is about as effective as trying to extinguish a barn fire by pissing on it.

The state of the media in Singapore is deplorable, with the mainstream media an placid and complacent channel for government spin and aggressive questioning left to the independent bloggers. What we need is a strong, independent press. If that has to spring from the roots of the individual blogs, then so be it. It would be foolish to depend on this government to relinquish control of any potential debate, and wishful thinking instead of strong action will only result in a bleak future for this country.

Update on Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 12:24AM by Callan Tham

A commenter had accurately pointed out that I picked the ST Forum letters and equated it with the teachers using them to "develop critical thinking". Having read through the source articles, my post and his comments again, I found that indeed I had equated them wrongly, so I will clarify my point.

My gripe is with the branding of the Straits Times as "authentic materials", especially given its pro-government reporting. The ST Forum is tightly moderated, and only letters deemed "safe" will be published. It was wrong for me to imply that the published letters to the ST Forum will be a large part of the source, though in my mind the letters will also be used in conjunction with the entire publication.

Therefore, I concede that I was in error in equating that, but stand by my judgment that the ST Forum letters will be used as a "authentic" source of material for classroom plans.