PT Wong
Dear Straits Times,
I am 21 years old. And I read your papers almost everyday. I liked reading what you offered.
Yesterday in my school’s lecture on politics, we touched on the topic of Social Movement. I never would have thought Singaporeans have the capacity for “movements” until I straddled my presence between Buangkok and Hougang MRT yesterday, in an effort to catch the rallies given by two dominant parties in Singapore. I have to bear in mind, one is legitimately in rule, while the other have to fight on the sidelines, without the support of you and the dominant mass media networks, that is widely assumed as needs and legitimate sources in Singaporean homes.
A Social Movement, indeed, was what I saw when I walked through the supporting crowd of the Workers’ Party. Never in my life in Singapore have I heard the voices of Singaporeans so clear and articulate. Yes, I was convinced that Singaporeans are talking. You should stop having this mindset that Singaporeans are apathetic. In case you still didn’t know it, I am informing you now. Go write about it. The Singaporeans want to be heard. But I guess you won’t. Because what Singaporeans are saying is what you dismiss as just a rowdy bunch of comments from a rowdy bunch of “uninformed and ignorant” Singaporeans – who didn’t know what the PAP had been doing for them. Mind you, your dismissal of their valuable comments make you yourself ignorant of what the united voice of Singaporeans are speaking.
At this point, I admit, you do look stupid. You sound a tat-bit senile to the massive crowd at the Workers’ Party rally, where you took a photograph of and placed in page A8. Every head you captured has a brain attached, and those brains must be thinking: Is that all you got out of the Workers’ Party rally? It is such an unmoving piece, from a moving social movement. It is not purely emotional as you claimed on the front page. There was some substance, if you were to observe and listen more. I juxtaposed your PAP coverage on page A4 with it, and I see so much more of your enthusiasm, in covering the uncalled-for responses of the wives of contesting MPs.
Honestly, what you covered on voices of the wives in the PAP rally are nothing – kosong – as compared to what you had missed out in covering the voices of the citizens in the WP rally. You didn’t cover how the PAP “crowd” was made up mostly of its own white-shirted people, who are somehow related to the people standing on stage. Almost none of the non-PAP Singaporeans who were there gave a “Majulah Singapura” roar when called to. And yet, you covered an MP wife’s comment that the crowd at PAP’s “responded to him… the response seems good.” Wait till you hear the comments at the Workers’ Party side! But wait… it was not covered.
When I read your coverage of the Worker’s Party rally, much of what I had just read was just another bunch of skewed words, based on the ideology of the PAP which defines what constitutes a “clean and fair fight”, and what does not. PAP calls the shots all the time. No wonder PAP says in Buangkok: “Where were the opposition parties for the past 10 years? They only come out during the elections, wanting you to vote for them.” Have PAP even given the opposition a chance to serve? Come on. They don’t even have the means to. Give them a break. Stop giving them double-standards. I find myself reading in mounting degrees of disgust as I flipped through the papers I spent 90 cents on.
I want to ask your journalists: What kind of education have they gone through? Have they been so PAP-brain-washed that they cannot even write a proper close-to-objective article without hinting the PAP manifesto? It’s sad that even the people’s papers, whose purpose was supposedly to report the truths as they were, went into their fair share of politics. I send my condolences to you, my dear Straits Times.
I am not pro-opposition. I stand as a citizen trying to make a decision in this elections which side I will be on. But I am saying that Straits Times, you should start waking up and write what citizens deserve to hear. Maybe you had been driving the vehicle too long and have become complacent too? Yours shouldn’t be a bunch of politically correct words. You should report truth, as it is. Uninterrupted.
This way, we will eliminate the possibility that PAP is playing dirty, with you.
Yours Faithfully,
PT Wong
