If You Don’t Self-regulate, We Regulate
Oh no! We’re in trouble. People reading the “alternative media” in Singapore are going to go away with the impression that Singapore is the worst Third World country around, with an inefficient and corrupt government, and the whole place is a mess.
Oh no! What is going to happen to our IR? What is going to happen to our foreign investments? What is going to happen to our medical tourism? What is going to happen to our F1? The Ah Peks at our local kopitiams are not going to have any female company. Chinese chess is going to become popular again. And Geylang may be the only place that will do well with all that anticipation of good deals from desperate local girls.
Of course, all but the most paranoid people will not foresee these horrible things happening anytime soon. I can’t speak for all the blogs and bloggers out there, but I don’t think our leaders need to be so worried about foreigners getting coins ready to give out to our kids on the streets when they touch our shores. Many of these foreigners have probably said worse things in their blogs about their First World countries of origin.
Without the large population base and the lack of sponsor fear in places like Malaysia, our alternative media cannot afford to hire fulltime journalists to keep people updated with the latest breaking news. People here have no choice but to refer to the newsPAPers for the latest updates on the local scene. People may not be interested in knowing when the elections are due, but they certainly wish to know if they would live to enjoy their CPF. And these things are not featured in our alternative media for reasons already mentioned.
But what if Minister YYY plants a tree, opens a park and then tells people the importance of racial harmony, regulating the press, supporting the government…? Will readers read that article from the first word to the last? I certainly wouldn’t and I think I speak for many if not most thinking and unthinking Singaporeans out there. Then what about all the glitches, blunders and other “honest mistakes”? Are readers satisfied by the explanations? Where do we turn to when we aren’t satisfied?
And that’s perhaps the primary role of the alternative media here. What’s the point in conducting a survey to show that you have more readers? It’s insulting to our intelligence when we already know what role the mainstream media and the alternative media play. Until we have a level playing field where the alternative media can provide breaking news and gets invited to press conferences, it’s really quite silly for the mainstream media to boast about its higher readership. It’s like a hospital boasting that it’s seeing more patients than a small private clinic.
What if an old lady who collects cardboard boxes owns a 3-room flat and has 5 children? Is there nothing wrong if she has all that and chooses to live on the streets? Do we judge if someone is OK simply by looking at his house, his car or his bank account?
I’m not a cruel person, but during my students days when I was marked and tormented by cruel lecturers, I sometimes would dream of nasty things happening to them - like their wives finding out about their affairs. And if their wives found out about their affairs and decided to set them on fire, I would probably just be asking who is taking over.
Wait a minute. Would I have been beaten up by my classmates if I didn’t show any concern or sympathy for the lecturer who was always giving me trouble? Not a chance. Is this a natural reaction? Or is it like some people say, a lack of “self-regulation”. Maybe it is. Maybe we should alert the police to arrest anyone who cheers when an MP is attacked or boos when Li Jiawei appears on TV. Well, if we don’t “self-regulate”, someone is going to regulate us. I’m so afraid.
