The ruling party dictatorship is losing popularity and the propaganda Ministry of Communications and Information is injecting more propaganda to the population through the government-controlled media. When Singaporeans think of fake news propaganda, Straits Times immediately comes to mind with ample of half-truth in every single article.
From direct propaganda like knowing what is PM Lee Hsien Loong’s diet and how does he keep healthy to wrongly-concluded surveys claiming Singaporeans want to work past retirement age, news from the government’s Straits Times may not be entirely fake but they are out to achieve the same aim as fake news that is to mislead the reader.
National Service conscription is increasingly unpopular in 2017 and it is losing support from more Singaporeans due to a corrupted government favouring foreigners and new citizens. Straits Times however do the people a disservice ramping up on propaganda material supporting the draconian military service that sees a Singaporean male jail 3 years if he refuse to serve.
President S R Nathan was hugely unpopular President because he allowed the corrupted dictator PM to have unbridled access to the national reserves and CPF funds. Known as “prata man” when he was alive, the puppet president won his elections through walkovers. Few attended his state funeral as evident from photos of empty queues provided by the government papers, however, the fascist state is in denial mode and charged that States Times Review “publishes fake news” to smear the former President.
More dangerously, Straits Times does not care if it has been scrapping the international bottom rankings of press credibility. Naturally, the government help defends the state media. Instead of committing to improve credibility of the state media, Law Minister K Shanmugam ludicrously dismissed the independent rankings as fake news itself. Straits Times was literally endorsed by the government to publish more fake news.
Fortunately, Singaporeans have grown more IT-savvy and cynical of the “noble truth” published by the government state media. This can be proven by the falling newspaper revenue of Singapore Press Holdings, which has to be kept afloat through it’s property divestment and property tax refunds. Many also started questioning government policies like having a racist Presidential elections and a 30% water price hike, and a few become more vocal and picked up the pen, or the keyboard, criticising the dictatorship on public forums.
Although society is becoming more discerning and fake news media like Straits Times are in decline, the state media remains a public menace to Singapore society along with the 50-cent government trolls roaming the internet. Singaporeans should be more civic-minded and for a start, stop reading SPH news, or stop the circulation of the state media paper in their workplace or organisation. It is all for a better-informed future.
STR Editor
Alex Tan