Tag: Hopeless SPH

Commentary – Where did this news go?

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The following 2 articles were posted around 6th June, slightly more than one week ago.


Article on Zaobao
Article on OMY.sg

A translation of the Zaobao article is as follow (courtesty of Fiefie):

About midnight of 6th June 2009, the police sent 8 anti-riot vehicles to a foreign workers dormitory in Choa Chu Kang as about 100 foreign workers were involved in a riot.

According to Lianhe Wanbao, they were informed of the riot at the Choa Chu Kang Foreign Workers Dormitory near midnight when about 100 foreign workers were suspected of fighting after getting drunk and the situation quickly went out of control. The police then dispatched 8 anti-riot vehicles to the scene. 6 were wounded and 8 arrested in this incident.

This shocking and bloody incident happened at about 1205am on the 6th of June 2009 and ended only around 2am. The place was Foreign Workers Dormitory No. 2 along Choa Chu Kang Murai Farmway.

An eyewitness said, “I heard that a few foreign workers were drinking at the canteen stalls and creating a scene after getting drunk. After being confronted by other workers, a fight broke out after disagreement. The situation then rapidly went out of control and the place was a total mess. After that, more joined in the fight and there were about 100 people involved in the fight chasing around, pandemonium ensued.”

The dormitory houses about 5000 foreign workers, facilities included a barber shop and various shops, plus a canteen of which there was a stall selling only alcohol.

I first noticed this piece of news on Zaobao’s Twitter. But what made these two old news pieces interesting was that I was unable to find their English equivalent, be it on any other SPH English papers (The Strike Stooge Times, The NewPaper LewdPaper and Today) or even CNA. Much less, foreign news agencies like AFP or Reuters.

I have waited a week to put this up because I wanted to give more time for the English articles to get onto the search engines. Perhaps my skills with search engines is getting rusty, or my RSS feeds are not intensive enough, this piece of news seems to be sucked into an information black hole. Many people I asked, who didn’t read the Chinese evening tabloid – Lianhe Wanbao [联合晚报], are completely unaware of this incident.

Was this piece of news deliberately kept off our national daily for some unknown agenda? Was it done to prevent an outburst of negative sentiments against foreign workers or the setting up of dormitories? Or is this yet another example on just how hopeless the Stooge Times is? Do note I have talked about the possibility of this happening before.

If any of you has read anything like this on the Stooge Times (or any other SPH papers), or CNA, please direct me to them just so I can convince myself that I need to do something about my techniques with search engines.

Commentary – Hopeless SPH

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The caption in Chinese reads: Helicopter hovering at low altitude caused public to suspect it to be part of ongoing anti-vice operations (Taken from Lianhe Wanbao [联合晚报])

The pathetic level of journalism in our Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) newspapers just never seem to get out of the cesspool it is in. From biased reporting on the Opposition Parties and their members, to the one-sided and seditious articles written during the AWARE issue, to the kind of idiotic readers’ letters published on the short-lived STREATS free-sheet and some times even the Straits Stooge Times Forum page, the SPH has not only successfully positioned itself as a stooge for the government gahmen but also succeeded in presenting to the world that Singaporeans are ignorant and idiotic. Thank you very much, especially to the Stooge Times because foreigners reading our so-called national daily puts us all to collective shame when some of the more idiotic comments are published for all to see. It amazes me that it never occurred to the Editors allowing those letters to be published make us wonder about their general intelligence level as by allowing those articles to be published would mean a certain level of endorsement.

Thus, I had generally avoid criticising the tabloid like reporting in the evening Chinese tabloids like Shin Ming [新明] and Lianhe Wanbao [联合晚报] even when I know a lot of those articles published – especially those on the Entertainment column – we should all read with a pinch of salt. After all, my friends and I do find those articles hilarious and entertaining and there is nothing wrong about it. We all needed something to laugh about. However, I had not expect it to go the same way as our English papers – making us all look like idiots. Thanks to this particular caption, now even PRC Nationals or any foreigner who can read Chinese will be laughing at Singaporeans’ ‘collective ignorance’.

I have a high regard for my fellow Singaporeans and certainly, even while some might have misconception about what these helicopter overflights are about, most of us would have known they are a part of our National Day Parade (NDP) rehearsals. While there is an ongoing and persistent operation against the street walkers in Geylang recently, most Singaporeans are also aware that the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF), which are under the Ministry of Defense (MID) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) respectively, have a separate chain of command and very different roles in the security of this country.

Thank you very much, SPH, for your relentless effort in making Singaporeans looked like they couldn’t even tie their own shoelaces or feed themselves without someone helping them.


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