TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent

Faced with increasing stiff competition from alternative news sites popular with young Singaporeans, The Straits Times has resorted to spreading its “propaganda message” directly to secondary school students through its weekly magazine “IN”.

Equipped with the most inappropriate byline – “Thinking is IN”, the magazine has introduced ready-made “classroom” features after consultation with teachers, students and experts from the Ministry of Education which is redesigned to mine the paper for its “educational value”.

In an interview with The Straits Times today, the supervising editor of IN Ms Berthan Henson said:

“The revamp was to put a greater focus on the teaching of the English language, this time with exercises that cater for secondary school students with differing grasps of the language.”

Editorial consultant Sonia Sng, 38, who develops the curriculum-based lessons, added:

“Students usually start off thinking there’s nothing for them in the newspaper; that it’s boring…… But use the newspaper in lessons, especially Singapore-based news, and suddenly they realise that there is a relevance, and their natural curiosity is awakened.”

“IN” contains a mixture of local news and on issues affecting the students such as a recent article on back-to-school blues.

As expected, its articles are mostly aligned to the establishment which stimulates little critical thinking or analyses.

All newspapers in Singapore including the Straits Times, are owned by the Singapore Press Holdings, a state-linked company which is headed by a former PAP minister Dr Tony Tan.

The Singapore media is ranked a pathetic 133th position in the world on the World Press Index in terms of media freedom and independence conducted yearly by respected international NGO Reporters without Borders.

The state media’s coverage on local news and politics are almost always tilted in favor of the ruling party whose leaders are often portrayed as saints and their opponents as radical crankpots or traitors.

Though nominally a democracy in name, Singapore has only two opposition members in parliament out of eighty four. The ruling party is guaranteed to win elections after elections as few Singaporeans dare to join the opposition to challenge it.

Law Minister Shanmugam had earlier suggested introducing “political education” in Singapore schools to educate young Singaporeans on the “different political systems” in the world as to enable them to make an “informed” decision on the type of system most suitable for Singapore.

With all the state agencies firmly under its control, the ruling party can use the vast resources available to “indoctrinate” future generations of voters so that they will be compliant to the obsolete, archaic and repressive one-party system promulgated by the PAP to preserve its own political hegemony.

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