| Yawning
Bread. 22 August 2008
Feeling a little silly in a football tabloid
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The New Paper's secret of success is obvious. Nine out of ten of its readers would immediately turn the newspaper over and start reading from the back -- for the latest football news.
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Given the chief interest of its readers, I was unsure what the newspaper was thinking when it asked me, in June, to write a 400-word piece for them. Why me? The email explained that it was for the New Paper's 20th anniversary commemorative issue, "looking at the past 20 years and looking forward to the next 20." Specifically, it wanted a piece titled "If I were the next PM". What could I possibly write that would interest football fans? Wouldn't I look silly if I tried? Should I even try? In the end, I just trusted that the New Paper knew what it was doing, and decided to write whatever I wanted. If its readers flip past the article, so be it. No harm done. At least, I'd have used the opportunity to say what I wanted to say, and hopefully someone somewhere might take a little notice. Two months later, they asked me to go down to their office for a photoshoot. "You'll need some kind of prop to hold in your hands," reporter Ng Tze Yong said. "What possibilities can you think of?" I said I had a smallish rainbow flag. "That'll be great." I washed it overnight -- it had gotten rather dusty over the years -- dried and ironed it the next morning, and took it down with me to their studios. They shot a series of pictures of me clasping the flag in one hand near my hip and a few more without, just in case. The "just in case" was telling; it didn't seem to be a sure thing that they'd use such a picture. Would the editor risk being called up for "promoting homosexuality?" Sure enough, they chose not to in the end, as I found out 2 days before it was scheduled to run. "It was not my decision," Tze Yong protested, raising his hands to fend off any move by me to bite his head off. The picture editor decided to use only half-body shots, he said, which meant the flag at the hip would be cut, apparently for purely artistic, layout reasons. I don't know, actually. Below you see the two-page spread on pages 50 and 51 of the New Paper, Sunday, 17 August 2008, followed by a zoom-in of my 400-word piece. I know the words are tiny in the picture, but you don't have to squint at the image to read it. The text of what I wrote follows that. It still seems rather awkward. I won't be the least surprised if nobody read it. I wonder still: could it really have been worse if I had tried to write about football?
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If I were PM... ONE of the main tasks of a national leader is to attend to his institutional legacy. This is one area where Singapore is weakest, and which poses a big risk for our future. We have over the years removed checks and balances – legislative, judicial, media and civil society – from the system, leaving the executive with unchallenged power. This looks fine, and seductively efficient, when capable people form the government. But it is disastrous the moment a different kind of person takes over. He inherits vast powers for stifling criticism and perpetuating his rule. And yet, this is going to happen, and it’s not a matter of "if", but "when". No system that claims to be thorough in vetting people for their qualifications will be foolproof, just as despite theoretically sound procedures, prisoners occasionally manage to escape. If I were the prime minister, what would I do? I’d change the electoral system to abolish the Group Representation Constituencies. Leave the 84 de-grouped constituencies as single-member seats. Add 84 new seats elected by proportional representation to make a total of 168. This should enable alternative voices to be heard. I’d create an independent Judicial Appointments Commission to ensure transparency in how judges are selected. There’d be a permanent Final Court of Appeal with perhaps seven judges, of whom three should be foreign. If we think it only wise to have experienced foreigners helping us manage the country’s assets, for example in Temasek Holdings and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp, then why not foreign judges to import best judicial practice and prove to the world that our justice system meets international standards? I’d create an independent Human Rights Commission, with the power to investigate abuses of human rights, and to bring charges before a court of law. I’d have Singapore sign and ratify the UN’s International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which addresses issues such as the right to healthcare and education, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Fulfilling these obligations, I’d repeal the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act which serves to control newspapers, the Films Act, which is used to ban films, and the censorship functions of the Media Development Authority. While I’m at it, I would scrap the law that makes it legal for a man to rape his wife and the infamous anti-gay Section 377A. And ensure that we catch up with leading democracies that have legalised same-sex marriage. In short, I’d be a fanatic in bringing
Singapore up to date, but that’s only because we’ve fallen so far
behind. © Yawning Bread
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Footnotes None Addenda None
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In its own way, the New Paper is good at what it does. Unlike other
newspapers that are given out free or delivered to your doorstep, its
loyal readers get off their backsides every day, walk to a newsstand and
pay money to get their daily fix. Only Wanbao and Shinmin, two
Chinese-language tabloids, have readers that take as much trouble.
