Winter Is Coming

Being in the military is a risky proposition, even during times of peace. The handling of equipment of war involves a certain element of risk and at times the folly of man or the nature of circumstances are such that accidents do happen. As can be seen in the latest incident in Taiwan, where a F5 fighter crashed into a building, causing the deaths of 4 military personnel, the 2 Taiwanese pilots and 2 Singapore servicemen.

The interesting thing is, the Taiwanese Media, in their typically inquisitive manner, have raised the possibility that the Taiwanese Airforce F5s are old and outdated and therefore they are accident prone. A few years ago, the media did the same, this time it was regarding the crash of a Vietnam War Era UH-1H helicopter. It appears that the Taiwanese Media do indeed practise investigative journalism.

Contrast this with the ST, which for all practical purposes can be said to represent the Singapore Media. It appears that everytime something to do with the government is published, the Senior Editors would either parrot whatever has already been said, or merely report the fact ad verbatim. Rarely have the ST journalists attempted to get into the bottom of things; so much so that words like “mouthpiece” and other not so pleasant terms have been hurled at their doorstep. In fact rather than ask why, at times they have gone so far as to try to convince the people of the government’s policy. The Forum too is a sad place, often filled with the inane or at times horrible posts by our fellow countrymen. If a letter not supportive of the powers that be does get published it will often be shot by several other letters, as can be seen by the recent flurry of letters regarding the Invasion of Iraq.

But then did not the ST publish several stories regarding military accidents? Most prominent being the incident where the guardsman drowned during prisoner of war training? Does that not constitute investigative journalism?

Unfortunately, we must remember in the above incident, there was a death. Thus in such an instance, it would be impossible for such a thing to be kept under wraps if the intention was to do so. Furthermore ST merely reported the facts and findings, and did not question the various practices of the Military. In fact, it is precisely because the media rarely engages in any investigative journalism; thus resulting in situations whereby unfortunate people like Lawrence have no recourse should anything happen to them in the military. There are things happening in the military which can be said to be a direct contravention of standards; however precisely because the system is extremely against whistleblowers, therefore many victims choose to, in NS speak, “lan lan suck thumb, Serve and fuck off”. Thus when the seeds of disasters are sown, they are often left to grow until disaster strikes, and then everyone engages in unconstructive finger pointing.

Thus, for ST to work in the interests of society, it has to go beyond parroting of facts and parroting of the government’s line. The latter action may not necessarily equate to the interests of society, for if one accepts the fact that there is a great divide, then it naturally follows that there be a divergence between the interests of the ruling party and the common man in society.