a taste of Straits Times editing

I had submitted my post (http://alevelsin80days.blogspot.com/2009/09/misleading-statistics-in-parliament.html) to the Straits Times Forum, and to my pleasant surprise they actually called me up to confirm that I had sent it, and put it in print the next day (Saturday, 19th September).

While I am honoured and thankful that they actually were willing to publish it, I am a little bit disappointed with how they chose to edit it. They rephrased and summarized it effectively, but they also toned down my point that the statistics were misleading.

What does this tell us? I must respect the local press for doing their job to maximise the dissemination of information while minimising judgement and opinion. I feel that this speaks volumes about our national culture. It's clearly not yet in our national interest to encourage open criticism of our government. I wonder what would be the reasoning for this? Perhaps our country is not mature enough or ready for such intellectual discourse; I could relate to such a perspective. It would likely degenerate into name-calling and what-have-you. This describes the unique 'chicken or egg' scenario that we're in, where Singaporeans are generally not ready to be critical thinkers, so we're denied anything which would require us to think critically.

I wonder what they would have said if I had written such a criticism about something which an Opposition leader had said?

Regardless, it is clearer than ever now, to me, that we cannot rely on our government or our press to make our country a better place to live in. It's really up to each and every one of us to make the effort to collectively influence the psyche and be the change that we want to see.