33) Ohnani on TOC April 21st, 2009 2.40 pm First of all, i would like to say well done Asia Journalism Fellowship. I would like to say it’s very gracious of the Temasek Foundation and NTU to organise this.
Welcome to the Journalists from Bangladesh(151), Bhutan(146), China(162), Hong Kong(34), India(120), Indonesia(117), Malaysia(122), Pakistan(150), Philippines(111) and Vietnam(161).
I’m sure our press(147) has many things to teach you on responsible journalism. I would recommend the works of our Doyenne of Objective Journalism - Ms Chua Mui Hoong - as the standard to live up to.
As for the seminar titled “Singapore Beyond Lee Kuan Yew: Institutionalising The Singapore Way”, i applaud the choice of guest speakers. Who better to talk about MM Lee Kuan Yew than the Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy - Kishore Mahbubani? Who better to give an objective view than him?
I respect the man tremendously. And who wouldn’t, given his extremely unbiased stance and willingness to say what needs to be said.
Like when Singapore was ranked 148th in Press Freedom, he said “”When the Singapore media is ranked internationally, in an index of press freedom, it is ranked about 148th in the world, close to Iraq. Is this a fair portrayal of where our media stand in the world? Sadly, it is not.
Instead, it reflects the closed minds of those who have a black and white view of the world. These closed minds believe that there is total freedom, including press freedom, in the West, and no freedom at all in places like China. This view is wrong.”
His words had such a great effect that we are now ranked 147th. Take that the closed minds of the Western press!
My comments on the speeches of Kishore Mahbubani and Ho Kwan Ping is that everything they brought up is absolutely true. How else can i treat absolute truth other than to agree?
I especially agree with this line. “MM Lee being an “extraordinary leader”, who is admired as a nation builder, an international statesman, and an effective and persuasive leader.”
How do you find someone else like him? Someone willing to rise from the grave in order to ensure Singapore is run the right way - His Way.
I leave you people with some quotes from the great man himself, the founder and builder of Modern Singapore and the man who all credit must go to Singapore’s success. As for our failures, it’s because we the public have not been up to par.
“If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of disorder, so be it.” - Lee Kuan Yew endorsing the Tiananmen massacre, Straits Times, 17 August 2004
“If you are a troublemaker… it’s our job to politically destroy you. Put it this way. As long as JB Jeyaratnam for what he stands for - a thoroughly destructive force - we will knock him. Everybody knows that in my bag I have a hatchet, and a very sharp one. You take me on, I take my hatchet, we meet in the cul-de-sac.” - Lee Kuan Yew, The Man And His Ideas, 1997
“I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn’t be here today. And I say without the slightest remorse, that we wouldn’t be here, we would not have made economic progress, if we had not intervened on very personal matters - who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit, or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.” - Lee Kuan Yew, Straits Times, 20 April 1987
And finally, to show how much the Press in Singapore has improved, this quote by the Great One on the state of the Press in 1959.
“I pointed to an article with bold headlines reporting that the police had refused to allow the PAP to hold a rally at Empress Place, and then to the last paragraph where in small type it added the meeting would take place where we were now. I compared this with a prominent report about an SPA rally. This was flagrant bias.” - Lee Kuan Yew complaining about the Straits Times in 1959
Welcome to the Journalists from Bangladesh(151), Bhutan(146), China(162), Hong Kong(34), India(120), Indonesia(117), Malaysia(122), Pakistan(150), Philippines(111) and Vietnam(161).
I’m sure our press(147) has many things to teach you on responsible journalism. I would recommend the works of our Doyenne of Objective Journalism - Ms Chua Mui Hoong - as the standard to live up to.
As for the seminar titled “Singapore Beyond Lee Kuan Yew: Institutionalising The Singapore Way”, i applaud the choice of guest speakers. Who better to talk about MM Lee Kuan Yew than the Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy - Kishore Mahbubani? Who better to give an objective view than him?
I respect the man tremendously. And who wouldn’t, given his extremely unbiased stance and willingness to say what needs to be said.
Like when Singapore was ranked 148th in Press Freedom, he said “”When the Singapore media is ranked internationally, in an index of press freedom, it is ranked about 148th in the world, close to Iraq. Is this a fair portrayal of where our media stand in the world? Sadly, it is not.
Instead, it reflects the closed minds of those who have a black and white view of the world. These closed minds believe that there is total freedom, including press freedom, in the West, and no freedom at all in places like China. This view is wrong.”
His words had such a great effect that we are now ranked 147th. Take that the closed minds of the Western press!
My comments on the speeches of Kishore Mahbubani and Ho Kwan Ping is that everything they brought up is absolutely true. How else can i treat absolute truth other than to agree?
I especially agree with this line. “MM Lee being an “extraordinary leader”, who is admired as a nation builder, an international statesman, and an effective and persuasive leader.”
How do you find someone else like him? Someone willing to rise from the grave in order to ensure Singapore is run the right way - His Way.
I leave you people with some quotes from the great man himself, the founder and builder of Modern Singapore and the man who all credit must go to Singapore’s success. As for our failures, it’s because we the public have not been up to par.
“If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of disorder, so be it.” - Lee Kuan Yew endorsing the Tiananmen massacre, Straits Times, 17 August 2004
“If you are a troublemaker… it’s our job to politically destroy you. Put it this way. As long as JB Jeyaratnam for what he stands for - a thoroughly destructive force - we will knock him. Everybody knows that in my bag I have a hatchet, and a very sharp one. You take me on, I take my hatchet, we meet in the cul-de-sac.” - Lee Kuan Yew, The Man And His Ideas, 1997
“I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn’t be here today. And I say without the slightest remorse, that we wouldn’t be here, we would not have made economic progress, if we had not intervened on very personal matters - who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit, or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.” - Lee Kuan Yew, Straits Times, 20 April 1987
And finally, to show how much the Press in Singapore has improved, this quote by the Great One on the state of the Press in 1959.
“I pointed to an article with bold headlines reporting that the police had refused to allow the PAP to hold a rally at Empress Place, and then to the last paragraph where in small type it added the meeting would take place where we were now. I compared this with a prominent report about an SPA rally. This was flagrant bias.” - Lee Kuan Yew complaining about the Straits Times in 1959
