"Blogging past the grey areas" - Today

Print copy of "Are bloggers really at risk of the law?", by Today, here.

I still don't understand how it can become "Blogging past the grey areas", but that is Voices' creative perogative... N

Are bloggers really at risk of the law?

The following was sent to Today Voices. Naturally, since it is really a commentary about something in the paper.

Impt thing to note is that I've never seen the distinction between what goes into mainstream media and online media. As long as the content is similar and addresses roughly the same people, anything goes.

Enjoy...

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I read with some interest the article by Ang Peng Hwa, “Sending bloggers to school” (Today, Aug 22, 2006).

I applaud his good intentions to help Singapore bloggers find their way around cyberspace without stumbling over the perils of state law. While I have some misgivings about the advertorial propensity of his article, I take it with a pinch of salt and good faith that he has the interests of his fellow citizens at heart. However, I am concerned about three points that he has raised.

The first has to do with Ang’s suggestion that, as long as a blogger writes nice, he would stay out of trouble. Unfortunately, one need not go on a tirade of obscenities to get into trouble. Would even the average Singaporean give credit to someone who raves and rants without facts or even a good idea to support his dissatisfaction? Those who get carried away with their words would eventually have their words carried away as well.

Indeed, of greater concern are those who have a reasonable word to speak. This can take the form of humour, sarcasm, or just plain fact-stating. These voices challenge authority, not without good reason – or at least with a logical point of view. They have the potential to convince and “mislead”. They would be the most susceptible to running afoul of the law, should the authorities choose to respond as the final arbitrator.

Sadly, it is this group of writers who can offer a different perspective and encourage lively debate. They might spout half truths, but half truths would be enough just to raise a few more questions, some of which might prove to be the turning point in uncovering the real truth. My fear is that, when Singaporeans hold back their half truths – usually based purely on a guess and a prayer, fueled with a lot of unhappiness – until they are quite sure they have the full truth, the energy of the debate would have been lost.

My second concern has to do with Ang’s statement on the amateurish nature of our online writers. The infantile nature of many Singapore bloggers has been quite well documented, not the least online. Yet, Ang’s belief that “because bloggers are non-professionals, they are likely to stumble into the pitfalls of writing” begs an immediate clarification.

Of course, not all online writers are journalists, and just as well to say that some of them were or still are. The question is, do you have to be professional writer to be a blogger on the good side of the law? Apparently not, since a lot of our schoolgirls and boys can dedicate their blogs to relatively flamboyant, frivolous and some downright farcical pursuits, all with a healthy dose of language enough to put a blush on our “rules” on obscenity, yet still get away with it. Why, some of them are even hailed as celebrity bloggers by one of our local online newspapers.

Indeed, flak might just as well go to those who are well versed with the law, but for some reason choose to push the boundaries. Incidentally, these might be the same bloggers who hold only half truths and desire debate. Indeed, this would be a more accurate distinction between a professional and non-professional writer in Singapore. The “professional” is bound by the requirements and constraints of his job, usually as a new worker, while the “non-professional” feels that the limits can be tested. I believe this to be what mrbrown has done, which got him into trouble.

This idea of pushing boundaries brings me to my third point – are the pitfalls that Ang suggested really to do with flouting the law? For sure, we have the obvious cases of racists bloggers charged under the Sedition Act. But we also have good reason to suspect that online writers might err outside of the legal boundaries, and I’m not just referring to those who were slammed by their fellow bloggers for remarks made against our foreign workforce.

All our acts and law relating to media content and usage are readily available online, and it doesn’t take a genius, media professional or even a “kiasu” guess to make some sense of it and know when to toe the line, or else.

The more uncomfortable issue is the out of bound (OB) markers. Local film maker and blogger Martyn See has lamented that “these boundaries, already amorphous as they are, are constantly shifting back and forth, catching off-guard just about anybody with an opinion deemed contrary to “national interest.”” Are OB markers the greater concern for online writers, rather than the word of law? To quote a household-name blogger, what exactly is a “persistently non-political podcast”?

Evidently, our online writers need to stay out of trouble, if for no other reason than to keep the demand for open debate alive. Having a clearer understanding of the law will help. Yet, the battle to stay afloat will always be a frustrating game of shifting spotlights and shadows, until we can accept bloggers for the very different craft they practice. Only then will the authorities realise that “violence” towards bloggers – legal or otherwise – would never be as effective as responding directly in their own playing field. N

My two-cents' worth for a two-cents increase

The following was a letter I sent to our local newspapers - it did not get published. I thought it might as well go in here.

When my wife read it, she asked if I was trying to be mr brown. I replied that mr brown is humourous, and I wasn't.

This article was written more with a lot of disbelief - as in "I can't believe our public transport providers actually expect us to believe their crappy press releases..." The rest is purely acid tongue. Enjoy...

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I hate the last leg of my journey to work everyday.

That's because I might have to board bus number SBS9253D. It has to be the most fear-inducing ride on the island, as the handle compartment for the emergency exit on the upper deck is choked full of rubbish - candy wrappers, tissue paper, you name it.

Say an emergency really happens. Would I reach for the handle only to pull out mucus-covered M&M's?

That has been the situation in May 2006 and at least a good six months before that. Has the situation changed since? I wouldn't know, since I don’t see the bus on my route anymore. I could only wonder if the emergency exit has been serviced in the last six months, when some civic-minded technician might cringe but still have the good sense to clear up the mess.

For an everyday Singaporean like myself, who take a four-leg public transport journey to work everyday, what matters most is not that we have spanking new buses plying our roads, complete with perfumed air-condition system and soft music playing. Hell, with a near six-foot frame I wouldn't even complain about the leg room, or the lack of it. Just a safe bus that comes on time would do fine. And I'm sure screeching brakes on a perfectly dry day, or air-conditioning systems that allow passengers to breathe only when the doors open, are not safety signs. Eco-friendly ones would also be a bonus, so we can all save on diesel.

Hence, you can imagine my surprise when I read in our local papers that SBS Transit plans to buy 150 new buses with their meager $220 million annual profit. Well, my math is not too good, but with a $55 million profit figure in the first quarter, that is the cringingly pathetic estimate we are looking at.

Don’t get me wrong - there is nothing I want more than for our fellow citizens with mobility difficulties to enjoy our top-notch public transport system. In fact, I'm sure we share the desire to get a handle on the same safety issues.

I'm just amazed that each bus costs a whopping $1m. And despite these being top-of-the-line fuel-efficient buses (only the best for Singaporeans, I presume), more diesel will still be guzzled, hence needing everyday Singaporeans to chip in an extra two cents for every trip. I feel sorry for our public transport operators – some bus manufacturer must really be ripping them off. To think they need to spend their annual profits on new buses that can only last a lousy year, for we can only assume from the papers that they are spending it only on buying new buses for us!

And all they are trying to do is provide a valuable public service to us, while struggling to make ends meet with that dastardly $70 million profit leftover.

Fortunately, I am confident that, with all the innovative people at SBS Transit and SMRT, they would surely be able to find a way recoup their flailing profit margin. Why, just yesterday morning, as I was traveling on the East-West line, I witnessed the most innovative form of in-train advertisement ever. After the usual stop announcements, an M1 advertisement would play just before every stop. Of course, it's not enough that the entire bus cabin is already covered with M1 advertising. A plain visual assault has no effect on Singaporeans, since most of us are blind to even the filthy condition of our buses anyway.

A full frontal audio assault would be best – I even saw a few snoozing passengers jolt up with that bleating announcement on M1’s latest offer. Serves them right – Singaporeans have no right to sleep on the train! They must stay awake constantly to support in-train advertising, so that SMRT can cover profit losses. SMRT is really smart – they seem to have spotted the fact that their customers have no concern whatsoever for their personal comfort and eardrums, and have thus deployed this innovative revenue generator.

I would also like to warn all Singaporeans to keep our buses clean. It is not the responsibility of our public transport operators to do that, even if it involves maintaining major safety features. They have bigger things to worry about, like how to get the best deal out of a bus manufacturer, since it is quite obviously cheaper to change the whole bus for $1m rather than service the brakes and screw on a plank near the entrance. Also, they really have to scratch their brains now to think of how to scrimp on the remaining $70m for extras like staff courtesy training and coolant for the air-conditioning systems on buses with no opening windows – apart from the now much-needed emergency exits. All this to meet the unreasonable demands of Singaporeans who just cannot tolerate suffocating for half an hour on a fully-packed bus to work. N

Essential Reading

Opening words

This blog is not an online newspaper, nor does it aspire to be one.

If it reads like one, it can only be for two reasons. The first is that it is my area of training, and the second is that the writing that goes into it attempts to capture some heart-felt expressions of everyday Singapore life.

Indeed, I have often wished that our newspapers would be able to do that, but a long history of adherence to the “objective truth” has rendered them somewhat, in my personal opinion, incapable of representing subjective voices crying to be heard.

Hence, this blog will be subjective, biasly so if necessary; because sometimes, representation is more important than what we assume is right and good for everyone.

That said, I would not dare to call myself a journalist. That is a title I reserve in my heart for a unique league of professionals who are willing to put their careers, sometimes their lives, on the line, so that, through their writing, there can be greater awareness and understanding in the world. Their spirit of “holding up a mirror to the world” is something that I hope to emulate in my writing, but not something that I can effectively do, given the time and resources that I have.

So there you have it – a two-bit writer always failing to measure-up fully, because I can only and would always give my two-cents’ worth!

The media

Is my main interest, even more so than my other favorite, the environment. In my heart, I have always seen myself as a media student, despite having graduated a good five years ago! I seem to get a perverse joy out of researching it during my studies, so this is really me getting into it again after a very long and rusting break!

In time, I hope to be able to uncover more about its rather ‘mysterious’ status in Singapore, so that all who write publicly can begin to press some real limits, instead of being exasperated about the fuzziness of media regulations here. Should you know of any useful info that can help me piece this puzzle together, do send me a note.

More than anything, it will be a way for me to ‘argue’ for my writing on this blog, for I already have this feeling that I will be offending people in good time… Nevertheless, I believe in being socially responsible for what I write, although I can almost guarantee that you will have no case of libel or prejudice against my writing. In any case, if you do feel my writing to be a personal offense to you, please drop me a note first before serving me a lawyer’s letter. If you can explain beyond a reason of a doubt why my writing is offensive to you, I would in all earnest delete the entry and apologise in the very same blog.

This blog

Is public, period. I don’t pretend that it is a private journal. Indeed, the whole point of me wanting it to be public is to get some feedback that will help with my journey.

I am also interested to find out when the Singapore government’s “soft touch” approach to such public online material will get hard on things, at which point it will be aroused enough to react (huh, what sexual puns?).

But if you think I’m only interested in churning out complain pieces, do note that I do not usually have that much negative energy in me! I love writing too much to use it for anger only. But do expect to see some harsh comments on social issues.

The name "Mediated Society" is a term I have reclaimed (or perhaps refreshed) from my 2000 thesis - Social Discipline and The Media: Creation and Governance of the Singapore Public. Go figure, and yes, when I said I was rusting, I really mean that long ago! N