In 2013, Cheong Yip Seng, former chief editor at The Straits Times (ST), dropped a proverbial bomb on Singapore’s media landscape: the now-famous OB Markers: My Straits Times Story.

Cheong had been chief editor for nineteen years, but instead of going gently into that good night, he penned a book. In it, Cheong spilled the beans on the rumoured threats, dreaded intimidations, and softer touches employed by founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew to ‘handle’ the press during his reign. Why?

“…[Cheong] did not want to leave behind the legacy of being a government lacky,” speculates PN Balji, six years later, in his own book on Singapore’s early media history, titled Reluctant Editor.

In fact, it was Cheong’s memoir that inspired Balji to write Reluctant Editor, which he insists is ‘not a memoir’.

The two tell similar stories: of plucky journalists and stressed editors, fierce competition and government pressure, early warnings and last-minute ‘stop-the-presses’. But that’s where the resemblance ends.

Cheong’s memoirs are long, laborious, and rich with detail. Sometimes, they’re a little too rich. OB Markers had two purposes: to educate the public on LKY’s legacy of media controls, and to provide a resource for future historians. That’s all well and good, but it renders OB Markers somewhat inaccessible to the everyman.

The answer? Reluctant Editor.