Singapore’s mainstream media is not the “heavily-controlled media that some critics caricature it to be”, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday night (28 September).

Tharman was clarifying comments that he made during the first Majulah Lecture organised by the Nanyang Technological University on 20 Sept. During the lecture, the Deputy Prime Minister was asked for his thoughts on the lack of independent media in Singapore and whether the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) resorted to personal attacks during the 2016 Bukit Batok by-election.

He said that the media “doesn’t wait around for instructions, and it doesn’t excuse everything government does”. He added, “In my opinion our media does a better job at advancing the collective interests of Singaporeans than that in several other Asian countries, where the media has added to a divisiveness in society not seen in a long time.”

Tharman pointed out that the mainstream media carries important news from “both sides of the political debate” and that it is not a “good strategy” to blame the mainstream media for electoral losses.

“We should keep this going – the mainstream media as responsible players in our democracy, helping to move it forward. We should hope too that the middle in the social media gets stronger, for Singapore’s good,” he said.

No gutter politics

Tharman also clarified that he did not say during the lecture that the People’s Action Party (PAP) engaged in gutter politics during the Bukit Batok by-election last year. He said that the PAP “contrasted Dr Chee Soon Juan’s character with that of Murali Pillai in the Bukit Batok by-election, and highlighted how Dr Chee had said he was proud about his past”.

He added that the accusation of engaging in gutter politics was the Singapore Democratic Party’s position.

He said, “If Singaporeans ever come to ignore the track record and integrity of politicians, in the PAP or any other parties, it is Singapore that will end up in the gutter. That has been the story of many nations.”

More Singapore stories: