Singapore Straits Times – Boring
The Singapore newspaper is well written, but extremely predictable, and hence so dull it’s hardly worth opening.
Things you will inevitably find in this paper:
Praise to various Singaporeans for being polite; stories about high real estate values; stories about how little guys are priced out of the housing market; reviews of hawker stall fare; stories about how happy foreigners are to live in Singapore (or conversely, how unhappy and homesick Singaporeans are who live elsewhere); coverage of the opening of new malls or other big construction projects, government-originated or otherwise; messages from the Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew – yes, ex-Prime Minister for many years, father of the current Prime Minister; defenses of various aspects of the Singapore public education system, especially the teaching of Mandarin and English; stories of world news, from Reuters, the BBC or New York Times, 3-4 days after they first appear on the Internet; coverage of politics in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Lots of good news, right? So what’s the problem?
Is it that I really want to see the crazy vehement attack politics of American media reproduced in Singapore? No, although the relentlessly upbeat coverage of local affairs is monotonous and frankly unconvincing (they protest too much). I do appreciate the reasoned tone of public debate in Singapore – it’s very refreshing to American ears. But I would like to see timely coverage of world affairs, some good investigative journalism into social affairs, or where the money comes from to buy the overpriced condos, a little muck-raking and perhaps some actual criticism of government policies. It’s too easy to read the Straits Times and come away as ill-informed as before opening it.
Sometimes a newspaper has to do something besides cheerleading.