TR EMERITUS

Dear readers, If you haven't noticed, there is a complete news blackout on DBS Hong Kong's offer to fully compensate minibond holders which was reported by the South China Morning post and China Daily on 10 October 2008 this Friday. Just to be very sure, we flipped through the Strait Times, Lianhe Zaobao, TODAY and Channel News Asia's website thrice, watched the World and Asia News of CNA consecutively for two days and there is still no mention of what happened in Hong Kong. Instead, the mainstream media carries reports from the Asia-Pacific region on: - North Korea being removed from terror list by U.S: Who cares a damn ? - Troubled Kashmir gets first train service: Huh ? Does anybody knows where is Kashmir ? - Hong Kong finds melamine in two cadbury products: Finally Hong Kong is in the news, but this is not what we are interested in ! - Thousands rally in Bali over anti-porn bill: Only of interest to Ah Peks who keep mistresses in Batam lah. Wait...does the bill apply to Batam too ? - China scientists break panda's genetic code: Can you believe it ? An entire minute in the Channel 8 news at 6.30pm was devoted to this !!! Wow, are we being taught how pandas are having sex in order to boost our libido ? Well continue watching the video below if you are really so interested to know why pandas have black eyes.....zzz....zzz.... [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdTQ7Kpp-_s&hl=en&fs=1]   Had we not revealed the Hong Kongers' protest against DBS and its subsequent capitulation to the investors by agreeing to reimburse them completely, many Singaporeans will still be kept in the dark ! Listen for yourself the audio podcast of South China Morning Post on DBS Hong Kong's being the FIRST institution in Hong Kong to offer compensation to Hong Kong investors who bought minibonds from them: http://wayangparty.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/south-china-morning-post-audio-broadcast-on-dbs-hk-offering-compensation-to-minibond-investors/ Watch how the Hong Kongers protest against DBS which is obviously more garang than our "picnic outing" at Hong Lim Park last Saturday: http://wayangparty.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/dbs-first-to-repay-bonds/ This is absolutely preposterous !!! Doesn't the mainstream media know that the news of what happened to the Hong Kong investors will be of great interest to Singaporeans, especially local investors who have suffered heavy losses from purchase of the Lehman investment products ? Doesn't the government feel that Singaporeans ought to know that DBS Hong Kong has agreed to compensate the investors there while it is still dragging its feet here ? Is the media protecting the interests of the ordinary Singaporean or DBS ? It is obvious that this piece of important news is deliberately blacked out so as to prevent Singaporeans from exerting greater pressure on the DBS here to follow the example of DBS Hong Kong. There will be a terrible furore and outcry if the 10,000 affected Singaporeans know that their Hong Kong counterparts have been offered compensation and refund already. Anybody with a modicum of common sense will ask: Why are Hong Kongers and Singaporeans treated so diffferently ? What's more, the bank is a Singapore bank ! What can we do about this ? Let's spread this news blackout through the entire blogosphere. Forward this link to everybody you know. Once the news is disseminated, DBS will have no choice but to respond. To all those who haven't realized the importance of a free media, we hope now you had learnt a lesson from this fiasco. A free press is a pivotal pillar of every democratic society to keep a check on the government. When the media is being subjugated to the will of the executive, the people will suffer. The interest of those in power will be protected at the expense of the man in the street who do not have access to free and complete information. In Singapore, only the blogosphere offers a credible alternative source of information to the mainstream media. The question is: how do we get this out to the Ah Peks and Ah Mahs in the HDB heartlands who are still being brainwashed by the state media everyday ? Do not hesitate now. Let us join hands to advocate for a free press that is fair, objective and independent in servitude of the people rather than their pay-masters. Join the Fellowship to bypass the information blockade imposed by the state media. If you do not have a blog, you can help us by forwarding this link www.wayangparty.wordpress.com to everybody you know.   THE EDITORIAL TEAM WAYANGPARTY CLUB EDITORS' note: We will be providing you with daily news summary from CNA and Channel 8 from 9pm onwards for busy readers who may miss the news. Keep a lookout on our blog.  Read More →

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUpEPRfiIzE&hl=en&fs=1]  Read More →

By Fang Zhi Yuan According to a Straits Times report on 9 October 2008, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) fell eight places to No.77 on the list of 200 universities  in the latest survey of international universities by The Times of London Higher Education supplement. Judging from the negative publicity NTU has received worldwide over its censorship of an interview of opposition politician Chee Soon Juan from the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) which was due to be published in the students' bulletin, The Nanyang Chronicles, its ranking is expected to plummet over the next few years. The university's broadcast network had ran a news bulletin on Chee after he visited the school in late August to meet students to promote "political awareness and activism" on the campus. Chee was told by security personnel that his "unsolicited visits" were not welcomed and he needs to write in to the unversity for permission to do so. (He has done so and the NTU Students' Union have rejected a SDP's request to organise an event where the party can address students) Nevertheless, students from The Nanyang Chronicle, a university press and The Nanyang Spectrum, the campus television manage to obtain an interview with Chee during his short visit. But school officials pulled the bulletin off the airwaves after three days, and stopped a planned news article about Chee's visit, citing concerns school media were airing "unsolicited views" from an "uninvited" persons. Peeved by the censorship of their university media, NTU students organized a protest at Hong Lim Park last Sunday on 5 October 2008 to protest against the university's policy of censorship which made its way into international news as Reuters and the Agence France Presse wrote reports. A petition was presented for the nearly 70 people who showed up in support to sign. It also sparked off the setting up of an online newspaper, The Enquirer to be run independently and financially from the university. Had the university allowed the interview to be published, none of this backlash from the students would have happened. After all, according to students responsible for the alleged article, it was written in a "non-partisan" and "neutral" manner simply to report on Chee's visit. Given the general political apathy prevading Singapore's university campuses and the unspoken fear of being associated with opposition politics, few students would have a bade an eyelid at what Chee got to say, much less to be influenced by him. Instead, the university officials chose to adopt a hard-fisted approach to clamp down on the students' publications which is supposedly to be run autonomously by the students themselves. It was an overkill and in the end, they shot themselves in foot. The contentious issue here is more of the flagrant disregard of the students' political maturity and ability to think and judge for themselves rather than the point-blank censorship itself. In short, they do not want to be treated like kids to be lectured on what is right and wrong. The university was caught completely off guard by the furore its unwarranted action had stirred, initially publicized via Singapore's largely voracious anti-establishment blogosphere and subsequently the protest at Hong Lim Park which attracted international media attention. As a fledging university struggling to attract post-graduate students, tutors and researchers, to boost its international standings, surely this is a price too high to pay for. Why would the brightest brains be attracted to an institution where its students have to be shielded away from an opposition politician ? For the sake of short-term political expediency to appease the government, NTU has sacrificed its long-term vision of being an internationally renowned institution of learning and research. How an "unsolicited" visit by an opposition politician can lead to an "unsolicited" bad publicity bordering on a public relations disaster is anybody's guess. The resultant outcry has undone years of marketing and branding by the university and it may take quite to reverse the damage.  Read More →