Can Singaporeans tell fact from fiction? Do they believe in the temporary high?

Singapore’s cybersphere has been getting increasingly populated. There are sites like Fabrications about the PAP, which are outrightly pro-PAP; sites like Bertha Henson’s The Middle Ground, which claims to do exactly what it says; and there are also self-proclaimed alternative sites like TRE, and the infamous and now-defunct TRS.

 

Putting out misinformation

 

TRE claims to be:

 

Do you, as a Singaporean, speak like that?

 

Language aside, sites like TRE claim to put out alternative content. People believe in alternative medicine because they have the same end – to make a patient better, albeit in a different way. Just like how going to your GP makes you better, TCM seeks to “cure the root of the problem”, just that it does take a longer time.

 

What some alternative sites promises to do however, are like drugs. Not pharmaceutical ones, but recreational drugs which have been abused. They give you a temporary high, but they do not cure you.

 

Some alternative sites do not give readers an alternative view as they claim. They mislead readers with misinformation, they posit untruths as facts, they serve to incite and inflame you.

 

Most recent case in point, TRE claimed that Minister Heng’s medical expenses were funded by taxpayers’ monies. Without even thinking that Ministers are rich enough to pay for their own medical expenses (need to take from us meh?!)  TRE immediately pounced on the chance to pounce on the government.

 

Denying corrections

Like Alice Fong’s might-as-well-don’t-apologise apology (by the way, unlike what some alternative sites have said, Alice Fong is NOT a grassroots leader, bracket again, according to the MPs of the area), TRE then blamed itself for reproducing a comment without checking the underlying facts. Which can actually be read as blaming your reader as well. Hmmm..

 

Alice Fong, as much explaining she tried to do- is and will remain the nation villain. And she will never ever forget the damage on her that these online sites can do. The amount, speed and extent of CSI done – mind-blowing.


When it comes to accuracy however, some online sites might have missed their mark. They claimed that she is a member of Nee Soon Central grassroots volunteer – but she wasn’t. Looking back at it, it would have looked better on the government if:
1) Alice was really a GRL
2) Government dismisses her as a GRL
3) Let people think that wow, gov does listen to its people!

Yet – it remains a fact that Alice wasn’t a GRL. The MP of the area has also stood up to clarify it. Doubt that the MP would actually lie and put his job on the line. Say if she is really a grassroots volunteer, some might say she is dispensable to him cos there will be others who are willing to work for the community and not worth him losing his job.

Pictures with MP might just mean that you are a fan girl, or you are a participant. So oh well, another thumbs down to alternative site, and thumbs up to the REAL grassroots leaders.

 

 

 

Misleading others

 

Remember the other alternative site which claimed to be written by a Singaporean named “Farhan” but was actually a foreigner by the name of Ai Takagi and her husband? Well, they have also tried to discredit Singapore and Singaporeans by saying that there were “scenes of chaos” as people were refusing to go home after paying their respect to Mr Lee Kuan Yew. By calling it chaos, TRS could have stirred fear in people –actual fear that people felt during the actual chaos of the Little India riot. That isn’t good. It might even have led to real chaos, instead of it just being an annoyingly-crowded situation.

 

Would just like to end off by asking readers to be careful about what they read out there – read multiple sources and try to piece together an opinion for yourself (: It’s a tough challenge with the huge information cloud out there, but I feel that most Singaporeans would have the sense to judge for themselves, if they really wanted to.