• IP addresses are NOT logged in this forum so there's no point asking. Please note that this forum is full of homophobes, racists, lunatics, schizophrenics & absolute nut jobs with a smattering of geniuses, Chinese chauvinists, Moderate Muslims and last but not least a couple of "know-it-alls" constantly sprouting their dubious wisdom. If you believe that content generated by unsavory characters might cause you offense PLEASE LEAVE NOW! Sammyboy Admin and Staff are not responsible for your hurt feelings should you choose to read any of the content here.

    The OTHER forum is HERE so please stop asking.

Asia Sentinel Loses A S'pore Correspondent - Ben Bland

SNAblog

Alfrescian
Loyal
http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2159&Itemid=189

censorship.gif


Asia Sentinel Loses a Singapore Correspondent

Tuesday, 24 November 2009

When I moved from London to Singapore last October to set up as a freelance journalist, I finally got to meet the two officials from the Ministry of Information who had helped me secure an employment visa.

Over a cup of coffee at their office in a former colonial police station - possibly the world's most stylish propaganda ministry - they probed me politely about my background and intentions in Singapore. They were friendly but seemed perplexed about the concept of freelance journalism, even though it forms the backbone of much foreign reporting these days.

"If we have a problem with something that you've written, who can we speak to?"

Obviously, I told them, you can talk to the editor of whichever publication has commissioned any particular story.

"But what if we just don't like what you're writing in general?"

Then talk to me, I added.

They never did. Last month, after applying to renew my visa following a successful year in Singapore, I received a one-line letter informing me that my application had been rejected.

While the governments of Burma, China and Iran tend to arrest troublesome foreign reporters or expel them without delay, Singapore's more media-savvy government prefers a subtler approach to repression. The non-renewal of a work visa is their preferred method for getting rid of foreigners with minimal fuss or attention. It was the fate suffered last year by a group of Burmese permanent residents who made the mistake of protesting in support of their countrymen during the Saffron uprising of September 2007. They knew why they were being forced to leave, having breached Singapore's strict laws, which effectively proscribe public protest. I have no idea why I was ushered out.

Although the government likes to brag about the Lion City's ultra-efficient civil service, as soon as I tried to find out why my visa application had been rejected, I ran up against a brick wall. Officials from the Ministry of Manpower stonewalled me day after day while my ‘friends' from the Ministry of Information suddenly became a lot less helpful, insisting that they knew nothing about my case and refusing to assist me.

Eventually, after an intervention from the British High Commission, I was told that the government was not willing to disclose the reasons for turning down my application, despite the fact that I met all the criteria for renewal. I was told, in no uncertain terms, not to bother appealing.

Kept out of the loop by the government, like a growing number of Singaporeans, I turned to the uncensored space of the internet to find some clues.

On the popular ‘Sam's Alfresco Coffee Shop' message board, one user called ‘scroobal' seemed better informed about my enforced departure than the witless bureaucrats, suggesting it was somehow related to my work for Asia Sentinel.

He described me as "one dumb and ignorant journalist" for "staying in Singapore and doing things for Asia Sentinel". "Might as well pee in front of the Istana gates while old man drives by," he said, using the term many Singaporeans prefer to describe Lee Kuan Yew, their founding Prime Minister and current Minister Mentor, in private.

Elaborating on this theory, he explained that Asia Sentinel was founded by "ex-editors of publications previously sued by the old man such as Far Eastern Economic Review and Asian Wall Street Journal" some of whom were "previously banned from Singapore".

I don't know whether my work for Asia Sentinel irked the government as much as the presence of its editor John Berthelsen, who was refused entry to the city-state earlier this year, 21 years after he was first forced out as a correspondent for the Asian Wall Street Journal in circumstances remarkably similar to my own.

Over the last year, I have reported for a wide range of serious publications in addition to the Asia Sentinel, including The Economist, The Daily Telegraph, the Far Eastern Economic Review, the British Medical Journal and even Singapore's government-owned Straits Times and Business Times. I have covered some sensitive subjects in the tightly-controlled city-state such as rising crime, healthcare and ageing and business links with Burma.

However I steered clear of criticism of Singapore's first family, knowing that any negative comments about Lee Kuan Yew, his son, the Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, and the PM's wife Ho Ching, who heads Temasek, one of Singapore's two sovereign wealth funds, would lead to a libel suit I had little chance of defending, let alone winning.

In recent years, the Lees have won libel cases against almost every major international news organization including The Economist, the International Herald Tribune, the Financial Times, Bloomberg and, most recently, the soon-to-be-closed Far Eastern Economic Review.

Combined with the government's direct control over the domestic press, this leads to an insidious climate of self-censorship that cows both Singaporean and foreign journalists. Yet, ironically, the government still pursues its ambition of becoming a global "media hub" as it seeks to invigorate its export-dependent economy.

While I was packing my bags, the law minister, K Shanmugam, was insisting to a group of visiting American lawyers that Singapore's perpetually low rankings in press freedom indices were "quite absurd and divorced from reality".

"Our approach on press reporting is simple: The press can criticise us, our policies. We do not seek to proscribe that. But we demand the right of response, to be published in the journal that published the original article."

I was desperate to speak out against such rank hypocrisy but had been effectively gagged when my work visa was cancelled, receiving a stern warning not to engage in any "business, profession or occupation" or any activities "detrimental to the security and well-being of Singapore".

Some news organisations are put off by the government's bipolar approach to the media. One leading international publication decided to set up its new Southeast Asian bureau in Bangkok rather than Singapore after learning how I had been treated.

But many are still attracted by the well-developed infrastructure, good transport connections and generous tax breaks and other financial inducements offered by Singapore's inward investment agency, the Economic Development Board. Dow Jones, Reuters and BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the British state broadcaster, are among those with regional headquarters in Singapore, for whatever reasons.

It is a great testament to the unique brand of soft authoritarianism honed by Lee Kuan Yew and his People's Action Party that they are able to convince so many journalists and media organisations to slip into voluntary restraints.

One veteran foreign correspondent in Singapore went so far as to advise me not to talk about my situation lest the government bar me from returning in future, thereby limiting my career prospects in Southeast Asia.

If self-censorship is rife among foreign reporters, who can simply leave the Lion City when they fall foul of the authorities, imagine the predicament faced by Singaporean journalists.

Even if they cross the unwritten line of acceptability unwittingly, they are subject to a form of internal exile, forced out of their jobs and made to somehow conjure up an alternative career if they are to feed and house their families.

It is little wonder that the sage advice of one professor of journalism at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University to an eager student reporter was: "If you want to do journalism, don't do it in Singapore."

Ben Bland is a freelance journalist. He was based in Singapore between October 2008 and October 2009. He blogs at http://www.asiancorrespondent.com/the-asia-file.
 

scroobal

Alfrescian
Loyal
Dear Ben

The old man detained/restricted Chia Thye Poh for 32 years ( including house arrest, a house that they chose on Sentosa) without trial . Longer than Mandela. That tells you how vindictive a person can be.

By the way, Asia Sentinel used to carry articles for Chee Soon Juan and SDP.

The day old man dies, you will see Singaporeans that you have known for sometime suddenly finding the voice to express their actual feelings.

Early this year Viswa Sadasivan, newly appointed NMP read the signals wrongly and tried to redirect attention to the Singapore Pledge. Old man fell on him like a ton of bricks. Viswa who was shortlisted for PAP MP and placed in SPH for a while but missed out did go on to chair the Government Feedback Body for years. The bulk of his consultancy work are for Govt bodies and GLCs. Even someone as close to the PAP for years can misread the signals. So you are in good company when the label dumb and ignorant was used.

Many years ago, the country Manager of the 2nd biggest bank in the world, met with MAS Mgmt to discuss a rather abrupt ruling to reduce credit card lines to 2 months of monthly income. As it was done in Oct/Nov and likely to impact Dec travel for obvious reason, he sought an extension. Expecting a robust discussion, he was told that the instruction came from the top and it was pointless discussing. When asked what would happen if the deadline was not met, they replied that his visa will be cancelled.

Here is the short summary of what you can do in Singapore - you can screw the chicks to kingdom come, you can even hire someone for 50 cents a day as there is no minimum wage laws here, you can even get a maid and with the full backing of the law confine her in your house and make her work 7 days a week with no break, you can even bring relatives and friends from anywhere in the world and displace locals in any vocation except driving taxis, you can even yell at a local, you can even jump queue if locals are ahead even in trendy restaurants but you must never associate with adversaries of the old man.
 

Dick4Bob2Suck

Alfrescian
Loyal
Lim+Chin+Siong+Chia+Thye+Poh.jpg


The man on the left was jailed without trial for 32 years? Longer than Mandela? Is that in Guinness Book of World Records? Wow! Lee Kuan Yew is the man!
 
Last edited:

johnny333

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
As a journalist this guy is naive. Spore is the old man's backyard lah. He thinks he owns everything in it, including the people.


Although hundreds of thousands of Sporeans have left to find new homes, majority can't leave. At least this journalist has a home to go back to :rolleyes:
 

cheekenpie

Alfrescian
Loyal
I read this article in Temasek Review. But the guy censored and removed scroobal's name from the article. why ar?

Dear Ben

The old man detained/restricted Chia Thye Poh for 32 years ( including house arrest, a house that they chose on Sentosa) without trial . Longer than Mandela. That tells you how vindictive a person can be.

By the way, Asia Sentinel used to carry articles for Chee Soon Juan and SDP.

The day old man dies, you will see Singaporeans that you have known for sometime suddenly finding the voice to express their actual feelings.

Early this year Viswa Sadasivan, newly appointed NMP read the signals wrongly and tried to redirect attention to the Singapore Pledge. Old man fell on him like a ton of bricks. Viswa who was shortlisted for PAP MP and placed in SPH for a while but missed out did go on to chair the Government Feedback Body for years. The bulk of his consultancy work are for Govt bodies and GLCs. Even someone as close to the PAP for years can misread the signals. So you are in good company when the label dumb and ignorant was used.

Many years ago, the country Manager of the 2nd biggest bank in the world, met with MAS Mgmt to discuss a rather abrupt ruling to reduce credit card lines to 2 months of monthly income. As it was done in Oct/Nov and likely to impact Dec travel for obvious reason, he sought an extension. Expecting a robust discussion, he was told that the instruction came from the top and it was pointless discussing. When asked what would happen if the deadline was not met, they replied that his visa will be cancelled.

Here is the short summary of what you can do in Singapore - you can screw the chicks to kingdom come, you can even hire someone for 50 cents a day as there is no minimum wage laws here, you can even get a maid and with the full backing of the law confine her in your house and make her work 7 days a week with no break, you can even bring relatives and friends from anywhere in the world and displace locals in any vocation except driving taxis, you can even yell at a local, you can even jump queue if locals are ahead even in trendy restaurants but you must never associate with adversaries of the old man.
http://tinyurI.com/yacq9ao
 

scroobal

Alfrescian
Loyal
Thats Temasek Review for you, being dishonest, plagiarises, tampers and adulterates to the very end. The only consolation is that he does it to everyone.

I read this article in Temasek Review. But the guy censored and removed scroobal's name from the article. why ar?
 

hellfire

Alfrescian
Loyal
Hi Cheekenpie,

This scroobal is a fraudster and SPH mole planted to wreck havoc in the opposition camp.

Ben Bland should not have quoted him in the first place as it will bring cast doubts on the credibility of his article.

Let's hope Ben will remove the offending name from his original piece soon.
 

hellfire

Alfrescian
Loyal
Plagiarize? Didn't you read the first sentence that the article was republished with kind permission from Ben Bland?

It's a TR's policy not to quote anonymous monikers with dubious motives. :rolleyes:
 

TheBonerman

Alfrescian
Loyal
Hi Cheekenpie,

This scroobal is a fraudster and SPH mole planted to wreck havoc in the opposition camp.

Ben Bland should not have quoted him in the first place as it will bring cast doubts on the credibility of his article.

Let's hope Ben will remove the offending name from his original piece soon.

The fucking Bapok Lee Hsien Loong recently declared that the PAP will take on it's detractors in cyberspace. Looks like his fucking warriors are his mirror images!:oIo::oIo::oIo:
 

ThePlen

Alfrescian
Loyal
good luck ben. keep writing about sinkie though. coz the local journalists have no balls to do it
 

yellow people

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Hi Cheekenpie,

This scroobal is a fraudster and SPH mole planted to wreck havoc in the opposition camp.

Ben Bland should not have quoted him in the first place as it will bring cast doubts on the credibility of his article.

Let's hope Ben will remove the offending name from his original piece soon.

Plagiarize? Didn't you read the first sentence that the article was republished with kind permission from Ben Bland?

It's a TR's policy not to quote anonymous monikers with dubious motives. :rolleyes:


Okay you may now post with your other clones. LOL!
 

HellAngel

Alfrescian
Loyal
Talk about anonymity and dubious motives!

Tell who is behind TR and what is its motives in wacking the oppositions! Who is the character with a more dubious motives? Why constantly collect IPs?


Plagiarize? Didn't you read the first sentence that the article was republished with kind permission from Ben Bland?

It's a TR's policy not to quote anonymous monikers with dubious motives. :rolleyes:
 

TRWatch

Alfrescian
Loyal
SNABlog said:
On the popular ‘Sam's Alfresco Coffee Shop' message board, one user called ‘scroobal' seemed better informed about my enforced departure than the witless bureaucrats, suggesting it was somehow related to my work for Asia Sentinel.

Here is the edited version by Temasek Review:

qrdt3m.jpg


Notice how the plagiarizer behind Temasek Review deleted Scoobal name. Ben Bland may authorized them to reproduced his article, but does he know that his article has been edited by the cheat behind Temasek Review? :confused: Hope someone here can alert Ben about this. :cool:
 

TRWatch

Alfrescian
Loyal
Talk about anonymity and dubious motives!

Tell who is behind TR and what is its motives in wacking the oppositions! Who is the character with a more dubious motives? Why constantly collect IPs?

This dishonest plagiarizer behind TR thinks that by editing his plagiarized work to include the source, he is now safe. He is still unware of some other offences he has already committed. Or maybe he knows but he thinks he can do whatever he wants under anonymity. We shall see! :wink:
 

TRWatch

Alfrescian
Loyal
I read this article in Temasek Review. But the guy censored and removed scroobal's name from the article. why ar?


Juz notice this in the comment section:

<li class="alt" id="comment-44042"> Leongsam on Wed, 25th Nov 2009 12:28 pm
2fdbd59eab5d21b2027c026e1cd06a37

Why did you edit out the name of xxx when quoting Sammyboy forum?


I don't think Sam will visit that scam site to post such a comment This is likely another ruse by this cheat behind Temasek Review, after reading our discussion here. It is unlikely to be sam because he would not type xxx in place of scroobal name. Only the cheat behind TR could not bear to stand the sight of the name scroobal. He is just using this dirty cowardly tactics to give himself a chance to attack scroobal by saying he is of dubious character. Over at his site he can say what he wants, but he knows that if he say it here, he will surely get whacked all over the place. So this coward uses this ruse to attack scroobal at his own website, knowing that scroobal will not be able to defend himself there. Cunning right? From his remarks, it seems that he have written to ben and asia sentinel to have scroobal's name deleted. What a prick this guy is! :mad: No balls to engage scroobal here, but use such lowdown tactics to retaliate. :rolleyes::oIo: PUI!

<li class="alt" id="comment-44066"> admin on Wed, 25th Nov 2009 1:32 pm
5cad04ca8be4f7b43854174dd5d13bf9

Hi Leongsam,
It was deleted after we receive complaints from our readers about the dubious motives of this character in your forum.
We believe the writer and Asia Sentinel have received the same feedback too and will delete his name in due course.

Let me quote what the cheat behind Temasek Review had said about his website:

"Our editorial position is consistently based on social justice, human rights, democracy, civil liberties, and governance centred around the principles of transparency, accountability and responsibility from which we will endeavor to foster an informed, educated, thinking and proactive citizenry."

I wonder by using such lowdown tactics to hit against ppl who disagree with him, is this TR's defintion of "social justice"? :rolleyes:

By trying to cover up his plagiarism and then pretend to be innocent, is this his definition of tranparency, accountability and responsibility? What a conman!
 
Last edited:

scroobal

Alfrescian
Loyal
This guy first wrote about witnessing an opposition candidate throwing boiling water at an old man in an Ang Mo Kio coffeeshop. This was nearly 6 years ago. He has never changed. He has lied, misrepresented facts, falsified information, and his trademark habit publishing non existent interviews with topical personalities are legends. He has also used my nick in other forums and even created a blog just for me.

Ben Bland immediately knew what I wrote and even mentions that the chap was denied entry to singapore after being deported nearly 2 decades ago. This guy probably has no clue what the whole incident is about.

You however have to give it him for his sheer persistence and hardwork. Not many people can afford to create multiple nicks, providing comments to himself for his articles which he has doctored or plagisrised. Not many people can create an illusion that he is having editorial team and correspondents when its just one man show. One has to admit that his website though built of cards is impressive. Bear in mind, he even conned PAP Michael Palmer, SPH Political Journalist Peh Shing Huei, and a number of Bloggers and political activist. He even pulled a fast one on legendary "Darkness", the master of cyber fiction of the UK Singapore student community.
 

TRWatch

Alfrescian
Loyal
Have you all notice that everything something is posted about TR in a thread, TR will use his clones to spam other several threads in order to push that thread several pages down, hoping that new visitors may not see it. Check out two of his clones - Choon Yong & flyingdagger.

The first clone Choon Yong had spammed more than 10 threads consecutively with one-liner post. Earlier, flyingdagger had spammed more than 8 threads consecutively using the same method.

Check out my signature to know who are his clones that I have ID. There may be more than has yet to surface. Then watch how it will be used at different time to spam this forum whenever that is a negative post on TR. :rolleyes:

Watch and see for yourself :cool:
 
Top