MDA fiasco: MSM made to look its worst

The MDA is not going to touch the producers and bloggers of socio-political sites for a while. Putting aside your fears, it's time to call this the MDA fiasco. You can't get the MDA or government to admit that they have botched this that's how you must now call the whole episode.

It's really easy. These the the moments the government shot its own foot and pressed the MSM that it is their national duty to make them look good. These are the times when the MSM look their worst but unfortunately for them too many readers can't tell the guises MSM come to us in. Such readers forget that they need to develop the skill to discriminate even more precisely reading the foreign media. Every media has its agenda!

This is now proven to be solid science. Nobody is capable of reporting the news as it actually is. That's beyond human capabilities. All of us interpret every visual, auditory or sensory stimuli. We have been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt  to be made this way. If you want to record an event impartially, take with you your recording equipment to the event but don't view it afterward (what's the point then?), and that would be impartial.

The government in a light touch mode basically believe it can guide and influence the news in their favor. When they lose faith in that, they regulate. All governments are addicted to regulation like an alcoholic to liquor. That is how you must strategise and deal with them. They will use their power unless there are constraints. Making the media independent does not solve the problem. It will definitely fall under some other  hands that is out of our reach. What we should aim for is not independence but diversity and equality. People must be open and declare their agenda and so all news can be evaluated correctly. This is how I feel our media landscape should evolve. In the print based and capital intensive broadcast world we couldn't do this but the Internet delivers to us new possibilities. Why be so stupid not to take advantage of them? But when you extend the old regime regulations into the new, you deny yourselves the new opportunities.

Unlike many netizens who had created an uproar over this issue, I never worry because I know pouring new wine into old wineskins would only cause it to burst. Instead I worry about the admin service becoming insular, which history tell us only outsiders will notice and must warn them. I worry about the government not going faster with greater accountability and transparency. Well, it helps if they come across as stupid sometimes because the path to more accountability and transparency is paradoxically for them to be less cocky. Meanwhile there would be many more opportunities for them to discover how out of touch they are but I can't tell when, where and how the next bomb is blowing up.

Update: 4:10pm

This is just one of many examples out there what the stupidity of MDA has landed us with. All the uncalled for negative publicity we are getting. Your colleagues at EDB facing investors would be asked some incredible questions what on earth were we doing? You don't need us to scold you. Your colleagues in other departments can be counted to do that and many would just be laughing at you behind your backs.

The leaders at MDA and MICA clueless as they are couldn't recognize what a hornet's nest look like and duly went to hit it. What do we gain from all these? At least restrictions of selling chewing gum had local benefits. I can laugh about it with my foreign friends. This one? I told them some of our elite admin officers were just idiotic. Of course the minister has to take the blame for allowing their stupidity to be paraded outside their offices.