the power of the media

i don't mean my blog to be particularly "political" but i can't help but want to share what i just read here about Chee Soon Juan..

until now, pretty much everyone i know (and i'm talking here about us common men & women-on-the-street) who ever mentions him, especially during election time, speaks of him in disparaging terms, using unflattering words like "untrustworthy", "joker", "crazy", "siding with the foreigners", "liar", "traitor", "troublemaker", "doesn't know what he is talking about"... many did not think him "fit to be a politician" from the "manner" he was reported to have confronted the ruling party members "head on", "harassing them" with his accusastions, resulting in an endless string of defamation suits against him, as well as how he had "supported the Western media's attack on Singapore" way back some 10 years ago..

i even read somewhere someone saying about him, "I cannot help wondering whether Dr. Chee and his colleagues are fighting for democracy or is it a personal vendetta against the government."

however, after i read the article, i started to ponder a little on why myself and the people i know have always had such a poor opinion of this guy whom i personally have never even heard from directly nor read his books... whence comes this impression of him...?

Only then did i truly comprehend the immense power of the regulated local media... i gasped at how narrow my view had become from my limited diet of the goings-on around me...as how i've slurped up the local media's report on what PM Lee said recently in NZ..

"Singaporean voters are not fools. They judge who are the more credible candidates, and they know that this man and his party are not credible. That he's a liar, he's a cheat, he is deceitful, he's confrontational and it's a destructive form of politics designed not to win elections in Singapore but to impress foreign supporters and to make himself out to be a martyr," Mr Lee said.

chee soon juan himself spoke on this..

"When they run my picture in the newspapers you expect to see horns growing out of my head," says the leader of the Singapore Democratic Party. "I don't blame people for not voting for us. If I relied for my information on the newspapers here I wouldn't vote for me either."

why is the media messing with my mind?? :(