Saturday, October 31, 2009

For Tomorrow - we have been Tomorrow'ed!

Tomorrow.sg was one of the first BIG aggregators in the Singapore blogosphere.

We are pleased to announce that our website has been picked up by Tomorrow.sg.

Truth be told, we approached a few bloggers about highlighting our website. Some turned us down because they did not want to be dragged into a debate involving a major blog. Sounds a lot like lawyers who don't want to represent you because they are afraid of taking on the big guns in town!

We are thankful for this coverage and have been inspired to bring you more insightful analysis and investigative reporting.

Coming Soon: A strategic analysis of Temasek Review.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Why has Temasek Review gone down again?

Temasek Review (formerly known as Wayang Party) is down again. Their website has been down for many hours now.

What is the basis for this? Could it be a massive distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack?

Those of us in the alternative media must beware of such cyberwarfare measures. You never know when somebody is going to try and take you down.

And it may not be the usual suspects who are responsible. Caveat freedom fightor!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

TOC Andrew Loh - WP or not WP, that is the question

Back in 2007, a big discussion erupted on the blog Mr Wang Says So, during a discussion about PAP's secret shadow brigade.

It took a strange turn when one deepthroat.sg (no relation to Annabel Chong), revealed that TheOnlineCitizen.com was registered by members of the Workers' Party. Deepthroat.sg asked if Andrew Loh was a member of the Workers' Party Youth Wing.

An important question as TOC claimed to be non-partisan.

What ensued was a denial on par with a certain famous individual saying he did not have sexual relations according to that definition.

The Online Citizen then claimed that Deepthroat.sg "made unsubstantiated claims such as Andrew being a member of the WP Youth Wing".

But TOC's own website admits that Andrew Loh quit the Workers' Party from April 2, 2008. So he was still a Workers' Party member in 2007.

So did they mean to say that Andrew Loh and TOC got off the hook, because he wasn't a member of the WP Youth Wing? Or is this a hair splitting denial that doesn't get to the spirit of the truth?

Is this the standard of truth and transparency that Singaporeans deserve?

We have the screenshots to prove it.

We bring you the facts. Because you deserve to know.


SCREENSHOT 1
TOC claims to be "non-partisan and not affiliated to any organisation - political or otherwise".

SCREENSHOT 2
Deepthroat.sg asks about TheOnlineCitizen.com being registered by Workers' Party members.
Also asks if Andrew Loh is a member of WP Youth Wing.
Poor Deepthroat. He/she spat too soon. The biting question wasn't firm enough and there was room for TOC to wriggle. (We will stop for now as this is a family friendly website and not the SammyBoy forums.)


SCREENSHOT 3
TOC says Andrew Loh is not a member of WP Youth Wing.
Notice how they don't say he is not a member of WP.

SCREENSHOT 4
But TOC's own website claims Andrew Loh resigned from WP in 2008. So he must have been a WP member in 2007, even if TOC said he wasn't part of WP Youth Wing!
So the FACTS are out. Maybe TOC didn't exactly lie to you. But they certainly didn't give you the truth.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

P65 - Tip of the Iceberg?

In August 2009, YPAP member Vikram Nair came out of the closet. He declared his YPAP status on the P65 blog. (screenshot archived below)

But was he the tip of the iceberg? Was he sacrificed by his masters so as to turn the hunting dogs off the scent? Are there other YPAP members hiding behind the cloak of p65.sg?

Singaporeans For Free Speech & Transparency is working hard behind the scenes to find out.

We bring you the FACTS that other websites don't want you to know.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

TOC - The Online CENSOR

There has recently been a mudslinging battle of epic proportions on The Online Citizen. It started bad and has gotten worse, with everybody whacking each other left right centre.

Singaporeans For Free Speech & Transparency (SGFree) is not particularly interested in the ongoing dogfight / catfight / shark fight.

What concerns us is that TOC has claimed to seek "honest and civil exchange of views". Yet TOC has been unwilling to apply their same standards of "honest" to themselves.

We decided to test TOC, by posting a valid question: Were they doing what some have accused certain media outlets of, i.e. interviewing partisans and passing it off as balanced reporting?

So we asked them a simple question: was the "Bernard Chen" year 1 history major who they interviewed also the same person who is an office holder in a Singapore political party youth wing?

Our question was CENSORED. Along with a post by someone else, who claimed the TOC debate was "rather shameful".

TOC, we can understand why some misguided souls may want to hide the facts. But suppressing views is one step further! Singaporeans deserve better.

We are attaching screenshots to prove the censorship occurred.

[Screen 1 below] Notice comment #116 of 4.38am, and our own comment #118 at 8.47am on 27 Oct 2009.


[Screen 2 below] Notice comment #116 has been censored. Our own comment #118 has also been censored. We are waiting to see if our latest comment (the new #116) at 9.10am has also been censored.

[Screen 3 below] UPDATE: Our latest comment was also censored. We have posted a "testing testing" message so that TOC's server provides a timestamp, to prove the censorship occurred.

We had called for TOC to be transparent about the investigation and action they were taking against the alleged "threats" that were going on. We also enquired about why they are censoring free speech.

We will test other websites. P65 has already been tested by some of our online Singaporeans, who forced an admission about PAP membership. Tune in again as we shine more light into the Singapore blogosphere!!!

Friday, October 2, 2009

It's time for Transparency

There's not enough transparency online these days. Do you know who is sponsoring the blogs you read? Are people declaring conflicts of interest?

We at Singaporeans For Free Speech & Transparency are tired of the wayang that is going on.

People claiming to be "Fair and Balanced"...
...
when they're anything but.

People claiming to be "Non-Partisan"...
...
when their actions don't live up to their claims.

People claiming to stand for "Free Speech" and "Disclosure"...
...
when they censor critics and refuse to give you the facts.

Do you have information that something is not what it seems? That our free speech is being manipulated by people behind the scenes? That transparency is anything other than transparent? You can email us at:

sgfreespeechtransparency [ at ] gmail.com.
(email obfuscated to defeat spambots)