An open letter to the editor of Berita Harian
Mohd Saat Abdul Rahman
Editor
Berita Harian
Email: saa[at]sph.com.sg
Dear sir,
The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) launched our GE Campaign in January 2015. Members of the media, both traditional and online, were invited to the event. As a result, the occasion received much coverage from all the main newspapers and news sites.
All except the Malay-language Berita Harian (BH).
BH has been conspicuously silent on SDP's activities. The newspaper was even absent when we launched our policy paper regarding the Malay community. It was only after several days of discussion online where the Malay community questioned the absence of reports by BH that the newspaper dispatched a reporter to the SDP's office to do an interview and subsequently published a story on our paper.
The same thing has happened with the latest SDP event – the launch of our economic policy talking about the CPF scheme, minimum wage, retrenchment benefits, and so on. These issues are important to Malays. And yet, BH was again not present to report on the issues raised.
The question is why. Why is the newspaper not reporting on the SDP's activities and policies? If the other newspapers can report on our events, why is the Malay-language newspaper not doing the same?
How are Malays in Singapore going to keep abreast of the developments of the opposition if they are deprived of relevant news? And if our community is not informed, how do we keep up, let alone compete, with the other segments of our society?
As it is, Singapore's Malay public thinks that BH is good only for its sports, job ads and the obituary sections. Does the newspaper think that Singapore Malays are not good enough for political news? Is this how the newspaper treats our Malays – uninformed and always one step behind everyone else?
The SDP has formulated alternative policies and ideas to address important issues that affect our Malay community. The least that BH can do is to keep the community informed.
We look forward to your response.
Mohd Jufrie Mahmood
Jufri Salim
Members
Central Executive Committee
Singapore Democratic Party
Mohd Jufrie Mahmood and Jufri Salim are members of the Central Executive Committee of the SDP.
Source: YourSDP.Org