mr brown is not exactly an opposition politician, but in the singapore situation, he shares similarities so is included for simplicity

Mr Brown: Officially Endorsed Critic Of Singapore Government

In an open and democratic society, anyone criticizing the government is considered to be merely exercising his/her rights as a participant in public affairs; it is unnecessary for any critic to get prior approval. So the title of this article might strike you as being very strange, reflecting the unique nature of this city state.

The first point to remember is the special nature of the public media here.  (See: Press and Blogger Bias in Singapore http://sinazen.com/sph ) Virtually all the public affairs media are under government macro control; government owned Mediacorp has a broadcast media monopoly, while singapore press holdings, whose principal executive officers are nominated by the government, owns all the daily papers (the free tabloid Today is a joint venture with Mediacorp). Without officially saying so, the public media are acting as the PR department of Singapore Inc, with the mission to report news and shape public opinions in a way that is positive for economic development, and it is for the foreign press and media to provde the wider diversity not available in the local media.

What amount of criticism of the government should the local media present? Everyone, the government included, knows that it is necessary to allow criticism so as to allow improvement, but this implies one need to make judgement about whether a particular piece of criticism would cause improvement and is worth reporting, and the person making the criticism has that objective in mind and a certain level of competence as a critic. In other words, to judge that he/she is suitable to be an officially endorsed critic. A critic whose objective is judged to be trying to help an opposition party or foreign government, or to arouse attention to himself/herself, or just to stir something up, would not deserve to be reported as if he/she was a fair critic.

In this, an officially endorsed government critic has a similar press role to a domain expert, with a reputation for professionalism and competence so that he/she could be trusted to be not speaking to advance particular commercial or political interests. Tay Kheng Soon, for example, is frequently in the press criticizing architectural designs, while Ho Khai Leong is consulted on election issues. However, whereas domain expertise and professionalism are relatively easy to judge, officially endorsed critics are far harder to certify.

The press's rather obsessive, almost desperate search for the next messiah almost always goes through the same cycle of rise and fall: someone appears full of promise, writes/speaks a few times arousing much excitement and eager anticipation, says/does something that passes an OB Marker  (see box on left) leading to an official reprimind, and ceases to be carried in the media like before. He/she might be hauled out now and then by various reporters on some particular occasions when an alternative voice is needed, but most of the time he/she is treated more like the carrier of a highly infectious virus, not to be approached without a decontamination process. (e.g.  "Catherine Lim, Prospective Politician")

Part of this excitement/anticipation about the latest prospective officially endorsed critic is: what would he/she say next? will it cross an OB marker?When he/she does say something that looks "insensitive", speculation goes rife about whether someone will get upset and send forth a reprimind. This speculation has elements of both hope and resignation - hope that the OB marker has been relaxed so that more "sensitive" matters can be discussed, and resignation that sooner or later someone will catch up with the critic's "insensitivity". If remarriage is the triumph of hope over experience, with our officially endorsed critics, experience usually results in resignation...

This process has just claimed its latest victim, the Today columnist/blogger who goes by the pseudonym of Mr Brown. When his column was "suspended" by Today (obviously, he could be revived now and then when an occasion requires his kind of domain expertice so he has not been "dismissed"), 30 people including a number of foreigners actually turned out for a 30-minute protest at an MRT station, wearing brown shirts, but that would not alter the cycle. The system grinds on according to its unique dynamics