Han Fook Kwang, The Straits Times editor-at-large, wrote an article "Let's talk about the past openly, warts and all", on Oct. 12, 2014.

He argued that Lee Kuan Yew's The Battle For Merger -- a reprint of the transcripts of 12 radio talks by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1961 -- would interest the public only if it contends with alternative accounts of the same period.

Han was lobbying for the prohibition on Tan Pin Pin's film, To Singapore, With Love, to be dropped. He wrote:

When there are two opposing ideas, that's when you get people excited and engaged.

A monologue will have the opposite effect.

Now that the Government is republishing the transcripts of the broadcast, should it not try to generate as much interest as possible?

Here's one idea: remove the prohibition on Tan Pin Pin's film, To Singapore, With Love.

It would make the Battle for Merger come alive.

This prompted a response from the state.

The press secretary to the deputy prime minister and minister for Home Affairs wrote a rebuttal letter to The Straits Times Forum on Oct. 14, 2014, explaining why the public screening of To Singapore, With Love is not allowed.

The argument likened the public screening of To Singapore, With Love to jihadi terrorist groups making films to glorify the jihadist cause:

To allow public screening of a film that obfuscates and whitewashes an armed insurrection would effectively condone the use of violence in Singapore and harm our national security. It would be like allowing jihadi terrorist groups today to produce and publicly screen films that glorify their jihadist cause.

ST editor a threat to national security?

So, by extension of this argument, the ST editor-at-large was lobbying to harm national security.

Bringing this argument to its logical conclusion, it means that The Straits Times as a newspaper is a threat to Singapore. This is because its editor used the paper as a medium and "lobbied", in the press secretary's words, for a film that has been likened to a jihadist cause.

Therefore, as ST is the only broadsheet English newspaper sanctioned by the state to publish for the masses, the state is also complicit in being a threat to national security.

Hence, the press secretary's letter to the ST Forum is, in reality, calling itself out as a threat.

Please discuss at which point does this argument fail. Support your answer with appropriate examples. (15 marks)

Top photo To Singapore, With Love

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