The mainstream media in Singapore is having a field day reporting on itself.

This after Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam issued a lengthy Sept. 28 clarification on Facebook of his comments made during a dialogue in Nanyang Technological University a few days before, as his words took on a life of their own online the moment they left his mouth.

[related_story]

Tharman sets the record straight

The gist of what Tharman clarified to set the record straight are as follows:

No, PAP is not into gutter politics

• Tharman clarified that he did not say the PAP engaged in gutter politics in the Bukit Batok by-election.

PAP were just asking voters to judge for themselves

• He said he stands by what the PAP and his colleagues said: The PAP was not engaging in gutter politics just by comparing the opposition candidate with PAP's candidate.

The only gutter is the one awaiting Singapore

• He said Singapore will end up in the gutter if Singaporeans ignore the track record and integrity of politicians, PAP or otherwise.

The audience member asked a double-barrelled question

• The audience member at the NTU lecture had sought Tharman's views on whether the media landscape should be opened up and the mainstream media “not controlled by the government”, by citing Singapore’s low ranking by Reporters Without Borders.

Singapore has changed

• Tharman said that Singapore had become vastly more open compared to when he was younger.

The conflation of gutter politics and mainstream media openness was not made by him

• He did not entertain the assertion about the PAP engaging in gutter politics in Bukit Batok.

PAP and government agree there is no groupthink

• More generally, Tharman said, is that there are occasional differences of views on issues within the government and the PAP, and that’s healthy.

The mainstream media is a strange beast

• The mainstream media in Singapore is not a free-for-all or is it a heavily-controlled media.

Mainstream media keeping people informed and not against each other.

• Tharman regards the mainstream media as serious-minded, responsible players in an evolving Singapore democracy -- helping to take the country forward, but airing views in a way that avoids fragmenting society.

Mainstream media sandwiched between responsibilities

• That’s not an easy responsibility for the media.

Contradictory to say Singaporeans are critical and they get led on by the mainstream media

• And it is not a good strategy to blame the mainstream media for electoral losses, as it doesn’t square anymore with the reality of a public that reads, follows issues and thinks more critically as they read things and discuss them freely.

Keep mainstream media responsible

• Tharman said that we should keep the mainstream media as responsible players in our democracy, helping to move it forward.

Cultivate moderates on social media

• Tharman hopes that the middle in the social media gets stronger, for Singapore’s good.