On Jan. 14, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) issued a strongly-worded statement on the editorial titled “Singapore’s angry migrant workers”, which was published on the New York Times website and the International New York Times last December.
The statement revealed Singapore’s Ambassador to the United States Ashok Mirpuri had contacted the Times after the editorial was published to put the facts right, but the letter was not published.
Instead, the Times was said to have “raised fresh objections each time previous objections were met” and did not allow the Ambassador to “so much as suggest that the Times had been mistaken in its analysis of the causes of the riot”, according to Channel NewsAsia.
In the editorial, the Times had suggested that the Little India riot that happened on Dec. 8 was caused by “frustration over wages and living conditions”, but had not included substantial supporting evidence. Ambassador Mirpuri had challenged this by saying that the workers involved in the riot had been employed by dozens of different employers and stayed in different dormitories.
Ambassador Mirpuri also cited other factors that showed the rioters were not motivated by the issues highlighted by the Times’ story, including evidence the incident was spontaneous, triggered by a fatal traffic accident, and that it had occurred on the workers’ day off.
The Ambassador also revealed a committee of inquiry will establish clearly the factors that led to the historic incident.
“The New York Times, like any other newspaper, is entitled to express its own opinions. But when it suppresses rejoinders that express a contrary view, and show that the Times is mistaken, it gives the lie to its claim to champion freedom of speech and truth,” said MCI in their statement.
Photo: AFP
