
Mic check: Singapore podcast boom amplifies opposition voices
SINGAPORE: In a tiny studio, a former Wall Street banker and an ex-aviation executive are doing what critics say is lacking in Singapore's tightly managed media landscape - giving opposition politicians unfiltered airtime ahead of an upcoming election.
The popular podcast Yah Lah But -- a colloquial Singlish way of saying "Yes, but" - promises "the most uncensored conversations and interviews from the much-censored country of Singapore", according to its YouTube description.
The show is part of a growing wave of podcasts deep-diving into the affluent city-state's politics, providing alternative coverage of the May 3 polls.
"We're not scared. I think there's a desire to really hear different voices," said host Terence Chia.
Despite its reputation as a modern global hub, Singapore's domestic media is "tightly controlled by the government" and self-censorship is "widespread", said Reporters Without Borders, ranking it 126th out of 180 countries.
Its media landscape is also dominated by players linked to the government that critics say are too pro-establishment.
However, mainstream election coverage of the opposition has improved over the past decade, with its news podcasts showing a willingness to feature alternative voices.
Co-host Haresh Tilani said the independent Yah Lah But will not give their guests a free pass, no matter their party.
"We don't just bash the establishment. We, in fact, challenge them," he told AFP.
Ahead of the election, Yah Lah But has pivoted to political topics and conducted long interviews with politicians from both sides of the aisle, employing a candid tone that allows a peek into their personalities.
"In parliament, rallies, and in mainstream media you see one side of them but podcasts allow you to see the human side of them," Tilani said.
Singapore's ruling People's Action Party (PAP) has held power since 1959 with an overwhelming majority of parliament seats, and is expected to win the May 3 election.
But the opposition has made gains in recent years, and the election will be seen as a referendum on PAP's popularity under Prime Minister Lawrence Wong when up against a rejuvenated opposition.
Despite podcasts' niche reach, Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chairman Paul Tambyah said they are "definitely" a better platform than mainstream outlets for non-ruling party players.
"The PAP government has made no secret of the need for agencies... to promote the views of the 'government of the day'," he told AFP.
SDP leader Chee Soon Juan said he has never been invited for a long-form interview by mainstream media in his three decades in politics.
Earlier this month, Chee was on The Daily Ketchup, another breakout podcast, for nearly an hour and a half.
"Ask me the hard-hitting questions, the ones that drill into the issues - I'm happy to answer. But they (mainstream media) just won't engage in that sense," Chee told AFP.
Legacy media's "biggest problem" is "the government which controls the media", said veteran former editor P. N. Balji.
"Even if the government... opens up, I'm not sure the media knows what to do," Balji said. "They've been used to a certain style of reporting."
Mainstream outlets did not respond to comment when contacted by AFP.
With the podcast microphones finally on, the opposition is not wasting time - and Singaporeans are taking note.
When Workers' Party's rookie candidate Harpreet Singh appeared on Yah Lah But, his hour-plus-long episode racked up almost 100,000 views in two weeks - huge for a long-form interview in tiny Singapore.
"This is literally the first time I've heard this man speak, but (he) has completely won me over," said one commenter.
SDP leader Chee's episode on The Daily Ketchup got 126,000 views since its mid-April debut - a reflection of the "pent-up demand" for long interviews with politicians, said co-host Jonathan Chua.
In January The Daily Ketchup landed a coup, securing Prime Minister Wong for an interview. It now has 269,000 views.
"The cast members on the show have been upfront on which political parties they are leaning towards... Instead of self-moderating, we cast people with different political views and let them be themselves," Chua told AFP.
Podcasts have "greatly expanded the opposition's access to the public", said Cherian George, a Singapore politics and media expert, adding that their presence also "pressured the mainstream media to take down their pro-establishment bias a notch".
Yah Lah But's hosts believe podcasts will play a larger role in Singapore's political discourse in the future.
"Podcasts are really providing the platform to ask really tough questions that the mainstream media isn't able to ask," Chia said. - AFP

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


New Straits Times
an hour ago
- New Straits Times
Tears, tattoos, Cartier watches: fan frenzy at BTS army discharge
SOUTH Korea's Yeoncheon county, just kilometres from the heavily fortified border with the nuclear-armed North, is best known for its honey. But on Wednesday, it was flooded with K-pop supergroup BTS fans. Despite pleas from the band's agency HYBE to stay away from the area where members Jimin and Jungkook were being released from mandatory military service, a screaming, weeping frenzy ensued early Wednesday. Decked out in the band's signature purple, and some even sporting BTS tattoos, fans began gathering at 3am. Some had flown in from Brazil and Indonesia, eager to catch the first glimpse of the pair after their discharge. As the two BTS stars emerged, fans screamed, cried and hugged each other. Wu Ruohan, an 18-year-old Chinese fan, said this was her "dream come true." Their release means that six of the seven members of BTS have now finished their service. The final member – SUGA – is due out on June 21, bringing the group one step closer to reunion and new music. Security moved the cordons to keep fans at bay as Jimin and Jungkook arrived, dressed in camouflage military uniforms, AFP journalists saw. The K-pop idols, who have spent 18 months on the frontline with North Korea serving in the 5th Infantry Division Artillery Brigade, thanked the crowd for waiting for them. "It's been a while since I've been in front of a camera, and I'm a bit embarrassed because I didn't even put on makeup," said Jungkook, who looked slightly flustered at the mass gathering. Jimin confessed they had gone for a 5am jog, hoping to look their best. The pair bowed to fans and media before getting into a black minivan and driving off, promising to speak on their superfan platform WeVerse later. Online, fans bickered about whether it was right to turn up at the bases, against requests from HYBE and BTS. Before they enlisted, the BTS members had knelt during a live broadcast to earnestly entreat their fans not to show up at army bases as they entered military life. "They're not real fans, the boys even knelt and begged for them to not come," one social media user wrote, sharing screenshots of those at the scene, in a seeming effort to shame them. Experts have said the members will likely have a "visual adjustment period" of a few months, while they grow out their military buzz cuts and hone their K-pop look. Even so, fashion enthusiasts were looking for any scraps of personality amid their military attire, seizing on the watch worn by member V who was discharged Tuesday. His Cartier piece was estimated to be worth around 20 million won (US$14,649). In contrast, his bandmate RM wore an affordable Casio. But to the disappointment of online sleuths, neither Jimin nor Jungkook wore a watch on Wednesday. On Friday, the seven-member group celebrates the 12th anniversary of its debut, known as FESTA. Fans from around the world are pouring into South Korea for the occasion. On Wednesday, thousands of people were seen outside HYBE's headquarters in downtown Seoul waiting for vans carrying the stars to arrive. While waiting to see their idols, fans sang along to BTS songs and chanted 'Jimin, Jungkook,' as multiple local broadcasters aired the scene live. Local media were seemingly taken aback by the huge interest in the releases and called the reunion a "revival of the K-pop industry."

The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Rare earths: China's trump card in trade war with US
File photo of a labourer working at a site of a rare earth metals mine at Nancheng county, Jiangxi province. - Reuters BEIJING: China is counting on one crucial advantage as it seeks to grind out a deal to ease its high-stakes trade war with the United States -- dominance in rare earths. Used in electric vehicles, hard drives, wind turbines and missiles, rare earth elements are essential to the modern economy and national defence. AFP takes a look at how rare earths have become a key sticking point in talks between the US and China. "The Middle East has oil. China has rare earths," Deng Xiaoping, the late Chinese leader whose pro-market reforms set the country on its path to becoming an economic powerhouse, said in 1992. Since then, Beijing's heavy investment in state-owned mining firms and lax environmental regulations compared to other industry players have turned China into the world's top supplier. The country now accounts for 92 per cent of global refined output, according to the International Energy Agency. But the flow of rare earths from China to manufacturers around the world has slowed after Beijing in early April began requiring domestic exporters to apply for a licence -- widely seen as a response to US tariffs. Under the new requirements -- which industry groups have said are complex and slow-moving -- seven key elements and related magnets require Beijing's approval to be shipped to foreign buyers. Ensuring access to the vital elements has become a top priority for US officials in talks with Chinese counterparts, with the two sides meeting this week in London. "The rare earth issue has clearly... overpowered the other parts of the trade negotiations because of stoppages at plants in the United States," said Paul Triolo, a technology expert at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis, in an online seminar on Monday. That disruption, which forced US car giant Ford to temporarily halt production of its Explorer SUV, "really got the attention of the White House", said Triolo. Officials from the two countries said Tuesday that they had agreed on a "framework" for moving forward on trade -- with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick expressing optimism that concerns over access to rare earths "will be resolved" eventually. The slowing of licence issuance has raised fears that more automakers will be forced to halt production while they await shipments. China's commerce ministry said over the weekend that as a "responsible major country" it had approved a certain number of export applications, adding that it was willing to strengthen related dialogue with "relevant countries". But that bottleneck has highlighted Washington's reliance on Chinese rare earths for producing its defence equipment even as trade and geopolitical tensions deepen. An F-35 fighter jet contains over 900 pounds (more than 400kg) of rare earth elements, noted a recent analysis by Gracelin Baskaran and Meredith Schwartz of the Critical Minerals Security Programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Developing mining and processing capabilities requires a long-term effort, meaning the United States will be on the back foot for the foreseeable future," they wrote. The recent export control measures are not the first time China has leveraged its dominance of rare earths supply chains. After a 2010 maritime collision between a Chinese trawler and Japanese coast guard boats in disputed waters, Beijing briefly halted shipments of its rare earths to Tokyo. The episode spurred Japan to invest in alternative sources and improve stockpiling of the vital elements -- with limited success. That is "a good illustration of the difficulty of actually reducing dependence on China", said Triolo, noting that in the 15 years since the incident, Japan has achieved only "marginal gains". The Pentagon is trying to catch up, with its "mine-to-magnet" strategy aiming to ensure an all-domestic supply chain for the key components by 2027. The challenge facing Washington to compete with Beijing in rare earths is compounded by sheer luck: China sits on the world's largest reserves. "Mineable concentrations are less common than for most other mineral commodities, making extraction more costly," wrote Rico Luman and Ewa Manthey of ING in an analysis published Tuesday. "It is this complex and costly extraction and processing that make rare earths strategically significant," they wrote. "This gives China a strong negotiating position." - AFP


The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Nighttime curfew in LA as Trump vows to ‘liberate' city
LOS ANGELES: A nighttime curfew was in force in Los Angeles on Tuesday as local officials sought to get a handle on protests that Donald Trump claimed were an invasion by a 'foreign enemy.' Looting and vandalism has scarred the heart of America's second biggest city as largely peaceful protests over immigration arrests turned ugly after dark. 'I have declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting,' Mayor Karen Bass told reporters. One square mile (2.5 square kilometers) of the city's more-than-500 square mile area will be off-limits until 6am (1300 GMT) for everyone apart from residents, journalists and emergency services, she added. One protester told AFP the arrest of migrants in a city with large foreign-born and Latino populations was the root of the unrest. 'I think that obviously they're doing it for safety,' she said of the curfew. 'But I don't think that part of the problem is the peaceful protests. It's whatever else is happening on the other side that is inciting violence.' Small-scale and largely peaceful protests -- marred by eye-catching acts of violence -- began Friday in Los Angeles as anger swelled over ramped up arrests by immigration authorities. At their largest, a few thousand people have taken to the streets, but smaller mobs have used the cover of darkness to set fires, daub graffiti and smash windows. Overnight Monday 23 businesses were looted, police said, adding that more than 500 people had been arrested over recent days. Protests have also sprung up in cities around the country, including New York, Atlanta, Chicago and San Francisco. 'Provide protection' Trump has ordered 4,000 National Guard to Los Angeles, along with 700 active-duty Marines, in what he has claimed is a necessary escalation to take back control -- despite the insistence of local law enforcement that they could handle matters. A military spokeswoman said the soldiers were expected to be on the streets later Tuesday or some time on Wednesday. Their mission will be to guard federal facilities and to accompany 'federal officers in immigration enforcement operations in order to provide protection.' Demonstrators told AFP the soldiers 'should be respected' because they hadn't chosen to be in LA, but Lisa Orman blasted it as 'ridiculous.' 'I was here for the Dodger parade,' she said referring to the LA team's World Series victory. 'It was 100 times bigger. So the idea that the Marines here, it's a big show. The president wants a big show.' The Pentagon said the deployment would cost US taxpayers $134 million. Photographs issued by the Marine Corps showed men in combat fatigues using riot shields to practice crowd control techniques at the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach. 'Behaving like a tyrant' Two dozen miles (40 kilometers) north, the sprawling city of Los Angeles spent the day much as it usually does: tourists thronged Hollywood Boulevard, tens of thousands of children went to school and commuter traffic choked the streets. But at a military base in North Carolina, Trump was painting a much darker picture. 'What you're witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and national sovereignty,' he told troops at Fort Bragg. 'This anarchy will not stand. We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy.' California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has clashed with the president before, said Trump's shock militarization of the city was the behavior of 'a tyrant, not a president.' 'Sending trained warfighters onto the streets is unprecedented and threatens the very core of our democracy,' he said. In a live-streamed address, Newsom called Trump a 'president who wants to be bound by no law or constitution, perpetuating a unified assault on American tradition. 'California may be first, but it clearly will not end here.' In a filing to the US District Court in Northern California, Newsom asked for an injunction preventing the use of troops for policing. 'Incredibly rare' Trump's use of the military is an 'incredibly rare' move for a US president, Rachel VanLandingham, a professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and a former US Air Force lieutenant colonel, told AFP. US law largely prevents the use of the military as a policing force -- absent the declaration of an insurrection, which Trump again mused about on Tuesday. Trump 'is trying to use emergency declarations to justify bringing in first the National Guard and then mobilizing Marines,' said law professor Frank Bowman of the University of Missouri.