Opinion piece: Maturity and diligence have to be established between fake news and useful opinions and suggestion

Opinion piece:  Maturity and diligence have to be established between fake news and useful opinions and suggestion

By: Raymond Anthony Fernando

 

I have said it before, and I’ll say it again, no government in the world – Singapore include can solve all problems.  During my employment with our national broadcasting station, the then-General Manager of the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), Moses Lee encouraged all the staff to contribute ideas and suggestion to improve SBC which will in turn would raise productivity.

Lee’s reasoning was that the staff who were on the ground were in a far better position to see problems within their own divisions and then as a team, they could come up with constructive and workable solutions.  Many employees – myself included, encouraged by Lee’s management acumen were rewarded with outstanding SBC certificates and cash incentives.

Promote active citizenry

In the same vein, active citizenry where citizens who are willing to come up with constructive and workable solutions to social issues must be given the opportunity to air their views to help in nation-building. Their feedback can be useful for governments to draw up polices or fine-tune existing ones that will be beneficial to the less fortunate in societies.   

Six aspects of great feedback

 

♦ Be specific. We all respond better when we receive specific feedback

 

♦ Be immediate. The best feedback is immediate and comes while all the details are fresh in your mind

 

♦ Tie feedback to goals

 

♦ Ensure feedback is actionable

 

♦ Use the right language

 

♦ Don't avoid feedback

 

Daily ritual

I make it a daily ritual to read the media reports with special focus on social problems.  It is futile for the MSN to keep up publish articles on growing social problems, but reject outright well analyzed press letters that can improve lives. When I read the report of male teen suicides that went up 10 percent, I responded swiftly with some workable solutions to 3 local newspapers.

All 3 refused to publish my letter.  The why bother to write these reports?

Unfortunately, not all journalists, especially in our mainstream media are well trained to allow useful ideas and suggestions to be published. Or they are afraid to fall out of favour with the establishment. Either way this is this is not useful in improving the lives of those who are struggling to cope.  To stifle creativity is not the right thing to do Period!

High time we change this attitude.

RAYMOND ANTHONY FERNANDO