Not many newspapers in Singapore had engaged their readers quite as memorably as the now-defunct Singapore Herald, Sunday Monitor – and New Nation (together with the Sunday Nation).
All three were part of many local boomers’ growing-up years, unlike for younger readers who only had The Straits Times to report and explain what was going on.
A New Nation reunion just held on Tuesday, Jan 7, brought back not just memories but also the possibility that the media scene here today could have been more vibrant. What a pity.
Apart from The Straits Times, there were at least a couple of other daily papers in the 1960s of which I had vague memories.
I remember the Singapore Standard and Eastern Sun. But only fleetingly. They were more part of my parents’ era. The Standard stood out a bit because former Deputy Prime Minister S. Rajaratnam used to write editorials (leaders) for the paper.
But just when my political and social consciousness was being aroused, they disappeared.
Then came the Singapore Herald. To cut the story short, it wasn’t anything like The Straits Times. It was more ready to be more questioning. For example, it practically went all out to question issues linked with national service which was still in its infancy stages at that time in the late 1960s and then 1970s. There were also other political reasons for its demise.
So the Herald came and went – like a comet.
The Sunday Monitor showed the high reader-friendly standards any local newspaper could achieve if it had the means and talent. It was brilliantly designed.
In response, the then Straits Times group chose Tan Wang Joo to jazz up Sunday Nation, which became a better weekend paper because of the competition.
Then there was New Nation which started off with ambition to be a serious afternoon read.
When it began on Jan 18, 1971, it was a broadsheet. It offered commentaries on world political issues like the North-South dialogue! It later became a tabloid.
If intellectual did not sell, man in the street – or the office worker – was the next readership target.
During New Nation’s existence from 18 Jan 1971 right up to 1 May 1982, all said and done, Singapore newspaper readers were informed, cajoled, educated, entertained, inspired, excited.
Everybody bought New Nation to find out what soccer columnist Jeffrey “Kallang Roar” Low had to say about the Malaysia Cup, why Teresa Ooi disagreed with certain Education Ministry policies, the latest housing scoops from property correspondent Wang Look Fung, what recipes Violet Oon, the peranakan cuisine guru, had to offer food aficionados.
New Nation was a byline newspaper. This strategy was, however, a double-edged sword for its journalists.
It forced them to work harder to deliver, knowing full well that they were the underdogs fighting against reporters from the ST Group flagship staff at The Straits Times.
If they made mistakes, their reputation suffered because it would be their name in the byline. The New Nation era was a profoundly exhilarating period in local journalism.
Readers were thoroughly engaged, and journalists did not consider what they did, as a job. To be a New Nation journalist was a calling and enjoyable.
Till today, somehow, the New Nation spirit has never died. I can recall at least two other New Nation reunions before the Violet Oon function at her restaurant at Jewel Changi on Tuesday. That’s how strong it is.
This despite the fact that the paper was closed down on 1 May 1982. I actually wrote the final editorial! For the record, Edgar Koh, who was the paper’s editorial writer before me, wrote the Violet Oon/New Nation reunion’s souvenir editorial.
He wrote: “The reunion underscores the significance of the role they (the New Nation staff) played in shaping Singapore’s media history… reminding us of the vital role of the press in fostering an informed society.”
I might add: An informed AND engaged society.
Tan Bah Bah is a former senior leader writer with The Straits Times. He was also managing editor of a magazine publishing company
