Garcia is wrong. A ‘new’ Straits Times it isn’t

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Dear Tengku Razaleigh

That paper you bought on Tun Razak’s instructions almost 40 years ago has turned its back on its parentage again. It doesn’t want to be The New Straits Times, it keeps wanting to be a new Straits Times. I wonder how you feel?
(It means nothing to me, it’s not my paper.)

Having done the Singapore Straits Times before, and made many little hops over to KL while trying to do the Star, the big cheese of the newspaper design racket Jose Mario Garcia may have got a little confused about which side of the Causeway he was at the past few months.

He’s been flogging the line that the NST must emphasize the “new” in its title.

Only trouble is: he’s 40 years out of date.

It was New when Umno bought over the Malaysian assets of The Straits Times in 1972 and relaunched the paper. The change came gradually, but made noticeably visible in the titleplate.

First, the blackletter title (in Ye Olde English style) made way for a modernised handcrafted face. Then the “New” took its place. And so it remained until after the switch to tabloid masterminded by Kalimullah Hassan. A new title design was whipped up. The “New” shrank to insignificance and the “Straits Times” suddenly re-emerged (in almost a mirror image of the change taking place down south.)

A sellout to Singapore, critics shouted.

Now along comes Jose Mario Garcia calling for the New to be re-emphasised. And he’s managed to convince the nutters in NST management to go along. Once again, a “new” Straits Times.

Except that it isn’t.

That other rag, The Straits Times, is down there in Singapore, with the little red dot in its title sneering at the rest of you yobs.

On our side of the Causeway, what we have is The New Straits Times, the NST (or even the Enesty if you wish), bought by Umno in 1972 and produced by and for Umno ever since.

What Balai Berita produced on Friday was a Newer NST.

But by giving in to Jose Mario Garcia’s title design, they proclaim that they have, once again, regressed to being just a new “Straits Times”.

Have they no pride left? No sense of shame?

Okay, own up. Who is selling out to Singapore and the PAP this time?

4 thoughts on “Garcia is wrong. A ‘new’ Straits Times it isn’t”

  1. NST ‘s decline began when the New Malay Order came to power in the Eighties with the replacement of the old guard by Umno apparatchiks. A company which once paid employees four to five months’ bonus is now but a pale shadow of the original Straits Times. Anyone who thinks he or she can resurrect the paper I will show you a fraud.

  3. One thing about those top appointees inside NST is that they have a fetish to cook up so-called ‘new’ dishes but each time they do it, the dish comes up with the same unpalatable taste and reeks of chicken shit. Who wants to buy that kind of dish?

    Already, on the second day, the dish appears to be moldering if you examine it carefully. It won’t come as a surprise if it continues to turn bad and badder in the days to come.

    An indication that the NS**T will continue to spew propaganda of the highest order is when all the top honchos rushed to Putrajaya in the morning on the first day of the launch to kowtow to the Biggest Honcho there…and hopefully get a pat on the back. The honcho by the name of Ahmad Talib even got the cheek to claim a space on Page 1 on the second day about how they were kowtowing to their ‘Big Kahuna’. That’s your A-licking man for you!!!

    How to accept and trust a rag that’s not up to it in decency, truth and fair play even though it is now wearing the so-called new dress?

    As for newspaper design these days, it is no longer what it was a decade or two back when it was touted to be the medicine to cure an ailing rag. Like you read here, it is beginning to be a racket for those who have no qualms to ‘take the money and run’. Every reason stated by the so-called designer for a re-design is by and large a rehash of what had been said before if you do follow this kind of hobby. Maybe throw in a sprinkling of spices to give the reason for re-design some extra weight.

    In this age of Internet information, the tablet computer and with many rags going the way of the dinosaur, newspaper re-design can be a futile exercise with no guaranteed reward for the newspaper owner except for the so-called design consultant.

    Watch out for another revamp from the troubled Malay Mail whose circulation is just as bad as the NS**T. They are also getting a so-called ‘design consultant’ to do the cosmetic changes. This time he’s a local guy who was a former graphic artist.

    After all these re-design shenanigans, who’s next? Maybe, The Star!

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