Postings are disallowed which are of personal attacks, or out of relevance. Some of the comments for this posting were removed for these reasons.

As for these comments being from “PAP sympathesizers”, that is irrelevant and is not a consideration on whether comments are moderated or not. We have also moderated pro-opposition sympathisers’ comments, to be clear.

As long as comments directed at the author or fellow commenters are of personal attacks, or have nothing to do with the article, or are abusive in nature, they will be disallowed.

Surely, for something who believes in democracy and free speech, the TOC is not practising censorship of its own.

2. Yes, that’s precisely what they do.

3. No, I didn’t “castigate” Shin Leong. I just gave him a piece of my mind as he has given Ling How Doong a piece of his.

Perhaps I should have clarified my thoughts at the beginning, which is that James Gomez was writing as an academic (with a political background, but an academic nonetheless).

I was hoping that you would comment on the _content_ of the article itself, rather than making a comment on the overall value (ie. ‘meaningless lyrical’) of it. Guess I was wrong.

Your descriptions/definitions of a political activist and politician are interesting. But we tend to draw clear dichotomies when sometimes there aren’t. In other words, sometimes the line between an activist and a politician aren’t clear. Case in point: in s’pore there’s a certain opposition party with a name starting with ‘S’ (that is _not_ the SDA) that combines activism with electoral politics. Whatever you think of them, that is precisely what they do.

Btw, are you the same WP member ‘Ramseth’ who castigated YSL in the article about his revelation of voting for the other guy?

A political activist is not a politician. A political activist lobbies for changes in the political landscape without challenging for power. A politician challenges for power to carry out the changes.

If you think you can improve Singapore by convincing the ruling government what direction to take, then be a political activist. If you think you can improve Singapore by reducing the say of the ruling government or replacing it altogether, then be a politician.

If you read too much political theories, then be a political academic.

If you think the ruling government is doing well, well what the hell?

And do you have any comments about the article itself?

Make up your mind. Do you want to be activist or politician? If one single learned mind of yours can have disparity and confusion between activism and politics, don’t go wax meaningless lyrical about thousands of minds being disparate.