interesting new format for summary/aggregation. with a little more practice, you could hone it into something very readable.

cheers

It show that she was not only inexperience but very inexperience.
Her looks appears to be insensitive as well as arrogance.
As an MP to speak in such an unprofessional manner, should be sacked.
She was elected not as an individual but on a GRC ticket, therefore nothing to be proud of. Don’t mixed politics with sports and do your duties as an MP in your constituency and not sports that was what you are elected and paid for.
Credits must and should be given to the coaches, where due.
Welcome back our Singapore China Chinese.

Dear Mr Loh,

I have also expressed my comments in the earlier article by your colleague. My main concern is, if LBW could not manage a sports association, how could she manage/lead a constituency? I said in the earlier post, I do not think character like LBW fit to be even a class monitor in school.

Now, I have a personally question for you, I think you had a team which covered the function of JBJ’s party inauguration. How come you do not send out your team to conduct interview with the former chief of STTA, Choo Wee Kiang. Choo and his team built up STTA. Like Ng Ser Miang said, LBW has been only there for a month.

One point of correction, u said, “not many are calling for her resignation”. I think the opposite is more correct.

JY

I am sure Choo has a lot to say.

jy

“The STTA’s president must realize that winning an Olympic medal means nothing if we also do not have basic common courtesy.”

Well said… I think she just destroyed any shred of pride we might have had for the olympic medal earned in our nation’s name… not that there was much to begin with. For me, it was China VS China.

I wish there are more decisive and passionate leaders like Ms Lee Bee Wah. Here is one leader who holds her most senior people directly accountable for their error(s). Yet, she is deemed as unprofessional, rash or having a god-father. Here is a leader who dares to speak her mind. Yet, people feel she is unpolished and an “Ah Lian”. Surely, Ms Lee knows that her swift action has potential negative consquences too – in the event no medal is obtained for tt in 2012, her head is on the chopping block.

Ms Lee has my admiration for speaking up for the underdog – a player who did not win any Olympic medal. She is being inclusive. Nothing wrong with that trait, right?

Ms Lee, please do not be bruised. A strong leader is not always a popular one. Your communication prowess differs somewhat from Prof Lee Wei Lin or Prof Walter Woon. However, your gumption in doing what’s best for Singapore is obvious. Instead of giving up, you stood up, waved the flag and cheered for Singapore in the Finals. That spoke volumes. Media-handling is a trainable skill, don’t worry. Some of us are routing for you.

Antony Lee came from SSC, if I am not wrong. SSC has national critieria for NSAs such as ‘high performance systems’.

Looking at locals and FTs, and LBW’s handling, and STTA’s agenda, all I could say is that LBW is setting herself up for a fall.

Sojourner ,
do your math right. There must be something wrong with her when her current table tennis management team says that she is too rush into judgement without finding out what happened. Head will roll ? Since when head ever roll when she already inducted into GRC’s hall of fame ? Not when she err on this side of game.
She should be thankful and fortunate enough that she been put in charge of the team that has the highest possibility of winning the medal a month before. This I believe must due to politics of putting someone that look good on credential to boost up her resume. She must have some Godfather who look after her back and recommend her. Who is the godfather that support her ? So where is the godfather that now hide in the closet if she is right ?

Speaking her mind ? What’s mind ? There is so much injustice by PAP and I never see her speak her mind. Selectively speak her mind for her personal agenda, maybe.

You don’t make secret plan to fire the same people that going to help you win the medal. If you going to fire someone, says it in advance and let the person decide whether to help out or not before olympic, and not sack someone over trivial matter as a excuse and then happily proclaim that another new team of management is taking over. Every sane human will know this as making use of a person to achieve the objective and then get rid of him once achieved. Did she learn this tactic from Old Lee ? It is this kind of double-cross and betrayal of people’s trust that will discourage local sport talents to take up the challenge. This is called bringing dirty politics into sport.

that defiant auntie exclaimed she was “bruised”…sure..after she single handedly set the house on fire!

Should just start a petition for her to “step down” on her own accord. Be gracious as an “MP” to do that. Instead of having someone “sacking” her through a third party.

I admire our China born paddlers for their sacrifices to look for a better life here. A country wants sports glory and nations of the world do not seem to concern themselves if their winners were born elsewhere- when you fly their flags you are theirs and not to mention the hurt the “imports” would do to the country of their birth. So I have no qualms with our paddlers; in fact I am beginning to look up to them as fighters with same spirit of our nothing to lose immigrant fathers.

What I really cannot accept is the behaviour of LBW – it may be just her style and personality or that she is still not as urbane or polished yet given her Johorean roots, as I try my best to rationalise. LBW will be the same in her workplace, constituency work , social occasions, etc
However I believe that she is well meaning in getting results and reacted too fast without thinking of others or the occasions.

I think LBW needs counselling. Given the “limited pool” of local talent , and it is clear that we will continue to get people of LBW’s calibre to be MPs, I say that henceforth “MP mentoring” be part of the political process to prepare them. Acceptable “local talent” are hard to find nowadays as Singaporeans are not always so obedient. So accept the so so, guys – LBW and the likes will always be around.

PAP should sack her from the party. She reflects badly on the party’s ability to select capable and sincere candidate who is not hungry for power.

Dear Lim Bee Wah, you said that you were “bruised” and the media had taken the whole affair out of proportion. That clearly is an admission that you had not thought through the matter with a crystal clear mind when you started yelling and ranting your mouth off about your “inadequate” officials.

Your “shooting off the mouth” was not just inadequate, but a total PR blunder which caused the nation a lot of heartaches and headaches. I cringed and clenched my teeth when I read about your senseless stupidity which put a joyous situation into one of horrific anguish.

How can someone in your respectable position put down your subordinate in front of the media, w/o caring a hoot about his feelings, and worse, w/o even giving him a chance to explain himself. And then you took your “drastic action” to remove him even after Mr. Tan Eng Liang had sort to calm matters when he told the media that he had listened to Anthony’s explanation, accepted it and deemed the matter to be closed.

You couldn’t control your emotion and your foul-mouth and insisted on having the final say with total disregard and disrepect for Mr. Tan EL, Team Singapore at the Beijing Olympics and also the whole nation back home in Singapore.

Now that you know how lousy and “bruised” the whole situation is, you said “let’s move on”. Yet again, it shows your naivety and completely inadequate PR job of trying to “save face” by actually aggravating it. Seriously, Ms Lee BW, this staement should never be uttered by you, but by your superior…get it?

Now that Vivian Balakrishnan said a full review is in order, I hope that after the review, they also give a satisfying account of what transpired and call a spade and spade w/o trying too hard to put cosmetics over a clearly pockmarked surface which, I am sure, most people who had been “bruised” by this sad affair will not accept.

Undoubtedly, the pockmark has already been been recorded in history and cannot be erased, but I hope Vivian will use the right brush, the right foundation and the right powder to put a decent finish to it.

Jack Neo may have enough content to make a new movie:

Aunty No Enough 2

From the way she handled the case, Ms LBW is not a class one Div one horse. She should be demoted to Restricted Term in horse language.!!

want to be “powderful” but don’t even have the basic skills in management. how ar u going to lead our winning team? Feel sad for the AMK residents. i urge u to step down asap to save the nation all the headaches.

as an MP? u speak of such thing ,i cant think how u are treating ur pp in ur GRC . u are not fit to be MP . such a simple thing yet u mess up . it take so many years to have such a great team to win something for us ,u just 1 month in work create so many trouble dun say to be head of the team even a team member u r not fit

She shia shuy the AMK GRC… LHL will lose face to keep her in his team.

she’s a very rude rat born person. especially from johoreans. Never mind if singaporean, also must be crucified. No president of STTA; No MP of AMK Alarming character. Vivian should do something about this! Anthony should be returned to replace her as the President. No doubt about that.

MP for AMK has no basic courtesy. You ever researched how many thank you or please, “how are you” words she has ever spoken in the office? Hell no. She’s just a screwy kind of person in the head, mouth and heart. I would like to give 3 tight slaps on her face instead of thank you, please, and how are you.

Insensitive!!! is the Word best to describe her outbreak n antics.

In the first place sensible bosses will take the initiative n 1st apologize for the boo boo n have an inquiry n announce the actions to be taken.
Instead, she thinks that she is running an Army Unit, shooting off as n when she feels like it w/o thinking of the damage that will follow.

What was supposed to be a triumphant n joyous celebration was made sour n sombre by her silly n childish action.

Dont forget what Feng’s parting words @ her victory speech yesterday @ Raffles City: Quote “W/o my Coach, I will not be Wat I’m Today, Unquote” n Im sure she was very saddened by this saga.

The table tennis team was not formed 1 month ago, the entire team has sacrificed, Sweat n Tears, besides personal n family time. Coaches n mgrs
have also done the same n have gel very well to come this far in order to achieve this Excellent result. Players, Coaches n Mgrs are humans/people n not robots.
They have feelings n emotions too.

You dont chage a Victorious Team overnight. The entire team is made of, The Player, The Mgr, n The Coaches n backroom staffs.

You have to Gain n Earn the Respect of The Team n not Deamand the Respect .

What has she done in her 1st month of tenure @ STTA? Trouble!!!

Dont draw the Plank after crossing it. The entire Table Tennis Team, have my kudos for a fanctastic job done!!!

Finally, if she is sensible enough, she should volunteer to step down n not create more heartaches n headaches.

She step down? I won’t bet on it

Her actions reeks of power politics – she just wants to show off her power as President as she kept rattling off her new CEO and whatnots…

Sadly, it has backfired badly for her – case of not engaging brain before putting mouth into gear!

Quite honestly, if you ask me, it appears to me that she is a victim of poor reporting. I haven’t been following the news, but I think the following is a likely situation as well:

The decision not to continue Antony Lee’s contract was made long ago, and it was only recently that it was made known. After the silver medal win, the press thought it’d sell the story well if they report this decision in such an angle that it appears as if Antony was being sacked (which is not atypical of foreign media, to be honest). Note that the press did not say Antony was sacked, but in its reporting it carried such an idea and pushed the notion into the minds of the readers. As a result, there was severe public discontent over the decision (and perhaps going beyond what the media expected).

Okay, I’m not saying that this is the case, but I see it as more probable that the situation that Lee Bee Wah sacked the Antony over some unknown reasons and is trying to salvage the situation.

Ms Lee really spoilt our celebration mood. We have waited 48 years for this triumph and she must go and pour cold water over it with her action.She appeared to have acted on impulse and how can such a person be our MP? I thought the PAP ’s search process was infallible yet we now have this kind of woman in our MP list. If I were her I would resign from not only STTA but also Parliament

Sojourner ,
U may 1 to apply for LBW team manager post & routing for her. U seem to be the perfect running mate for her. She been moving on and around to where she us today from various consistuencies. You just can’t take the truth if ask to vote for her to lead you, would you? ROUTING FOR HER, oh plsssssssssss.
She just doesn’t display the qualities required to lead, don’t see any charisma. Take a leaf out of other MP, like Liliy Neo.
She done enough to be culled from the position.

The St reported that she is still defiant after all the uproar. Now she blame the reporter for blowing up the matter.
I am surprised that she is in the same GRC as PM. And the PM has just spoken about building up a “gracious society” in NDP speech. The tail don’t know what the head is doing or doing it defiantly. The PAP should ask her to resign citing health reasons or any excuses we will accept it!

LBW did not think before she blast her trumpet. From what i see and read , she is trying to throw her weight around. Yesterday at the Raffles city, what was she doing on stage. I felt that the team manager and the coach should be up there too. Without them, do you think our girls will get this silver. Please put yourself in their shoes before you shoot your words.

Our Government is known for taking appropriate action to its members who did inappropriate things that may affect its reputation of trustworthiness and competency. Just look at Mr Choo Wee Kiang and Dr Seet Ai Mee.

Those “incompetencies” were just minor offences which were said or done inadvertently and carried out only once. Such is the high standard set that there is zero tolerance…one wrong foot and you are out.

By comparison, this was repeated over a few days and the offender remained defiant and unrepentant despite now knowing the full extent of the damage done.

The offender sort to milked personal glory and recognition for the good job done by others before her and completely lost her plot because she was bent on putting herself up on the pedestal. Such was her narrow mindedness that she was blind to the fact that her senseless act was to douse all the celebratory mood that the nation had.

Now our joy has turned to deep disapointment and yet her only regret was to have spoken to the LZB reporter.

Dear PAP, this is a definite red card offence. Please do the rightful thing…!!!

Just because you have the same surname “LEE” as our Prime minister, u do not have the right to throw your weight around. You do not know the meaning of ‘Let’s move on’. Don’t use it without thinking. It gives me the goose pimples. You really dampened our spirits. She is not the celebrity so why is she on newspaper and TV. The team manager, coaches and the girls deserve the credit. Why am I seeing her everywhere?

power corrupts and in this case power abuses absolutely and hastily and pretentiously . She is a broken broom that hurts some feet and a mutton that is dressed up as lamb.

A few thing MP Lee Bee Wah had done wrong
1) She cannot undermine the authority of the team chef de misson. From the opening to closing ceremony; the authority of the team rest with Che de misson. She cannot take any action without consulting the Chef de misson.
2) By not renewing the team manager and Chief coach contract we are effectively disbanding the whole winning team
3) It takes at least a few year to build the team. so we cant just like that say terminate mean terminate.
4) We are sending wrong signal to potential coaches and team managers who apply for the job
5) Very distasteful

LBW is simply making an emotional decision without anything going through her head by sacking the team manager. What is this woman doing?

So what if Gao Ning has no coach beside him? Does it justify a dismissal without a proper investigation and in full face against all the good he has done for the team? It seems like LBW is a dictator of the first order. But unlike Stalin, Hitler or Mussolini, she is a petty dictator without either brawns or brains.

She has unwittingly created a mountain out of a molehill at a most inappropriate time, generated a furore over practically nothing, saddened so many people, and then in the end, simply said “I am bruised. I don’t wish to talk about it anymore.”

Pardon me, but in the first place, who created all these storms and turmoils? None but you, LBW! You DESERVE TO BE BRUISED! And heck there is going to be plenty of talk about you here and everywhere else.

Take a real life approach to a real life issue and protest in the Speaker’s corner

This LBW is so disgusting to the fact that is not even fit to be representative of People to be MP as she can’t even handle a ping-pong team. Mind you this is not just pingpong but a Olympic missions. Trying to steal limelight like ah long cable-car merits? She has too many chance to do it like jamban and later on she screw up and spin the ball in the wrong direction. This is A team.

To Speaker’s Corner. Why not you do it yourself in Speaker Corner.

The propaganda machine has started – “no news in Today, good news” starting to surface in ST. All will be well in the end for LBW.

The CITIZENS are the one really BRUISED – not LBW, PAP people can always play play and get away. LBW is another typical cover up operation and what is next – move on….

/// 21) Jackson Tan on August 26th, 2008 4.12 pm
Quite honestly, if you ask me, it appears to me that she is a victim of poor reporting. I haven’t been following the news, but I think the following is a likely situation as well: ///

Jackson, your bias and intention is very clear.
1) Nobody ask you.
2) What poor reporting? Shoot the messenger? How about asking for the video and audio tape? How about blaming poor translation?
3) You haven’t been following the news, yet you deign to speculate?

Even, if the decision has been made before-hand, the timing, the manner in which it was done was all wrong and high-handed. Her rantings and manners.

If LBW had been less shrill with her ping, at least her pong won’t smell so bad now…

[i]Jackson, your bias and intention is very clear.
1) Nobody ask you.
2) What poor reporting? Shoot the messenger? How about asking for the video and audio tape? How about blaming poor translation?
3) You haven’t been following the news, yet you deign to speculate?[/i]

1) I don’t quite get what you mean here. Am I not allowed to express my views, and speculate on what may have happened? Am I not allowed to express an opinion contrary to the prevailing mood?

2) When I meant poor reporting, I wasn’t being too clear. I’m suggesting that it could be that the media chose to report this in a particular angle that made it seem as if Antony was being sacked. It’s essentially casting the news in a certain perspective, which the media does all the time. Of course, like I said, this may very well be wrong, but I see no reason to rule it out yet, which brings me to…

3) That’s right, I haven’t been following the news too closely. I did know about this, though I haven’t dogged news reports about the matter. It could be that there is something reported or known to others that would destroy the scenario I sketched, but so far no one has mentioned it, nor have I seen any. So if you know of such an incident, I beg you to share with me.

Jackson

Even, if the decision has been made before-hand, the timing, the manner in which it was done was all wrong and high-handed. Her rantings and manners.

Again, I’m not so sure if she has been ranting and all (since I don’t keep up to date with the news…) but if she is, then yes, she ought to take blame for her manners. But I think her manners and what really happened ought to remain as separate issues.

Why must PAP politicians have to be involved in every facet of our lives, yes, even in local sports organisations where they hardly know a thing or two (just look at MBT at FAS previously) Sports bodies must be run by sports professionals.
PAP MPs thought they could run them like their bosses running the govt, with
heavy handed top down approach. Its no wonder Singapore have never excel tn
international sports unlike some countries with smaller populations than ours.

Jackson, don’t get your knickers all twisted in a knot. The first point was just kidding you in response to your “if you ask me” – no I didn’t ask you. Of course, this blog is for anyone to comment – which is why I find your question redundant.

Yes, she was ranting. All the more you should get the facts before defending her blinding, otherwise people will reach conclusions about where you are coming from…

:)

typo – defending her blindly…

Anybody saw her on “Zao An Nin Hao” MediaCorp 8 yesterday ?

While I didn’t finish watching the entire Sllver Medalist PingPong team interview, LBW’s command of the chinese language leaves much to be desired too. Not only did the hosts need to help her finish a sentence (in fact put proverbs into her mouth), she showed too much emotion and ‘child-like’ qualities that I don’t feel befit a mature leader.

So there may be some (tiny) truth to Jackson’s “poor reporting”, but LBW has only herself to blame.

“If you don’t say what you mean, how can you mean what you say ?”. Better to just shut up.

LBW is a typical example of modern day management, who thinks she is up there and tht she is the government. So everything and everyone must treat her like the Queen or else you are out.

Sad that instead of moving forward in our man management, we are into this cut and thrush type of society…..if you are not with me, out you go. Who does she think she is…..Cleopatra?????

Distasteful how until now she blames everyone but herself. Thank God for some common sense that not all her colleagues are behind her. Aiyoh sad for the people working for her, must be having a tough time:(

In my opinion, there are two camps : (1) Women’s team (2) Men’s team.

Clearly, Antony Lee & Liu GuoDong had focused on (1). Naturally, because that’s where the medal will more likely come from. When one of the men’s coaches went MIA (I seriously doubt a SPORTing coach can be so ill that he cannot put on a mask and attend the match at all), it is a mgmt (Antony+Liu) issue.

If LBW did not have her slip of tongue (or perhaps shown her true colour), it might be Antony Lee (yes, another LEE) who would be criticized for being the sports council/PAP anointed, results-oriented-but-no-feelings manager.

Merely pointed out the simple twist of fate, that has one LEE pelted, and another LEE coming out ‘victorious’.

In fact, running along the lines of ‘if it were Antony LEE who screwed up’, I can predict the blogging comments to include :

- Another LEE
- Seconded to STTA from Sports Council -> another PAP puppet
- Look at his face, and you know he can’t be any good
- went out galivanting with the MIA ’sick’ coach, hangover-lah
- Quite Chee-Ko-Peh looking, no wonder girls get first priority
- etc

I love the what-if’s.

T:

Haha okay, the “if you ask me” is just a figure of speech (or writing) that I developed, and so I forgot about that!

I can’t find the earlier news reports on Channelnewsasia.com. I remember seeing it featured on Sunday’s papers (though I did not read them), but the two related CNA articles (this and this) are dated Sunday afternoon, so they may not reflect the true chronological order of things. Plus, from the first article, I’m expecting that there was an earlier article which was removed already… But from what I remember from previous news and obtained from the above articles, I don’t see my scenario disproven yet.

But anyway, I have no hesitation about defending her, mainly because I do not see a clear case that she is at fault as suggested by most people here, unless of course someone points out something which I’ve missed. In this case, I’m willing to admit that I’m wrong, but till then…

Parker,

Life is full of “what ifs”…don’t speculate and go into overdrive in the creative faculty until they have become reality

One reality most seem to grasp is :

The present monopoly in Singapore government is in place for too long, and has invited itself for criticism, rightly or wrongly.

If we criticise it rightly, we have a chance of getting further.

If we criticise wrongly, just like LBW’s blurps, we look like fools, and the cause is lost.

[...] for MP Lee, I sorta feel sorry for her. As The Online Citizen noted, Ms. Lee had stated she wasn’t sacking anybody, but rather Antony Lee’s contact [...]

The contract was used as a surrogate.

It’s less personal to deal with thing, than person.

Also, it is less difficult to post on blog, than to say it in person.

she has done tremendous damage to herself and the government..but she has also fallen unknowingly into the trap because as we can see …the chinese coach is also not a “shen u te teng” (oil saving lamp)..now he is telling u..”u want me back? sure…but here’s my terms and conditions….” Hopefully, the auntie and the rest of the ” FT for sports” proponents will wake up to their naivety!

black (cat or panther?) – to be fair to the Chinese coach – would you not do the same if you are in his shoes? You have a high-handed know-nothing woman telling you what to do and threatening to sack you when you just won for the country the first medal in 48 years. If I were him, I will go further – I will only take on the job if that woman gets out of my life…

Sack Lee Bee Hwa. She is not fit to be the president of STTA. She has destroyed everything and all the good work and success has fallen FLAT because of her high handedness. Why are we paying MPs like her with absolutely zero EQ on board? If I am the head coach, I will definitely be pissed off with her – better to go to any country where you can be appreciated instead of being involved in her own political game. One wonders why she is so quick to flex her power and bring in a new team.

LBW has gone way overboard. how does it benefit her by stirring up such troubles that caused the team to be divided. she is destroying and breaking up a winning team that we would have been proud of. there is no denying that they have put in a tremendous amount of efforts in their work, whatever mistake they have made, it is just right to forgive and forget, and give them credit for their immense goodwill. LBW, do not create anymore troubles, unless you think that you are able to do a better job than what they are doing now.

Seems to me a person holding a lower post as a secretary or PA is more pro and has more integrity than a “PRESIDENT”? She knows what is P&C (pte & confidential) & when to keep her mouth shut. Umm… strange isn’t it? Don’t you think its more apt to appoint the secretary or PA to replace Ms Lee?

Many people are angry with LBW. I agreed that she should had think thru before speaking her mind and her timing and EQ is real lousy. I do not want to add what other had already raised but I had 2 issue here.

1) Since Vivian Balakrishnan said a full review is in order, let wait to see what will the result of the review be. The full story of the saga should be cleared by then who is the good guy and bad guy.

2) Please don’t stereo type Johorean with LBW action, EQ, IQ etc. This is out of the context.

1. I am really disappointed that she chose such a time to talk considering she is a politician….. so much for PM’s speech on graciousness. She should know better that a fallout will occur when she made statements like that.

2. She seemed to want to the limelight / attention a lot judging from this fiasco and the “Jampan” and “pung sai” speech in Parliament.

3. Sorry to say but in my opinion, this Guo Ning is a wimp.
- Profession players DO NOT GIVE UP.
- Those who played competitive sports will tell you the coach can only make a slight difference if the disparity level is near and he lost by such a big margin inferred he may be mentally weak considering his skills are better than his opponent
- If he was treated unfairly.. i.e. use as sparring partners for the girls, he should have aired it out before the tournament begins
- No coaches = Desponent spirit = Bad result ? I think I can safely bet my last dollar the Chinese players will beat him even without their coaches around and with he\im getting all the support.
- It is very likely he was looking for excuses over the 1-sided loss to a player ranked 10-20 positions lower than him since Table Tennis is his livelihood.
- Yes, the coaches may have erred by not being there and possibly using him as a sparring partner for the girls. At the end of the day, what is him make up of…. could this be the reason why he was not in the China’s team.
- He should accept responsibility for not playing to the best of his abilities regardless of the presence of coaches and did he lose that badly prior to the Olympics? Mentally weak and seeking excuses for loss – Case closed

Ever since her utterances MM, PM etc no talk how gd FTs are or how gd PAP MPs are? So let’s thanks Ms “Pang Sai” for this relief?

Comments edited by moderator.

Mr T..r u from the A team? lol…Im just an ordinary black cat! That’s exactly my point..most of this FTs..especially from China..based on my encounters..crossed swords with them many times…are not “oil saving lamp” That charbo wanted to take people on to show off her “prowess” must also “zhi liang” a bit. Of course, if Im in the coach’s shoe..i will not hesitate to hit back until that charbo buay jin chu!

I love China.
I love Malyasia.
Singapore?Well done Ms Lee,you have done us proud.

One look at her forced smile in ST tells you that this person cannot be trusted. Norticed that the papers are carring unflattering pictures of her? They wouldn’t have dare do this with an Ok from the top. So it looks like LBW is on her way out. Will probably give ‘heavy work commitment’, ‘make way for younger people’ this kind of crap reason.

Mr. blackfeline – Thank you… I’m an ordinary retiree – to be exact, I’m 72 years old. I am not a national athlete.. but I love sports especially sprints and I am still keeping fit by practising taijiquan and jogging. I am not interested in politics, arguments or trying to run down anyone…. but I just feel that a team manager must look after the interest of all participating athletes, with equal treament, irrespective of their medal potentials…. and this applies to the Project 0812 Chairman and the VP of Singapore National Olympic Council.

I have no qualms about the presence of the China-born athletes… but respect for them. It is not their choice to be born in China … But they choose Singapore as their homeland…..

Who says not many are asking for LBH’s resignation?

Just visit the site below there are already close to 500 calls.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/lbw/signatures.html

This lee fella there? Did she play table tennis before? Was she ever in sports?

Yes, we want Olympic medal desperately, but we should not want it at all costs! A certain principle has to be maintained. If someone has deliberately committed a grave mistake, he should be responsible for his action, regardless whether he has won a medal.

The Olympic games will go on forever, once every long 4 years. But for a player, how many times can he participate? In the case of Gao Lin, his moral and fighting spirit had already been killed by the absence of a coach before his play. The failure of sending a coach for Gao Lin during the match can not simply be considered as a negligence, unless the official/head coach is too lousy.

if the head coach go , u also must go .

Gao Lin would not have gone far even if he had a coach during his match.
I am a fan of many sports and it surprises me to hear Gao Lin mentioned that he had been sparring with the female players. Common sense tells me that whilst the female players benefit from such an arrangement, Gao’s own standard will stagnate. Gao mentioned he was more or less brought in for that purpose without his prior consent.

@ 62,
They choose Singapore as their homeland or the opportunity to earn a living playing table tennis ? It is too soon to tell if they will stay.

Jackson Tan, if it is truly the reporter’s reporting error, why does LBW not pursue him to clarify? In the absence of such an action, i can only deduce that blaming the reporter is just a convenient excuse.

Speaker’s Corner, how many people is there to listen and how many more is here? You do the math.

Get me the China players and make me their coach, I can ensure you of at least a gold medal!

3. Sorry to say but in my opinion, this Guo Ning is a wimp.
- Profession players DO NOT GIVE UP.

I fully agree with LMT assessment of Guo Ning, cos if he is mentally strong and as the worlds no. 12 he shd hv no dificulty in his match with a player of a lower rank. It was his “pouring out his sorrows like a sore loser who is also a spoilt sport to LBW” that escalated the situation. Being new to the job LBW was ever ready to come to his rescue but her approach was a complete fiasco.

As a gracious society that we are aiming to be, being a sore loser and being high handed leaves much to be accomplished!!!!

I am in full agreement with Tsk-tsk-tsk and Blowme. … It ’s a clear-cut case of preferential treatment for the women’s team and Gao Ning is treated as a “sparring partner” for them.

No one should hold the STTA Management at ransom … when the head coach said ” I need to be able to make decisions that won’t be second-guessed… I can’t have people trying to disrupt what I am trying to achieve here…”

I have no doubt that the STTA will be impartial in dealing with staff disputes, etc… however, just like any other organisations, there are in-house rules which need to be observed and respected. If the head coach feels that he cannot live with this working environment, it would be in his interest to step down. No one is indispensable ! I believe Singapore can afford to import other qualified if not better table tennis coach from China.

I cannot be certain whether the imported athletes will genuinely make Singapore their permanent homeland or they are here as opportunists to earn a living by playing table tennis … let’s give them the benefit of doubt.

how i wish she is the boss of china table tennis association. then they will “kanna” by her and we will win the olympic gold medal for sure.

(38) Jackson Tan on August 27th, 2008 1.55 pm mentioned: “… I think her manners and what really happened ought to remain as separate issues.” … I would like to add further…. Let’s not bring in politics and other non relevant issues… instead let us focus on the Beijing Olympic Games – Singapore table tennis team saga in the right perspective. ….

Talk Talk:

The point of my (alternative) scenario is: essentially the initial reporting is not wrong; it is just cast in a way that would be easy to interpret another way. Lee Bee Wah cannot fault the journalists because they did not commit any factual error.

And how do we know that there is no actions from Lee Bee Wah to clarify? Maybe she did, which results in these interviews she had and perhaps the fact that I cannot find these initial news reports.

Ms LBW. We suggest that STTA review your contract as president and if the committee deem you fit for the post and inline with the interest of Singapore’s sports 2010, then you may apply for the post. We do not need an arrogant and a person with LOW IQ and EQ afterall. In fact, Singapore have the $$$ to import a president from China ya, money politics again since PAP has the $$$ to buy votes and fix those not in line with their policies.

Ms Lee is not fit to hold any public position, she done damage to PAP and the government. No body will respect her any more and the only correct thing to do is to move out from public eyes.

Please allow me to comment on the “mentality” of an athlete and how it would affect his performance when competing at an international meet such as the Olympic Games ….

I am just an ordinary, no-body, kampong athlete…. I was a sprint champion in my younger days – in school. As a working adult , I took part in the athletic meets organised by the Singapore Masters as well as the Singapore Veterans Track and Field Associations. I was the 100M and 200M sprints champion of my age group. I also took part in the Asian Athletics Meet organised for the veterans and I came in 3rd in the 100M and 2nd in the 200M respectively.

Prior to all these winning glamours, I had the honour of competing against those former national athletes from other countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan…to name a few…. and the local “Ang Moh” residents. Sadly to say, I was beaten into 3rd/4th position.

Each time I took part at these “so-called” major meets, competing against my rivals,( who had beaten me several times), I had the phobia of being beaten again. .. regardless of the self-reassurance and tough training I put in. This was the mental block that was in my head: “the same rivals who had beaten me before…. how to outrun them?” Mentally I had lost … even before the race started.

My friends …. do you think it’s easy to remind oneself to be mentally strong , especially when one is competing at an international meet? It’s easier said than done. You need someone to be with you and guide you…. My friends… try to be an active athlete yourself and take part in the major competions (if you have a chance) to experience the mental anxiety , etc….. You will know what and how it is like to be in that situation.

What about our women paddlers? Do they have mental block? My personal assessment is that except for Feng (who has the right fighting spirit) the other 2 ladies were already mentally defeated before the match commenced. The very name “World No.1 is enough to “kill” any rival before the match …..

Look at the China champion paddlers… they are very composed, focused, calm and mentally positive in every match they played.

It takes years to build Rome… it takes a moment to destroy it.
It takes years to build faith and confidence… it takes a moment to smash it down.

Generations will remember you, my lady… for being the most prominent blemish in an otherwise glorious historical moment in Singapore’s sports scene.

Sack the president of the Singapore Table Tennis Association, Ms Lee Bee Wah. She is unfit to be one. Kanasize (shit).

Does Lee Bee Wah know table tennis or any other sport events? She should resign and apologize. Don’t break our good humor.

Terence (77) next time you go for another race, suggest you wear a side blinder, just like those racing horses wearing them, blocking their sight or view to the left and right sides competing horses.

In a short distance sprint like 100m, you should narrow your view and focus straight ahead towards the finishing tape. I was amazed that you still have time to steal a glance to your left or right, checking out who are ahead or at your sides.

If indeed you have trained and prepared well, you shouldn’t be bother who you racing against with, it will be a race just between you and the finishing tape.

Try that in your next race, blocking out every competitors racing on the same tartan track besides you, aim for the finishing tape and nothing else.

Ms Lee Bee Wah thought that publicity would make her famous. She loved media coverage. Now she says the media got things wrong or she was misquoted. Ha! Ha! lips burned ah? Gold medal to Lee Bee Wah and silver to our paddlers! Learnt from this incident Mdm. Being under the umbrella of baby god does not give you right to destroy people. Behave yourself okay?

All this of whose head will roll and the fault of Ms Lee contribute to nothing
as the Olympic spirits is lost. Fairness to Gao ning for a coach to guide him at time of need will be taken as unfair treatment. And sacrifices of any 1 to gain a medal is that what really 1 want for our singapore quest. Who will want to join the group if u might just be a stepping stone of be given unfair treatment. Also for a top player to lose to an underdog have many factors like mentality etc In other sports some top teams will lose to underdogs too. Once singapore was also an underdog in sports but we still support it’s growth and still cheer on. Maybe that was the glory time then

I don’t recognise lee bee wah as an able minister, in fact she don’t even look like one.

With so much being said over the Table Tennis fisaco, and many calling for the resignation of Lee Bee Wah. It is true, she acted out of tune. Perhaps, she was exercising her role as the top honcho of STTA, but that to me was wrong time, wrong place. She has faulted.
But not much has been said about Gao Ning!!! Surprising! Liken to an army sent out to war, the Table Tennis team, should know their role and responsibility. In this case of Gao Ning, having no coach with him at the match, should not justify him to let the match go. I watch his match with the Croatia player, Gao Ning was letting the ball pass him by. His action was intentional! Why was he doing that?
The absence of coach or team manager, is no excuse at all. Should Gao Ning not
be removed from the team. Are we going to have him at the next Olympic and repeat his class act???

84) JACKSON on August 28th, 2008 11.15 pm
I don’t recognise lee bee wah as an able minister, in fact she don’t even look like one.

Ahem… you just an MP only but must say she got much more attention than the minister present there…..

If she’s a minister… what about the Communications portfolio…. hahaha ouch ouch

82) cozy on August 28th, 2008 10.59 pm – You have apparently missed the point. I was sharing my experience with the bloggers here about the “Mental Block” .Did I mention “have time to steal a glance to your left or right, checking out who are ahead or at your sides”?? Please don’t tell me how to run the short sprint. I received formal training from the late Jesse Owens and Bill Miller (during their stay in Singapore) including Mr. Tan Eng Yoon… I was also a sprint coach certified by Mr Tan Eng Yoon .” As the saying goes.. I eat salt more than you eat rice” … .

Incidentally, “cozy” … have you ever been an active athlete yourself and also taking part in major meets or tournaments? If you do….please share your experience with us here….

I may be an old man… but if “cozy” care to meet me, I would invite you to have a friendly fun race with me for the short sprints or even martial art sparring.

Let’s focus and be objective on the STTA Saga…. irrelevant issues will not help solve the problem.

why get someone with no sporting experience as the President of STTA? being the new president doesn’t mean that one has to change the whole structure / dynamics of a team that has been geling well to be able to achieve the historical 2nd Olympic medal for S’pore, unless the person wants to show his power. is no one giving credit to Choo Wei Kiang, the previous President of STTA for all his efforts, esp in starting the Foreign Talent Scheme? what’s baffling is why the top mgt changes barely one mth b4 such an important meet as the Olympics? are the people working behind the scene given the full credit for the silver medal, or is the limelight all on the new President, or worse still on the negative repercussions of her blemish. wonder what would happen if she were to become a Minister for Foreign Affairs with her PR skills – we need only guess. good bosses take responsibility for subordinates’ blunders, not shoot them in front of the media.

Did anyone ever consider that this is the Olympics and not some Singapore constituency games? I was a table tennis school player. And even at the inter-school competitions, the coaches were always present. Competition is very much a mental game. You have to be skilled but at the end, it boils down to how you feel at that point. That’s why in football matches, the home team always have the psychological advantage.

Not having a coach with the player at the OLYMPIC GAMES is a disgrace to Singapore. Gao Ning is playing under the Singapore flag. What it appeared to the other people at the games is either Singapore is slighting that match (bohchap, then why send the player), or Gao Ning is hopeless, so coach or no coach, never mind. It’s an insult to the player and would definitely affect his performance.

What do you think will happen if the coach from China did not appear during competition? He will surely be sacked!

What is the role of the team manager. Why do you need him if not at this critical moment? They should all be contactable by mobile phone. You don’t need 2 coaches to “prepare” the women’s team when they were not even competing yet. You only need 1 hour or so from 1 coach for the competing player, to encourage and support him.

Look at the team manager’s attitude. He didn’t even apologise, but act as if he was the one who won the medal. LOL. As if without him, the women’s team would not get a medal.

#51 blackfeline,
Yes, I suspect a conspiracy too. Having worked in China for some years, I can see a similar pattern of here. The PRCs are very good in getting sympathy from those they perceived to be in power. In this case, LBW is the perfect candidate. Whatever internal politicking they have among themselves, they will cleverly use someone higher in authority, by confiding in them, sometimes even using tears, to soften the heart. So I think LBW fell into the trap and spoke up so strongly against the team manager due to the frequent complaints. Now Vivian is also falling into the trap by wanting to speak to them individually. No doubt the tears will flow again.
Eventually, we may see a PRC taking the position of team manager, then president and eventually maybe even Vivian will be replaced by a PRC by the time they get the chance to shed tears to the PM or his father.
Such PRC tactic is common.

Terence (87), Relax bro… like you I’m old now but not as active in sports anymore as you do today…. keep up the positive spirit, from your reply, I could sense your competitive streak or what my friends used to called me stubborn, defiant, bad loser mentality with the way I played sports.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m paying you a compliment, not the negative descriptions I just called myself as apply to you.

Alas…. those were the good old days when I was young, so I greatly admired your ability today still competing competitively in Athletics.

Yes, I was once a schoolboy sprinter and represented combined school regional meets, but Athletics was not my favourite sport, I voluntarily dropped out from combined school team after the first year. My main love in sport was football, and yes, I did played for the country under Uncle Choo coaching.

Cutting the long story short, due to the rat race of our society as well as after suffering a very bad knee injury, I gave up football at the age of 24….. moving on to something less physical more comfortable kind of sport, Archery.

It was in Archery that I started to learn more about the importance of mental focus and toughness, shooting arrow one by one, focusing and concentrating on one arrow at a time, learning to forget the last arrow shot/score and focus on the most important arrow which was in my hand now and make it count.

Those were the mental stuff that I was trying to shared with you in my earlier post.

I believed you would have read reports on how the China #1 woman paddler able to overcome our LJW in the team final match after being one game down to stormed home with a 4 -1 final win result over LJW, with the same theory of focusing one point at a time to achieve final victory.

Just like the game of golf, never let the last bad hit affect your emotion and momentum, quickly switched over with a positive thinking of hitting the next shot better. It is all mental, a mind game that you alone must overcome yourself and conquer the whole course. Just you against the golf course, that I was trying to share with you in my earlier post as with you and taking the finishing tape as your main competitor.

Ms Lim Bee Wah if she hadn’t realised it just made a mockery of herself at the expense of the careers of a coach & a manager that has brought home an Olympic Medal.

To make matters worst, what looks like a cover up to the untimely announcement of the decision to discontinue the services of manager & coach is the pathetic attempt of a subsequent explanation to the public that the decision was made prior to the Beijing Olympics.

We will never have imagined that as a high ranking official, she didn’t even attempt to be politically correct. Even we as layman try to think before we speak. It baffles me how the verbal diarrhoea happened…

So she rained on our parade.
And instead giving due credit to the Manager & Coach who put in years of hard work and effort into brining home the Olympic Medal… She had to make the entire episode ugly.

Stepping down as president may not be enough.
I think she owes the nation a public apology.

If LBW is not stepping down, then she is deemed to be doing well, and the logical thing for the system is to promote her to head a separate Ministry of Sports – let her deliver the YOG to prove her mettle.
The promotion is justification of the speed of her success – just one month in STTA and the drought of olympic medal in 48 years ends. Congratulations to the new “Ministress”.
I am sure incumbent Ministers would not mind as the workload is taken away and the pay remains the same. Lo and behold we can have our first confirmed and real million dollar “Ministress” which is what the people are also looking forward to – also a first in that LBW is a female FT to make the grade. Looking forward to the announcement of “Ministress”

I am disappointing that such comments have been made by a head of one of our sports association.

The whole table tennis team has been together for so long and yet she as been only new to the appointment should learn to know what should be said, what should not be said. She doesnt know the sensitivity of the info and it was at the wrong time and wrong place.

I have an noob qn, what if one of the paddlers be it the female or male contract was decided before this olympic that she/he was not to be renewed and yet she/he comes back with a medal?

obivously the decision will be reversed but when the bad info is said out, the relevant person will have to be responsible for the decision.

In the end, the bond between all members will be broken and how do you expect a person to wholeheartedly strive for you when you know that you been “forgeted”?

I am supportive of her stepping down from the post, she still have some self-reflective on the damage which she have done.

How does STTA select a President? Any intereview conducted? This is not the STTA President we want to see.

Even if Singapore is to win 3 Gold medal in the next Olympic 2012 game in Ping Pong but is headed by a heartless person, what is the use?

We prefer a Singapore with heart than with gold.

how do i join the petition to call for Ms Lee resignation?

I learnt somethings reading Terrence and Cozy exchanges, (#77, #81, #89, #91). I was ready to defend Terrence after Cozy’s #81 post as I understand the mental block mentioned in a sprint race. I was framing the words last night and intend to let cozy’s head roll and make a flash appearance here like on national tv.

Then, when Cozy explained his sport and sharing with Terrence, I realised these 2 are respectable senior sportmens knowing their sports. What a beauty to know the facts before making unpleasant comments.

I m glad that I did not shit so soon without looking for a jamban and make a mockery of myself as a novice in sports.

It’s a total turn off. It seems to be a very acceptable habit among several organizations I’ve encountered.

the ex company I was employed was one. My team after exceeding last year’s target by 30% amounting to 90 million dollars contract sum, I was informed to remove my assistant.

I submitted my resignation to the Chairman with a short note. I cannot accept the practice of tearing down the bridge after crossing it.

The medal was the hard work of the existing and past organization. The ex team have left a foundation for the current team to built on to achieve that piece of award. Ms Lee is not a team player. Leave the Team graciously for you dont have a share in this cake.

I am very surprised that the STTA is looking into removing its managers, coaches etc, when the obvious thing to do is to remove its President, Lee Bee Wah.

She has got neither the credentials nor experience to manage sportsmen and sportswomen.

The credit from winning the 2008 silver is not hers.

She will not win the genuine support of the players and coaches.

They will just fake a smile etc, to give her face. She can pride herself as the president and claim she scored her KPIs, when the real credit belong to others. To me this is meainingless.

Lee Bee Wah has said it is “Time to move on”, yes it is high time she “Move on” to other things.

I hope whoever supported her appointment as Head of STTA reconsider their position and advised her to do the honourable thing… before the petition spread like wild fire..

92) cozy .. Well said….Thank you, Brother…. for sharing your past experience with us. I really appreciate it. My earlier comments may sound a bit harsh… it’s just that I am too “deep” in the healthy lifestyle. No hard feelings!

“cozy” -I would like to meet you….let’s arrange a meeting and have coffee/tea together while we can chat about our good old days.

I think you can get my email address from the Deputy Editor of this BLOG .

Mr. Andrew Loh – can you please furnish me the email address of “cozy”?

The sport scene needs a fresh direction & branding, moving forward. So that Singaporeans can identify with it, like it, want to engage it & most of all, embrace it, for healthy living, even make a career out of it. Just when we achieved the historic milestone by winning an Olympic medal that we are unfortunate to be awaken up by a sorry episode. Looking at the bright side, we can do better on the public relations front. Amidst all, Lim Bee Wah fails to fit in. Table tennis or whatever sports, can do better by engaging a more professional & savvy representative. Enough said. Congratulates to our TT girls!

the whole country needs a fresh direction and branding from inside out and from bottom to top, together. LBW is just symptomatic of the whole problem this country is facing. Lack of leadership, lack of common ownership, lack of effectiveness and sincere engagement, no real governance and no real institutions.

It took our nation 48 years, to fly our state flag at the Olympic. Even the players did not come in gold they have demonstrated beyond point of doubt their determination to win for SINGAPORE.

So shouldn’t be on the ground of merits and humanitran that the team should deserve their due recognition. Competition is more than just a game of sports it involves psychological and strategy play in order to secure a win.

The team has done the nation well so let’s keep them and move forward to Olympic 2012. Any thought of changing them or replacing them will be detrimental to the team as a whole.

Please think THRICE

LHL cannot allow a by-election in Jurong GRC coz if he allows that and LBW resigns ( (it’s a matter of when, not if), then he’d have to call one for AMK RC as well.

90) Fairplay, 91) Singaporean, 99) frankumcity : Well said…. how I wish others would do the same…. making constructive comments, without calling names, etc, etc…. .I am sure “cozy” will agree with me ….. Xie xie ni …..

I feel that as a Member of Parliament and Head of STTA, all the more she should look out on how she is going to speak to the Media. Every action and every word would be observed by the Media and the Public.

Frankly I am very proud to be Singaporean and felt so happy even if we did not win a medal…

For any punishments or rewards, don’t you think it should be settled internally first, before spreading or divulging to the public?

This matter has been watched not only in Singapore, but would be watched by the world outside Singapore too. What would the others think of us?

LBW should stepdown fr STTA and PAP

Until now, she has not done anything except to “PR” herself (thru the media) and telling everyone “who is the boss”. WHY?

She does not respect the “Elders” of the Highest Sporting Organisation in Singapore and the proctocol and continue to “blah….blah….” WHY?

A LEOPARD cant change its spot!!

She probably has “someone” who is a big shot supporting her! We can generalised that she is someone who only “mix” with high ranking people ABOVE her and does not bother with the rest of the people.

After this incident, with the protection from the “someone” who has “groomed” her, she will be back again. Unitl she is made a Minister, she will not give up. Her skin is as thick as the ELEPHANT.

Sign…sign…大局为重

I am least worried of the future of sports in Singapore…but I totally worry the future of Singapore! Such “quality” can be a MP and to be given more and more key appointments by our government.

What will our top man say about this?

Majullah Singapore (“let’s move on”, Singapore)

or will it be

“SHE CANNOT MAKE IT, SHE AINT NO DIV 1″

I applaud the sensible and mature comments by FAIRPLAY.

There are so many rash comments from many of us in the name of defending graciousness, thoughfulness, courtesy and all good virtues perceived so lacking in this episode. In so doing, are we contradicting ourselves with our behaviours and comments?

Is winning an Olympic medal at the expense of others acceptable? What are we showing to the world our Singpaporean value? Are we a society supporting winners only?

I am proud of the achievement of our table tennis players, the winners as well as the losers. I wish them well and hope they will scale new heights. They are individuals and individuals must be respected and be provided with the opportunites and supports. We must care for their well beings though not possible to provide same level of resources for each. Each player has different talent and needs.

I like to be treated as an individual. What about you?

aI yah , just ask lee bee wah to resign. then it would save alot of band widths on alot of forums…. and most importantly save her face

oNE important point most people did not realise is this. What if anthony lee depends on his table tennis job as his bread and butter; his manager’s job and allowance to feed his family and children Then suddenly because of some unverified and unexplained reasons, he is just sacked, that means out of job? without second chance, without chance to correct his mistake, IF ANY?? So compare this to a organisation or government office run by lee bee wah, that means if her employee just make a SIMPLE mistake, he does not need to explain, just leave, thats all? this is the way she run a place??? Come on, even people who let mas salamat escape got a second chance!!!!!!!!

Lee Bee Wah should learn from this famous quote by Maya Angelou

PEOPLE WILL FORGET WHAT YOU SAID
PEOPLE WILL FORGET WHAT YOU DID
BUT PEOPLE WILL NEVER FORGET HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.

You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life. Zig Ziglar

Lee Bee Wah could do with better words certainly.

I really hope Teo Ser Luck can save the day and prehaps his political life. by handling the situation properly since he is tasked to solve the problem. If he is percieved to side with Lee bee wah because of their political affiliation, then he is gone case. He must be seen to be neutral, and do the job in the interest of the sports and the ALL Singaporeans, and not to save the face of ONE woman.

LBW is not fit to lead the STTA. Poor leadership skills. Fast to “lambast” people but slow (very slow) to praise and motivate. Now she is trying to get herself out of the mess that she created. The only way for Singapore’s ping pong to go down the drain is to keep LBW as the chief of STTA. Sure formula for failure.

Agree with Ivy, but as mentioned by some bloggerrs if she can worm her way to the A team, I am sure she can worm her way out of this fiasco…..wriggly wriggly….and it will MOVE ON……hhahahahahahh

why do our ministers always try to get away from their boo-boos by saying “let’s move on” without showing remorse… same with the mas selamat saga

I wrote to the TODAY newspaper upon hearing the decision made by SSTA’s President and stated that she is displaying her arrogance by her outburst while at the Olympic Games. Her action is totally unprofessional and worse still the fact that she is a MP. The action taken against Antony was a confirmation of her arrogance without doing a postmortem before shooting from the hip. Trying to shine as a new President is certainly a shot in the foot. A right approach is to investigate the matter thorougly before making the decision. In an attempt to soften the impact by saying that the decision was taken before the Games after the public uproar is trying to do damage control. To add insult to injury, saying that Antony is welcome to apply for the post later.
Have some respect for someone who has clearly contributed towards the performance of the table tennis team. Perhaps she should step down and reapply for the Presidency if she wants to, at a later date. As a President os SSTA and as a MP for Ang Mo Kio, graciousness is the core of all senior office holders and politicians, not sudden outburst. Hard decisions should be taken, but only after due process.

You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within. Bob Nelson

The hokkien would say of her ( since she likes to use hokkien in parliament): … .. “ye yow lor whay…” meaning she only knows how to cause trouble by setting fire….

Whoever this LEE is (never heard of this so call talent from PAP unit now), it just like Many Singapore MP, like too steal glory from other, this liver medal we stole from china (of course with a price), and yet they are so proud. Now when it over, this LEE think is the King(or Queen), worry that the poor thing manger that bring the team to victory will over shine her and what she do ? Fire him! LEE wake up, power come with respect, now to me you just a another good for nothing MP.

I am totally in agreement with what FAIRPLAY & Jim have commented!

I really don’t understand why people are against what LBW has done, after all didn’t all Singaporean ask for transparency in everything being done? Now that
the can of worms is open, everybody cannot accept the facts, please this saga
will sooner or later be exposed to everyone….

As disected by Newpaper yesterday, why can’t the team manager & relevant coaches take the blame when clearly they are the ones who had contributed to this saga?

Why must everybody insist that respect must be shown to the team manager
& coaches? ok i’ll agree to a certain extent… but what has Gao Ning gained
while representing Singapore in the Olympic, the correct attitude & care from the relevant people who should be helping him? it’s a disgrace that he did not have
that while trying to do Singapore proud!

People also say that he should be mentally strong representing Singapore even
without a coach by his side but what would have happen if this would have been
Li Jia Wei’s match in the semi-final & no coach was by her side? after all she is
very experienced, have represented Singapore at the very top level & played the
Chinese counterparts so many times… how would people react then?

BL, please read all the posts carefully before you sprout your view. The point is not about transparency, or accountability or that the decision has been made earlier.

The beef is that she was high-handed, uncouth, and disgrace Singapore on global TV with her agitated antics. She supplanted the Chef de Mission. No IQ, no EQ, no management style and no HR skill.

Sack her!!!! She don’t deserve to head the STTA. Sack her!!!! She don’t deserve to be MP for AMK…a shame to have such a candidate!!! Irresponsible judgement you have sent out. Be it the fault of the coaches or the player (Gao Ning), as the head of STTA or MP of AMK, should exercise fair judgement and weight the seriousness of what comes out from your mouth goes into peoples’ ears. LBW, you have no clue how much work the coaches have put in to bring the medal back. Everyone is working hard all these years for a same reason, to bring glory to our Country and with your tackless remarks kill all the joy.

I doubted your credential in heading the sports.

Balik Kampong lah!!!!

Let’s analyse the behaviour of our dear LBW

It is interesting to note that up till to-date, there is no apology of any sort.

All she has opted to do now is to decline comment. By declining comment, she is obviously hoping that over time, people will forget and all the negative publicity about her will all tide over.

Which means that she still thinks that she has done nothing wrong. As far as she is concerned, everyone has done something wrong (coach, manager, SPH, etc) except her.

With such an attitude, i ask all – why, pray tell, do we still want her as STTA president or even an MP ??

I’ll try take a neutral view. Everybody makes mistakes, whether the team manager, coach or president. Nobody knows for sure except themselves.

But what people are angry about is what happens after the mistakes. Anybody that has taken superior roles knows very well that some things are meant to be settled from the inside. So now what the president has been become very UNSIGHTLY and SERIOUS. She had alot of better, cleaner, smarter choices than to put down her team in front of the media, and also making the coach or team manager having to know things from ‘third party’. Its just too ugly. I’m not directly flaming her, but i do believe that theres a much better way to settle things. Not to mention she’s not even got good footing ground when shes so new. Her words just has no power to them.

Alright I’m not trying to flame her. so that aside, Why singaporeans are so angry at her. Because while people are congratulating and aiming for higher hopes at 2012 with this winning spree, she choose to spolit it. It is of her actions that the matter has become so big it even implicates all the whole team as well as the player.

And thats the most important part. She’s now shaking the foundation of the team. Now the player’s mental state has become so different – we can only hope that they can concentrate on their training and remain a strong team spirit. And most people, (and even the players) believes that remaining the team as it is now is most important. So that’s the reason why Singaporeans are angry at her. And I myself think we should really keep Liu GuoDong. Just Look at what Feng Tian Wei says.

It all started with Gao ning, being a world no.12 player , he lost the game to Mr Tan Rui Wu, world no.47, a player 30 rungs below him by 4 -0. What a shame. Being a professional and mature player and Singapore no 1 men’s player, there is no reason for him to lose by this hugh score line.

Singaporeans and PRs who watch his match must realise how he play. His effort and commitiment was purely lacking. See for yourself the last game he played and especially the last few points. He did not even bother to save and retrieve the ball from his more aggressive opponents.

His tears might have gain some sympathetic votes but it was his horrible play that started all this.

The timely of the announcement was bad. The explanation offered by Mr Anthony Lee and Headcoach , Mr Liu Guo Dong was clear and precise. one coach is sick so unforseen things does happen . Its just uinfortunate. Even Mr Ng Ser Miang and Dr Tan Ee Liang accepted the explaination.

Ms Lee Bee Wah should be aware that not only players are important but the team and backroom staff plays a equally vital role to get the team and rsults going.Its all preparation, planning , training and hardwork.

By sacking the team manager, it shows she treasure the players much much much more than the trainers and coaches. Which is not right. As hte saying goes, it takes two hands to clap.

imagine the scenario if overseas countries knows how we handle our coaches and trainers, that will look bad on us and they WILL NOT even consider applying for the coaching or team manager’s post.

I rest my case.

Alan Wei

LBW has presented Singaporeans a true insight of PAP choice of candidates. Are we really that short of talents? Are we going to let such a simpleton to lead us to the new era? Surely they can do better. Political acumen and sporting graciousness she has none.
As a proud citizen, I’m beginning to puke with the likes of her kind and hopefully she’s the last one.
A leader, a public figure leads by exampliary conduct and honour and what we’ve seen here today is just someone who put herself before public interest. She just turned a would-be-party into a funeral wake. She should really learn from her seniors the meaning of humility and compassion. Luckily I’m not from her constituency. She’s just the wrong person at the wrong place and the wrong time.
More good years with more good leaders please.

Lee Bee Wah thought she owns everything. pls quit position as a president which you don’t deserved at the first place. And don’t shame on yourself of your words.

Lee Bee Wah is a born loser. If not for her status as a politician, irrespective of whether she is a MP of PAP or opposition party , there would not have been so much negative comments on her.

In fact, the whole issue should have been centred on why no coach was assigned to help Gao Ning at that critical moment . What a twist! When politics is brought in, rationale and logic do not exist!

I sincerely hope that the true cause of failing to send a coach for Gao Ning is not due to differences on sharing of monetary award (past or future) or misconduct (if any) of Gao Ning.

One irrelevant suggestion: Players who have reached semi-final in an Olympic games/ major meet should also be awarded, even though he or she fails to get a broze medal.

Indeed that LBW never use her brain when she talk, shes just trying to show how powerful she is by saying childish things like that.
Old Lee have mentioned that all PAP members are carefully choosen qualified candidates. So if LBW’s action is what old Lee have said, “carefully choosen qualified”, then something must be wrong.
For that Gao Ning, i dont think having a coach there anot have any affects on his performance, eventually its the player himself whos dealing with the opponent so theres pointless ranting about. Im sure people who played sports long enough will know.

I personally do not think the PAP will just sack a MP just because we the citizens are not happy. Because by giving in to us 1 time, they will scared that there will be 2nd time, 3rd time etc… So to protect themselve

Maybe i will take this chance to say this. Infact, lately i feel more like a consumer of s’pore more like a citizens which is really sad.
For the petrol hikes and inflations so bad lately, i do not expect the govn to spoon feed their citizens 100% but at least absorbed some percentage for us to help us through the bad times.
And if the govn do not wish to help, then pls stop adding to your citizen’s stress like the ERP Gantries and raising GST, im sure most will be grateful.

And lastly, have the govn locate Mas Selamat yet??? How come no more update of him? Hes a terrorist and his freedom means your citizens is open to bomb threats so we have the rights to have periodic update of his search.

Thk u.

i seriously condemned her as an MP & SSTA’s President. i mean, look at it from the public’s view.. she lacked compassion in her decision making process and she’s a female MP. based on stereotypes, female tends to be more compassionate but where’s hers? she was harsh in her decision, without placing consideration on the work and effort of the coaches in order to obtain a medal. she tried to boast her power as SSTA’s President just within days of Singapore’s win.

i wouldnt say the coaches are bias, they are well-trained to help the nation obtain the medal. and did they fail? NO, they brought back a silver medal at the very least. concentration might have been placed on the female team and neglected the male team somehow, but this is due to unforeseen circumstances. the initial plan wasnt meant for it to be proceeded this way, they tried their best to salvage the situation. credit should be placed on their effort and last-minute plans to salvage the situation and not blaming them for the outcome. i bet you, MS LEE, wouldnt have guess that all this hoo-haa would have happened with just a simple comment right? but your handling of the situation is a totally let-down, considering you are one promising MP making the head-lines on the newspaper. you dampen the celebration mood of an entire nation, we waited 48yrs for a medal and this should go on to be one of the biggest celebration but you spoilt it all. it’s one thing to sack the manager, and another to spark a nation’s outrage on your decision. we feel for Anthony, everyone makes mistake and his was based on unforeseen circumstances.. it’s not like he did it on purpose. with one mistake, you are blinded by a fault and chose to erase your memory of all the hard work they put in. is this the leadership you learnt to lead a nation?
based on the way you handled this issue, will you also disregard all the contributions of your fellow grassroot leaders one fine day.. when they make a mistake and forgo their 20yrs of service?

transparency? you say you want transparency.. while others are willing to own up to their mistakes, where are you? isnt it time for you to make a public apology to all that are injuried by your comments.

just to reach your own goals, you can forsake anyone in that process. is this your character? you just want to prove your ability as the best and restructure the entire team, but you totally failed in integrity and teamwork. it’s our disgrace to end an olympic winning in this way.

a probation period should be issued, whilst in-depth consideration should be implemented on whether you should still stay on as the SSTA’s President.

I hope she should just step down as STTA president because STTA will have problem recruiting new coaches as well as managers for the 2012 Oylmpic and future competitions.

Who would want to work for a president who does not use her brain before she talk. Mr Liu Guo Dong now think twice before continuing his contract with STTA.
After Mr Liu , who would want to take up this job?

Being a MP, she should have the fundamental COURTESY to handle the matter carefully but instead she spolit every Singaporean’s day with her insensitive comment. She does not have the capability to be a MP and represent her constituency as well..

PLEASE STEP DOWN ! MS LEE BEE WAH !
Who will ever respect you after this SAGA? Not me !

I’ve not read the whole blog, but would anybody know what it required and how does one become the president of STTA? Need to be “Big SHot”? And this one got to be there? Olympic leh, win already can get more VOTE arh?

I agreed with Allan wei on gao ning rank 12 play against rank 47 lost badly and cried and blame no coach around what a shame,and SSTA president blame coach ,team manager that show she dont understand sport at all,pls resign.

Her time is up. One month is all she got to be the STTA president…time for next better player !

She screwed up just barely a month as the STTA president, and she had lost all respect and trust from the Singaporeans…

I don’t think we can leave our precious table tennis teams in her hands…even someone with a low IQ will know better not to dampen the Nation’s joyous mood by firing the table tennis manager when he barely stepped foot onto Singapore soil after the Beijing games……

Manager of STTA very very “pai tan”……get SILVER for Olympics also kenna fired…..

Ask LBW go and manage the team herself…see what metal she can bring back for us………

Being an MP, how can she be so impulsive, she is not managing a company, personal or any family matters. Even in the corporate world to tell her subordinate off, she needs to go to a corner or pull he or she to her office to get their difference aired. Knowing that by speaking those harsh words to reporters will have this type of outcome/impact. Further more she is only one month old “baby” in the association as President. Whatever unhappiness she may have, she need to observe further and report in their association’s meetings to resolve issues. I think the best think for her is to resign. I do not know how she managed her “Meet the people session”

No other comments

Thank u

What a shame of Guo Ning to use the coach as an excuse for him to lost the game so badly and i dont think he should be considered No. 1 player in Singapore. Singapore should not waste the money on grooming him as he do not have the potential.

I also think that selecting Lee Bee Wah as a MP and STTA president is also a serious mistake the government had made. She should be removed on both

Did anyone really watched Gao Ning’s match? You can see his anguish at being left to fight alone. I did not watch all the matches but in all those i did watch coaches were always present. A third person view of the match can be tremendous in identifying the opponent’s weak points and how to counter, so it counts for a lot. It is extremely unprofessional of a country to have her sportsmen/women be without a coach in such a big stage as the Olympics, that says a lot about our poor standards. What’s a silver medal if such basic foundations are not laid out in terms of professionalism and fairness?

89) Fairplay on August 29th, 2008 1.02 am
What do you think will happen if the coach from China did not appear during competition? He will surely be sacked!

In all the China-China finals, no coaches were present.

I do not think that rules on players for ping pong is every side must be one player
( single ) plus coach. If the presence of the coach is not mandatory then it should not be an issue.

If Team Manager is dismissed because of perceived management slip ups; then what about The ” Manager ” – DPM when Mas Selamat disappeared ?

From now on and into history , Singapore will remember not just the SILVER medal but also the GREAT LBW, who has made herself a name in history.

LBW should resign without a doubt with immediate effect. If she knows how to apologise, she should even quit as a MP since she no longer can gain the respect of any Singaporean any more no matter what she do from now onwards. Guess she was “overwhelmed” by the complaints from the player/s that she just make her judgement without a proper investigation and trial. Even a prisoner gets a chance to explain himself/herself. If she can do this just because she is the President of the STTA, imagine she doing it if she is given office or more important matters to decide. Most likely she will just listen to one side of the story and then make her judgement. I dun think she even has the quality to even become a Manager in any organisation, let alone be a Member of Parliament. It is so sad that we have such calibre of people in Parliament. Really wasting of taxpayers’ money to pay her to sit there in Parliament.

The frustration of Singaporeans , when the excitement and joy in winning an olympic medal was shattered by LEE BEE WAH , could only be released by her immediate resignation.

39) Jack on August 27th, 2008 2.18 pm “Why must PAP politicians have to be involved in every facet of our lives, yes, even in local sports organisations where they hardly know a thing or two (just look at MBT at FAS previously) Sports bodies must be run by sports professionals.
PAP MPs thought they could run them like their bosses running the govt, with
heavy handed top down approach. Its no wonder Singapore have never excel tn
international sports unlike some countries with smaller populations than ours.”

In the old days, Sports Associations were mainly run by people out of their love for the game. Wonder how many Singaporeans remember when Ganeson was i/c of Football Association of Singapore (FAS). We were then playing in the ‘Malaysian Cup’ and the excitement of each match attracted a full house almost everytime it was played at the National Stadium. Fans then nicknamed the Singapore team ‘The Lions’ and the stadium ‘The Kallang Roar’. We would cheer ‘ole, ole, ole’ and ‘referee kayu’ until our throats were sore.

We would travel all the way to watch away matches played with strong contenders like Pahang, Kuala Lumpur, Kedah, Johor and not forgeting our arch rival Selangor. Rivalry was so great that teams like KL, Pahang and Kedah even managed to sign our key Singapore players to boost their teams. And likewise we had our own imports from Australia, Czech Replublic and South Korea. With the right mix of our own local players, experienced professional imports, and tactician coach from New Zealand, our team won the M-League and Cup double in 1994. Those were our football ‘golden days’.

However, at the height of winning the Cup, FAS was revamped and decided to withdraw the Lions from Malaysian competitions in order to concentrate its efforts on the development of local football. The end product was the formation of the S-League.

Lee Bee Wah and Gao Ning should quit.

Dear All,

Please do not blame MP Lee Bee Hua. After all she is a Politician. She did good things for her constituency and scored political points.

Who put her in STTA ? There is a big question on the person or authority put her in STTA. This is a good lesson to be learnt.

Thanks

Latest News! Auntie Lee Bee Wah “apologised”. A bit too late. And her explaination was rather ambiguous..

Lee Bee Wah has apologised. I guess its the wise thing to do when you are up against a public tsunami. I hope she tearns the lesson not to play “politics” in sports. And remember, never never apologise if you are never in the wrong. And if you are in the wrong, you lose the moral authority to lead. So there you go, she should just slowly fade away……….resignation is the final option.

So it is all over ! That is all as expected too.

The people can also have its verdict .

Until last week no one has any idea of the calibre of some PAP MPs, and several are involved in sports association as well; we have heard of wooden spoons before but the last few days have been telling.
The parlimentary debate on the motion of by election, and the LBW saga have certainly open the eyes of Singaporeans. Looks like Singapore is really short of talent. ” Extremely worrying trend ” to quote.

Lee Bee Wah isn’t a true singaporean, she from malaysia.

Sorry not enough.. pls step down..

So So Sad…our voices don’t count at all…looks like the only avenue for us is at the next GE!

Sorry only? she must eat back all the shits she spewed.The arrogance must be wiped out by hanging a card board showing her shits and parade her in Raffles Place during lunch time. This is to send a strong message to whoever dares to show arrogance on borrowed power.

Lee Bee Wah should just step down. The damage has already been done.
What’s the point of hurting someone right in front of national TV and media and apologise later.

Furthermore, being an MP and representing people in your constituency, she should think , analyse before talking to the press. (think before you talk)

Her untimely announcement at the most inapproprate time, speaks clearly she clearly listens only to the player and player alone.

As i mentioned in my earlier , it was an unfortunate incident that no coaches were available for our “Singapore No 1 – World no 12 player” The explaination given were geniune and not merely excuses.

Let’s face it, even if Gao Ning were to beat Tan Rui Wu, (which he did not beat),
what are his chances progressing further as China’s men and womens’ team were too strong and it was on their home turf.

Is also a waste of our resources , you know how much $$$$$, we invest in him , Be my guess where all the $$$$ comes from whom.

For the sake and long term future of STTA, resign now.

i rest my case.

Alan Wei

honest mistakes…… move on….. heheee

It makes me vomit seeing how she prostitute herself by cheering and shouting for the table tennis team in Beijing carrying the Singapore flag, she want to be spotted most prominently both in Beijing and also the Victoria parade on the bus top. She didn’t realize the silver medal was none of her effort and she is really just a parasite that the team can do without.

She might be thinking she is the most important foreign talent having grown up in the rubber plantation in Segamat coming from no where to be an MP today.

It will be better if she disappear from the public eyes and return to her dad’s farm in Segamat, we do not need foreign talent without heart.

So LBW apologised and then they say “Issue is now closed and move on”. Typical of the government style. “Let’s Move On”….how often have we heard of this phase? Countless times!!!!! Please do not sweep the issue under the carpet just by a simple sentence of apology……so maybe I commit a crime already and then I say sorry and all of us are just supposed to “move on” and think that nothing has happened? I mean, we even have to resort to asking the players to come up and say that they are “behind” LBW…of course they will have to stand together to say something nice with all the big shots there sitting at the press conference…who would dare say anything bad, unless they do not want to play anymore table tennis….

Apology is not enough except for LBW to resign from STTA pls!!!! She should pls definitely consider to even quit her role as a MP with all her crude jamban and toilet comments that is totally unacceptable at such a place such as Parliament in the first place….it just goes to show that she is not MP quality with all these screw ups one after another…

Pls LBW. I do not understand why are people still so thick-skinned and still want to stay on when you can no longer command the respect of the people at STTA and the public.

Minister Bala , you need not promise anything..just ensure that LBW does the honourable thing…she should know…
Why is the Saturday autograph session be at AMK..LBW ’s constituency….?

Thanks for the Miss Lee Blahhh blahhh. No wonder she has the habit of washing her linen in public. Dry faster huh? PAP sure knows who to select for their STUFF. Go M’sia eat Durian also dun need to bring back rotten one.

Let’s see if Guo Ning will be in a way punished for losing in that manner. In my opinion, his transgression was the worst and unbecoming of a professional player regardless of whether he was marginalized or not. He’s paid to do a job and he failed miserably. I can understand if he tried his best and lose but giving up?

Ms Lee has NO character of for an MP, she is just up there because PAP were recruiting people who are in the technical field and perceived high echelons of society. Many have worked with her before knows her character too well: Aggresive, Incompassionate, Unreasonable, Blaming Attitude, Overwhemingly desire to sack subordinates AT THE SLIGHTEST CHANCE. She likes chopping heads. All in her head is SACK, SACK, SACK.
Anyone who deals with her find she has an Ego so big when she is some small time consultant. Being in PM’s ward is just like striking lottery to her. What background has she got other than being married to a Singaporean, she is just a broad from the outback of Malaysia, economic migrant and opportunist. She has NO Singaporean deep root other than being mother and wife of a Singaporean!

She would just want to MOVE ON, why not ? So good a pay MP gets, even her small little business doesn’t pay half of what she is getting.
Some of us who worked with her before will vouch to what I mentioned.

Her compassion for fellow human being displayed in the papers are disguises to prop up her image in the ruling ward.

SHE HAS NO QUALITY OF BEING AN MP.
SHE CAN PRACTISE HER NASTINESS TO CONSTRUCTION PERSONNELS because they are so tough.

Calling for Lee Bee Wah to step down

She got NO quality & NO leadership. How can she qualified to be an MP & President of the STTA? She should step down from STTA and MP position. She is welcome to apply the positions again but best that the PEOPLE of Singapore to decide and evaluate her competency.
She can’t even handled press conference well today. A total disappointment ….

152) Alan Wei on August 29th, 2008 11.17 pm

“As i mentioned in my earlier , it was an unfortunate incident that no coaches were available for our “Singapore No 1 – World no 12 player” The explaination given were geniune and not merely excuses.

Let’s face it, even if Gao Ning were to beat Tan Rui Wu, (which he did not beat),
what are his chances progressing further as China’s men and womens’ team were too strong and it was on their home turf.

Is also a waste of our resources , you know how much $$$$$, we invest in him , Be my guess where all the $$$$ comes from whom.”

For the past 10+ years, we’re merely importing log, stock and barrel – players, coaches, assistants and even sparring partners etc who are below “Level 1’ from the greatest table tennis nation in the world, and hoping against hope, that our imports could be locally groomed to beat the Grand Master in own his game.

However, compare this to at what our ASEAN countries had just won without relying on imports:
Vietnam – weightlifting silver medal in men’s 56 kg
Indonesia – weightlifting bronze medal in men’s 56 kg and bronze in men’s 62 kg
Thailand – weightlifting gold medal in women’s 53 kg and silver in women’s 49 kg Taekwondo
Malaysia – silver medal in men’s badminton single.

Even Togo, a small African nation with a population of 5 million and a GDP per capital of $1,700 (world’s 193rd) had won her first ever Olympic bronze medal in the men’s Shalom K-1 Canoe event.

And war-torn Afganistan, represented by only 4 competitors, managed to win her first ever Olympic medal by taking the bronze medal in the men’s -58kg taekwondo.

Is a silver or even medal won by an import worth more than a bronze medal won by a local.

Think about it, Singapore.

Ha old aunty you should go make baby where you are more urgentiy needed than to make stupid comments. Kian is OK but don’t be ka kian(HOKKIAN).

Sack Her as what she done to people who has worked with her.
She has No Compassion and No Compassion should be shown to her.
She is just there for money and power.
A leopard doesn’t change its skin pattern.
The ruling party recruit her and she wasn’t screened for chararater.
An MP has to love and serve the people and Not Ass kicking mentality.
Being a politician is NOT about how well he/she will be well paid !
She just got the best of both world, paid well before performance and power to change people’s life.
She is just getting back at people for her so called miserable beginnings.
Is Malaysia so bad, that her entire siblings ALL moved to Singapore?Running from the suppresion in Malaysia? Bullshit, her background was nothing to boast about.
Well she is NOT so humble after all is she? As seen from her actions.
Folks , wiithin 3 months of her appointment, her car is changed to a new MERCEDES E -CLASS to reflect her new status and wealth.

Is this what people holding office is all about, well done !

The terms of reference used in her apology is also not right.

Misunderstood? Anyone of average intelligence would agree that there is NO misunderstanding in her remarks at the games and her followup actions.

She was very clear and concise when she made the respective statements.

Passing the buck to the manager Antony for the defeat of Guo Ning is just not right. A player is groomed over the years not onsite. The coach onsite is apart from providing moral support, onsite tips to counter the opponent. If the performance of Guo Ning slacked, a post mortem should be done to see what was the cause but certainly using the manager as the scapegoat is poor judgement especially before a thorough investigation is made.

The damage done by the outburst and the subsequent statements of LBH is not easy for the public to forget. Especially when she is a MP, that makes it worse.

Arrogance is something Singapore does not need. Remember, you are elected as a MP not because the public think that you are good. The public vote for a credible political party, and the credibility of each MP is proven over the years to have a high degree of integrity, humanity, compassion and many other qualities.

The new MPs are riding on the highly respected foundation laid by leaders like our MM Lee, SM Goh, Prof Jayakumar, Dr Tony Tan and many past and present leaders. It is over the next few years when the public will judge your character and commitment etc. A good leader does not display such outburst and take radical actions, a “Dictator” does. Fortunately the majority of our MPs are of a high calibre and do things NOT for personal ‘Glory’. New MPs must learn from our senior leaders and take whatever advantage of time to seek advice from such leaders.

The behaviour of Lee Bee Wah must be monitored further and the Government must put a leash on such a MP. The trend of her behaviour will not be accepted by the majority of Singaporeans.

No one is blaming her for Guo Ning poor play. Ultimately it is the player’s ability that counts. The core of the issue is her attitude which really put her in bad light. Lee Bee Wah should learn from our senior leaders if she wants to be in politics, if she refuses to reform herself, it is best that PAP take her out as a MP as she will be a liability to the party. She can choose live in her own cave but when you are a MP, you are in public domain and you are expected to look after the welfare of your ward, not yourself, “GLORY” or otherwise.

Did anyone of you heard what Teo Ser Luck said during the conference?

It was hilarious!

He said LBW is only more than one month old! (end of sentence)

LBW is one month old! haha
==========================================================
Actually, he said LBW is ONE AND A HALF MONTHS OLD. But still the same, one month or one and a half month, is still a cry baby…. you know, baby like to cry father, cry mother??…… “cow peh, cow bu”
==========================================================
If you studied the whole news conference again, you will notice that LBW voice is shaking, no eye contact…. TSL so nervous, his words all mixed up….. the women players didn’t want to say much, just pushed the micriophone to the next person…… all the body language and face expressions were no good…. i think Singapore ping pong is gone case if LBW isn’t gone

For a LEADER in the capacity as MP and President of STTA to say “i am sorry” takes a lot for her to do that. This is the least a leader has done when it comes to a crunch.

However, this statement has swept everything under the carpet and “move on”…..hahaha

Who gives Liu and Lee the highest credit when the girls won the silver medal . . . .for being present at the match and arranging a coach there. But when we lose a game, it is someone esle’s fault.

She will defintitely take some time to earn bakc that respect in STTA and public. Anyway, she has 4 years till 2012 to earn that. Let’s wait for another drama in 2012.

This episode has taught us to be slow to speak. As you traced back how this whole episode unfolds, it all started with the blarring from her mouth like a machine gun terterterterterterterterterterter right in front of the national TV.

She has definitely made news and history – but the wrong side of it.

Who ever helped Lee BW with the statement of apology is making her look even worse. The fact that Lee B W read the statement showed she agreed with the wordings and I can only conclude she is really daft and also showed her up as having no integrity. Recall Wee S K, father of infamous Wee Shu Min making a half hearted public apology ? and he never got it right after several attempts. LOL It is also important for us to remember that Ho Ching and Mrs. Goh CT have yet to retract their statements supporting TT Durai in the NKF scandal.
The ruling party needs to do serious soul searching with themselves and their selection process. It is deplorable that they are comfortable with the situation.
For the sake of Singapore I hope they still have a soul !

LBW must step down!!

From the actions and non verbal gestures of those at the press conference, all the apologies and talks were not from the heart.

The ‘ give-up’ looks on the faces of the players, coach and manager showed up fear and hopelessness.

LBW has to step down to restore calm and bring back the mood to Singapore ping pong !

When MM apologised for the remarks he made on carjacking, muggings in JB, he was verys steady, very calm, composed and confident….. This woman?…. she was quavering, mouth was trembling, eye dipping ….. like that how can? I don’t care if she is the top enginner, top brain, head of international engineers association or whatever….. if like that, how to conduct dialogue in international arena. Already all the subordinates, ie. the table tennis players are looking bewildered…. If really want to move on…. then resign, then everybody will stop talking and really move on.

LBW please give Singaporeans some peace of mind…step down !! from STTP and also as an MP..the trust is gone..

We should give LBW a chance to prove her worth.
Without her outspoken comments to the media, we may not be aware of smokes billowing amongst the players towards the management and the coach.
She shows mental strength in apologizing to the nation but her intention is never in doubt.
I believe that with this episode, the managers and coach will be under the nation scrutiny. In sports, we need to give every players (singaporean talents included) a chance to be a winners and also to contribute to the association and nation.

Chai BC, agreed. We should give Lee Bee Wah full credit because without her, we never know how shitful is the PAP’s high flier.

How come no one ask who recommend her to be STTA ’s president and base on what ground that she is the suitable candidate ? Who vote her in ?

Sack LBW from PAP she is giving all of us bad name, a bad image of Spore style management. Ask her to join another political party and become president of another sports association like the Spore Drama Club

The LBW Inquiry from an Enginering Point of View

LBW is like one of the 6 concrete columns chosen to support an opulent building.

Since the completion of the building, the particular column began to show sign of cracks and bits of concrete cover was spalling off from its surface.

Of course the people who have chosen to stay with the building either did not noticed it or refusd to acknowlege that there is a problem.

The impeccable building attracted more unknowing tenants with its gleaming facade and classy facilities, and no one took noticed of the defective column.

One day the building started to tilt and everyone finally noted that the column has started to bow, exposing the corroded steel reinforcement.

The owner and building management quickly apologised to all the tenants and initiated repairs to the column by plastering and painting over it. Hoping that the problem will be hidden and long forgotten.

One day the building collapsed and killed some people and injured others.

An Engineering Inquiry found out that that instead of using steel reinforcement from reputed local source, somebody had imported defective steel reinforcement from overseas.

The owner and building managment by concealing the cracks and patching back the concrete surface, only allowed the building time to progress into a total collapse,

A sure way to solve the problem then is to replaced the defective column.

Anyway I am not staying in that building and I have moved on also.

I felt compelled to express my thoughts as I have watched all the matches live including that of Gao Ning and Yang Zi. I have also shockingly witness LBW press talk to the media immediately after the incident.

The first matches of our male players Gao and Yang have a lot of similarities: both played against more obscure players who ranking are far more behind. Of course Yang has a coach there but Gao has not but it does not seem to matter because I was quite shocked to see the same glum faces on both players when they found out that the other under-ranked players could play quite well and upset their scorings. And you could easily see the fear from their eyes in just the first 2 games. For Yang, even though he has a coach to talk to, it did not seem to help. It was until mid of his third game in that match that you start to see fire back in his eyes after scouring a few straight points. Sadly, for Gao it was not so because he just never willing to amend his play tactics when it was proven time and again that it was not working.

At those moments, I was very worried. Not because the players might lose the match, not because there was no coach with Gao, but because I saw a completely lack of gutsy fighting spirit in our players. Even the English commentator in Beijing (who incidentally is very familiar with our players as he covered other table tennis meets in Asia often like the one in Japan Sapporo before Olympics) voice his worries at our players.

I think the issue of coach has been blown out of proportion. For top class players, one must possess a fighting spirit, capability to read your opponent’s tactics and adapt. Just look at the Gold/Silver medals table tennis singles where the Chinese players played each other without a coach. Top-seeds vs each other, look at Wang Nan, Zhang Yi Ning, Ma Lin, Wang Hao who were fighting without their coaches. Many of them were down first game but came back to win the match. In fact, Zhang has for the most matches lost her first game (read her opponent tactics) and came back with ways to block out the opponent attacks to win straight sets.

For the record, the first matches of Gao and Yang, no one from STTA was there too as the TV camera sweeps through the audience. I mean is it a practice that only in final that our STTA appear to give their supports? That was why I was really shocked to hear LBW talking to reporters in Beijing to assign the blame so soon so abrupt on that day because none of the STTA management were at the matches and conclusion can be drawn so soon?

To our dear Minister, it was not only her timing ill conceived but the lack of thorough investigation before making such a major announcement which puts me off.

Now before someone starts coming back at me with coaches are very important. I am not saying otherwise. However, the way the coach will influence also depends on what sports. One thing is certain, the readiness of the player is largely decided way before the match with the preparation, intensity.

While I am so happy we achieved so much in this Olympics, I am deeply concerned with the fragile fighting spirits of our players. Frankly our TT players already have world class skills but not yet hearts of steel. Here I applause all those who turn out in person to cheer for the players, those who blogged to praise them because it is of utmost important that our sport players know they are never alone in their matches. All our supporting spirits will transcend and kindle the fire in them whether they lost a set or not.

So our Sport Ministry must market all our players, more players meet people session for all sports and not just TT. Better still, hire professional MR to do this.

For those who are not aware, even before Olympics our TT players have scored very well in many regional meets. The China teams have always regard us as World #2 their closest rivals. Wang YueGu has a real formidable track records before she even join our Singapore team. In fact the Chinese media reckons her in the same league as Wang Nan, Wang Ju. These players have worked very hard for a long time in Singapore. Our female TT team coach Liu, did not even go home much in Beijing, he spent most of his time for the Singapore team. Just imagine he has not gone home for a long time.

These are great people quietly working hard.

seriously, if Gao Ning were to lose just because a coach wasnt present, how sure are you that a coach present will guarantee and increase his chances of winning that game? also, if the manager and chief coach has to bear the responsibility of Gao Ning losing the game, then shouldn’t our dear MP bear the responsibility of the woman players of losing their single final?She announced the dismissal when the Olympic Game is still progressing, it greatly affected the player’s state of mind and concentration because the coach was their coach has trained them for so long, so hard to achieve what they are had achieved. so shouldn’t she bear the responsibility since she affected them so much in their mental and morale during the game, and be responsible by stepping down from he position that she is not fit to claim?

As clear as daylight, She has a thicker skin than elephant.
So easy close the issue.. singaporean not fools.. we all know what is happening
better step down. she is a misfits. Great Liar to the people of singapore

To quote Arthur Lim above:
“The terms of reference used in her apology is also not right.

Misunderstood? Anyone of average intelligence would agree that there is NO misunderstanding in her remarks at the games and her followup actions.

She was very clear and concise when she made the respective statements”

I couldn’t agree more.I do not know LBW. Obviously , she was just trying to attract attention…I had wanted to give her the nbenefit of doubt..but after seeing all the press photos durign the celebrations, it was obvious she is everywhere whenever and wherever the silver medalists were present. Where is Choo Wee Khiang? he should the one in the photos..sph..please do the needful..
LBW, the only way to move on is.. you quit…and only that you shall regain your honour..so please do..we not asking you to do hari kiri..fo ryou are no warrior..

She made the comment as President of STTA (not on behalf of STTA or any other organisation?). But she apologised on behalf of ‘us’?
The apology sounded very technical rather than heartfelt regrets.
STTA will move on but hardly to be chanced by another of this sort.
This is SPORTS….sportsmanship is not about hiring and firing, is it.
Remember the Olympian Theme..One World One Dream…that’s the way to go….win or loose.

Now that the whole fiasco has come to an end, let’s sum up:

* Lee Bee Wah has apologised. This is politically right, because whatever clarifications she makes will invite attacks.
* Antony Lee will stay for 3 more months. Hence, he is not sacked. Good decision.
* Liu Guodong, considered a good coach, should not think too high of himself and hold STTA at ransom.
*Gao Ning, who was victimised, was asked to quit by many bloggers. What a joke! To Gao Ning : Stand up for Singapore ! Fight on!
* Many bloggers said Lee Bee Wah had no ” heard “. But it is precisely her ” heard ” that caused her the trouble. It was reported in a newspaper earlier that she felt sorry for Gao Ning.

Conclusion: All the parties mentioned above turned up to be the winners .

Wishes: Hope to see more better quality and balanced posts such as that of Terence Tseng.

Re my post above: ” No heard ” should read as ” No heart “.

I am so not convinced by Lee Bee Wah’s apology.

Hopefully, someone more powerful in PAP should also sack Lee Bee Wah for her mistakes just like what she did to Anthony Lee. Do not tell Lee Bee Wah direct. Do it through TV and newspaper. After that, give Lee Bee Wah an extension of 3 months.

Seeing another of Lee Bee Wah’s photo trying to play badminton or standing beside the table tennis players is really disgusting.

I do not usually post comments. However, after reading the ST today and the text of the so-called Apology in the NP, I feel compelled to record my opinion (my wife just told me “She has apologised, so shouldn’t that be enuff?…” Well, it isn’t enuff, and here’s why:
Not only is she trying to deflect blame from herself and insult the intelligence of Singaporeans, she has the cheek to implicate the STTA, the coaches and the management by giving an apology ‘on behalf’ of them…the nerve of it all!!! It comes across as self-serving, narcisstic and typical CYA speak. A SINCERE apology comes from one’s heart and a honest admission that one has been wrong. By claiming to be ‘misunderstood’ by others, she does not only not show sincerity but is lying through her teeth – feigning genuine regret and putting the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of Singaporeans and apportioning blame on the association, coaches and management. Isn’t this a classic case of avoiding the bullet, rather than swallowing the bitter medicine?? While the media has now been told in no uncertain terms (’crisis is over’…) to lay off further coverage of this, and the BENEVOLENT AUTHORITIES are hoping that this furore will die out soon, I feel it has been dismissed too easily – this is a case of glossing over the issue, putting a positive spin on the episode and covering up incompetence at high levels!

To (184) Outsider:

If you’re implying only Terence Tseng is ‘balanced’ here, I think you misunderstood the passion of many people here. Sure with the heat on now, some might be expressing a little too strongly but in general most bloggers made comments here not because they are idolizing fans but were directed at the shallow handling and improper timing of LBW’s actions.

While Terence Tseng correctly point out the mental block phenomenon in an high intensity competition, not all will agree that it MUST be ONLY the coach to solve this issue. It is entirely fair that each of us may have different issue on this particular issue.

But LBW’s accusation and conclusion without even finding out enough and her one-sided press release is a different side spin which is ugly and totally unnecessary. Timing to me is an issue here not because it was just after our female team won the medal but really in such a short span of time then she could not have find out enough from the relevant parties. The time was not even enough for her to re-watch the match of all the male players. For if STTA want to be fair to the coaches, all the coach action in all the matches must be taken into account.

Talk about ‘heart’ for the players. Yeah she did tell the reporters that she wanted to be a ‘player’ manager. So my question is why I do not see her in so many of the matches esp. the earlier ones? Is she so busy in Beijing that she cannot afford the time to come watch the players she so care about? But the worse mistake she made public is choosing ’side’ as the STTA head. That will certainly create rift between the coaches and players which the Olympic dream will sink deep into and never again revived.

Finally, why this incident is strking such a high cord with so many people? I strongly suspect similar incidents have been replayed so many times in the corporate lives of many. 10 years ago, such high handed approaches have allowed many roaches to climb the ladder fast by stepping on others. Then Singapore was one of the elite without formidable competition from the South East Asia neighbours and China. Such power plays cannot harm productivity and results. Today the environment is a very different one. Face with competitions everywhere and most notably China, unless corporate teams are cohesive with coherent mission sense, productivity and potential cannot be unleashed. The negative impact of such stepping on will therefore be very pronounced and long lasting.

Ridewind has given the most objective analysis of our male TT players.

I watch the whole match of Gao Ning and by the middle of the 2nd match, my conclusion is that he will lose the game because he just does have the fighting spirit but only fear in his eyes. From his body language and his self talk I can see clearly see shown that he just does not have the confidence to find holes in his opponent’s game. I doubt if a coach there would make a difference.

As for LBW’s apology, it is a joke, a political move than a sincere apology as pointed by many other blogger. I apology for causing grievances? what is that? I thought a sincere apology should be for a mistake a person made so that one can learn for it?

PM Lee’s GRC sure have elitist MPs voted in by the “back-door” method. First Mr. Wee and now Ms Lee.

Would anyone vote for LBW if she stand as in a single ward in the next election?

PM Lee should get rid of his liabilities with a straight forward strategy which I am proposing and is my gift to him.
Put Wee Siew Kim and Lee Bee Wah with Wong Kan Seng to run for the Aljunied GRC and wish them the best of luck. Those MPs who were caught napping in parliament could also be considered to join Wong K S. And to boost his image he should seriously put Lily Neo in his ward. Nicholas Lazarus ! now run along like a good doggie and pass this message to PM Lee.

Often, one’s true strength and character is revealed when one is under tremenduous stress.

Thanks to this episode, Singaporeans now know that Gao Ning is not Olympic material and Lee Bee Wah is not politician material.

I hope our Singapore government now realises that eminent professionals do not automatically translate into outstanding politicians and sports presidents!

It was really very unintelligent for our government to get an MP to helm the sports association at a crucial time like the Olympics. Look at the extent of damage done to the govt’s reputation as a result of MP, LBW’s actions. Her arrogance has served to entrench Singaporeans’ belief that our govt is elite and arrogant. As for me, I am beginning to question how many are the likes of LBW in the government. I also wonder how many votes would this episode cost the PAP.

lbw – wow, still wanna continue? Nian pi very thick, eh? I think I see better material in the wet markets.
Do not say sorry but on the other hand, say we misunderstood you. If don’t mean it, don’t say. We do not accept too.
So smart, go get your team of players as well. Anyway, not interested but will support but do you think will support you? Fat hope. Wait lah

Please note that the Chinese players playing the Gold/Silver match is playing without their coaches out of respecting their own players to have an unprejudiced match, if it’s against other countries the coach will be there. Competitive table tennis players would know that. So to use that argument here holds no water. But yah, coach not important, so no need reemploy Liu Guodong lah.

173) ivy on August 30th, 2008 1.27 pm When MM apologised for the remarks he made on carjacking, muggings in JB, he was verys steady, very calm, composed and confident….. This woman?…. she was quavering, mouth was trembling, eye dipping ….. like that how can? I don’t care if she is the top enginner, top brain, head of international engineers association or whatever….. if like that, how to conduct dialogue in international arena. Already all the subordinates, ie. the table tennis players are looking bewildered…. If really want to move on…. then resign, then everybody will stop talking and really move on.

LBW is structural engineer. No wonder she appears cold as steel.

170) Conjob on August 30th, 2008 11.24 am “Who ever helped Lee BW with the statement of apology is making her look even worse. The fact that Lee B W read the statement showed she agreed with the wordings and I can only conclude she is really daft and also showed her up as having no integrity. Recall Wee S K, father of infamous Wee Shu Min making a half hearted public apology ? and he never got it right after several attempts. LOL It is also important for us to remember that Ho Ching and Mrs. Goh CT have yet to retract their statements supporting TT Durai in the NKF scandal.
The ruling party needs to do serious soul searching with themselves and their selection process. It is deplorable that they are comfortable with the situation.
For the sake of Singapore I hope they still have a soul !”

Shhhhhhhh …………… These are all 1st Division ………………………

From the strings of feedbacks and uproars , it is very clear , none of us approves of LBW’s MANAGEMENT of the entire saga. Now all of us passionate Singaporeans tried to connect and engaged with the authority through the web to provide our feedbacks and our views so that we can strengthen the core of Singapore. THe authority needs to brace the facts (nothing to do with ‘face’ here) and do what is appropriate to win and connect with your citizens! From the quotes here by Dr Vivian and Teo Ser Luck…. I read it as ‘Authority Prefers Not To Connect With Your Citizens and Continue To Handle Issues The Way You Feel SHould Be Handled AND All Singaporeans Please Obey and Observe The Authority – CLOSE THE CASE!”

“Minister of Community Development, Youth and Sports, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said the issue was caused by misunderstandings and ties have been mended.”

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Teo Ser Luck, said: “For Ms Lee to come in and carry on this work, she will need time. She is only a month—plus old.

Teo Ser Luck is so nervous, he actually addressed her as “MRS” Lee. Like that, how can? You address a press conference, you must be steady lah. The way, i look at it, this BEE is gonna sting alot of people and them down with her, if she doesnt resign

I read alot of internet forums, the subject just wont go away. In fact the apology has heightened the interest … and more carlls for her to resign

I do not know LBW at all. I did not even know she is our MP before this saga as I am quite politically blind in Singapore. I bear no grudges against anyone in TT or STTA because I do not even know who is who. But I am speaking out as a fellow Singaporean.

Teo Ser Luck, said: “For Ms Lee to come in and carry on this work, she will need time. She is only a month—plus old.

It is a joke because she herself is the one who initiate the clock ticking. Nobody was asking for action from her. But I guess she needed an excuse to put her own team into STTA. It is a common tactic used in hi power play here.

So now her loose finger had pulled the trigger and misfire someone’s butt. Now she is asking for the clock to stop? It is really funny.

But I’m quite sad now as I am seriously worried that this event is going to haunt the TT team spirit for a long time.

so just say sorry tat all,than any dick and harry can be MP . very easy what make mistake say sorry than let move on. no wonder u cannot make it the real outside world ,if thing happen like this u ARE LONG LONG GONES!!!

PAP always boast that the MP they have selected are both high in IQ and EQ, but this whole saga reveals seriously otherwise. Is Lee Bee Wah’s incident a flaw in PAP’s high profile selection process????

What we see in Lee Bee Wah is the typical authoritarian and totalitarian mentality of PAP government.

Lee Bee Wah can get away easily with such blunders in Singapore, because the PAP government’s tight control on the media and freedom of speech. In Hong Kong or Taiwan, she would have been shamed publicly for her stupidity.

We cannot expects anything with PAP government’s highly manipulative GRC policies, which brings in “back-door MPs” like Lee Bee Wah.

Many of these newly elected or appointed ministers had demonstrated that they totally have no regards and could not identify with what’s happening to the majority of the under-privileged Singaporeans who needs to struggle day in and out for their livelihood, just like Lee Bee Wah had failed to appreciate the situations of the incident and reacted just based on her own perceived elitist’s way of dealing and solving matters.

Lee Bee Wah and many other PAP MPs needs to understand and constantly remind themselves that they are in the “people” business, without which, they are of no relevance to our society!

Quote: “At the AMK hub NTUC Xtra this morning, Ng Ser Miang gave Antony 7 tins of milk powder.”

Ooooooooops! Sorry AL, I thought you are Gao Ning. Please give them for me.

Quote: “Ng Ser Miang presented Ms Lee Bee Wah with a pair of running shoes.”

Sorry LBW, I think this is the right size for you.

lbw – you got a perfect gift – it seems one pair is not enough to get running. What about presenting with another 10 pairs. If still won’t run with these, no words can describe you.

It was declared that the crisis was over.

Is that so? I don’t think so.

There was no sincerity in Lee Bee Wah’s public apology. She merely tried to make use of the opportunity to neutralize her guilt over the blunder.

She was heard over the radio that “…We made some comment which was misunderstood by people..”

Who are the “we”? It was crystal clear that she was the only culprit in the entire saga. Nobody else was involved.

Her stupid decision was loud and clear that the Team Manager’s service was no longer needed and that the Chief coach’s fate would be decided by the Coaching Committee. Who has misunderstood her..?

She said during the press conference that she tendered apology on behalf of STTA, coaches and the management.

The decision to sack the 2 guys was her own. It was not the collection decision by the Association or any board. Why must she tender the apology on behalf of so many people?

The Minister who was present at the press conference obviously condoned her nonsensical talk.

Do you think everyone is sleeping?. Do you think this is an apology at all? lbw – are we that naive, what do you think you are implying “we misunderstood you”. What do you mean by “on behalf of….”. Is this your way of admitting “wrongs”
To accept your apology simply in this manner? Seems 1 pair of shoes is not enough!
Can I know how many people are there in this team for which you are so called “president”? Can’t imagine how in such a scenario, with a handful team, one cannot know what is happening. What a joke!
Plenty to comment, but wasting time.
Btw, do not need to create attention.
100% attention definitely not to this game.

she looked absolutely stupid…and that pair of shoes …meaning? shaft into your big mouth and it’s too big for u..implying the job. That auntie just dont get it.

can the photo be removed? aiyah, going to vomit again…

If PAP doesn’t know how to prune the wild weed grown out of order. I bad to support PAP too long, I will make sure I no bad anymore.

Yes, pls remove the photo..
I can’t stand it.. too

I was going to doze off on this blog but it seems like comments still keep coming in – but really what is next , guys ? Establishment do not seem to give a damn to netizens’ views.

Buy running shoes and donate them away to STTA ? Antithesis of brocolli delivered to the White House lawn?

To What’s next? maybe the petiton shouldbe revived?

Total bullshit from LBH. MIsunderstood? Don’t insult our intellingent. Worst of all, no respects to all Singaporean as an MP, needless to say she completely screwed as the President of STTA.
I don’t think she will step down by herself. She can’t affort to lose it due to the status and the pay packages could be too attractive since she just upgraded her car to a Mercedes E-class. Therefore, she die-die must hold on and put on her bullet proof vest.
If she step down, definitely able to reduce our stress level and increase fertility rates.

“What’s next’ – Tis monkey tree tat the Lee Blahh Blahhh is hanging on will start shaking when they see votes not going their way. They need some competition to wake up their idea. We suffer when they sit there too long too comfortable.
______________________________________________________________

209) What’s next ? on September 1st, 2008 12.16 am I was going to doze off on this blog but it seems like comments still keep coming in – but really what is next , guys ? Establishment do not seem to give a damn to netizens’ views

Hierarchy here. Players, and their actions :

LBW – Aunty. To make mistakes, or to carry out pre-decided hatchet job.

TSL – BabyFace, baby talk. “See no mistakes, Talk less, make less mistakes.”

ViVBala – Doctor (got cure). ‘Case closed, categorically’. ‘Resolved, because I say
so.’

Stinks all the way to high heavens.

LBW, You are already structurally damaged! yet you refuse to step down. For the sake of Singaporeans kindly do so! Likewise with Gao Ming we do not need both of you to represent Singapore anymore,Don’t disgrace us further.

The opening ceremony of the Olympics is very spectacular. I was glued to the seat, but there is only one moment, I went to “jamban to pansai”. lbw – do you have the mentality to know which moment – fllwg prizes for you -
some big thick masks and also a couple of pairs of running shoes, since 1 pair is not enough to get running.
Guess you have a lot of super glue, eh?

Hey, what or who is this lbw? From the jungle?
I had not and will not watch tt, unless its between others.
Esp not in the future, if there is this lbw whatever.
Go pansai better.

We should know what to do for the next GE

ST Forum on the same topic which created Singapore history with the most number of netizens comments has been taken down. Now cannot comment further from the same thread. More than 50 pages of comments have been taken out.

Wonder why?

May be they could not allow us to “pangsai” anymore on her. Again, she may have got the Media to wipe her “ass” clean with no trace of the “thread”.

liu – if want me to stay, lbw – you listen to me.
lbw – respect you as senior – oh yes, based on looks or based on number of loosened screws

ST Forum (print) has this way of letting people ‘complain’, allows the authorities to ‘explain’, and then cuts off the complainant, as if the complainant had nothing to say or guilty as charged.

There are also instances where ST Forum Online postings are rejected, without any given reasons (context filtering, whatever).

This is why the control of media is important for the authorities.

Online blogs are very powerful and scary to people in politics. I would not be surprise if LBW begins to have other fallouts. Better that, than to take down the entire GRC (along with the PM).

I just checked on ST discussion forum, you can still get it by clicking on Sports and the threads : “Why now? ask officials” currently stands at 23,800+ visits and 571 comments made. which I think is a high.
But by keeping it out of main sight, they does hope that thread will not be searched and viewed and commented. So, it may cause further distancing of reader on ST subjects.

Yet, agreeing with Parket(#220), ST have its way of classifying things. The above thread which was most vistied and commented was not highlighted in their front page, but we need to dig them out by earnest readers. Wonder what they means by most visited and most commented then????

Hope TOC can assess this thread here better to keep interests on this incident. Lest we forget what STTA will be down the revamp.

Even if there are no more comments, it will not mean that we accept your so called apology.
I had been celebrating since I found out the result of the semi-finals match that lbw may have been waiting to have credit for. (that’s exactly what lbw immediately shows – flexing the fats) My first exclamation is hooray! Finals go to C v C. (expected).
Congratulations to the gold medalists. Want to know why we are so happy – because otherwise, credit will go to pansai. Irregardless, winners are still….. not you, kanasai, I go pansai, ugochiasai. Credits to the players from…..
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE GOLD MEDALISTS!

Just waiting to see tat woman to walk in the shoe too big. : )))))))

lbw – think it’s time to say your last words….
not to worry, your last gift is ready…

how come no one revived the petition? we cant let it be sweeped under the carpet whilst she accused Singaporean of misunderstanding her..really add insult to injury of Singaporeans…

Hay, Teo sl stop giving stupid excuse’s U are talking about an MP ,if U all MP’s cannot do a good & proper job then gat the shit out of that position.
U can go back & start delivering packages, express mail & well Lbw can help increase population in singapore(go make babies) .

i think we dun have to worry about Lbw career as a politician, she will probably be “re-deloyed to somewhere that she can serve the community better”(tat means another GRC la) that no need competition one…(tat means walkover la), where got so many gangho opposition candidates……. then she is re-elected another term lor….so simple horr?!?
Lbw staying in AMK GRC will definitely hurt LHL so i dun think he so kamgong to keep her (she also not Lily Neo, so chio bu…..).
i think LHL see Lbw now also want to torsai (vomit la) becos so many people must kio her sai……
now must let LbW kio her own sai and see now she can chosimisai…..while now everything related to sai is LbW!! sui hor! LBW -Loose Bowel Woman!!!!wuahahahaha!!!! – also sai, now she really kia ka laosai!!!! LOL
last but not least – Antony and Liu Guodong , I support you!

see..our paddlers is not heading anywhere now..all wiped out in the recent Shanghai Games..sigh..

As a TT fan, I am indeed concern of its recent decline of TT achievements as results are beginning to show.
The injustice done to ex-head coach Li as per current newspaper reports shows the lack of common courtesy and professionalism in the STTA officials hiding behind a “COMMITTEE” in all its decision.

Firstly, Lee Bee Wah doesn’t have the right to make so much noise as she can’t even play tabble tennis!
Also, Coach Liu did the right thing by nt following that Gao Ning– because Gao Ning can’t even get close to any medal. He just doesn’t have IT! Quite loserish yea!
Coach Liu said he would get a medal for Singapore, he did his part! What’s all this about being fair? It’s Lee Bee Wah who is just trying to test her powers.
Probably one day that Lee Bee Wah will see the real justice, hope she would have no more powers!!!
MUHAHAHAHAHAH!

The problem basically is that most sports associations are headed by MPs,Why must this be so? Its because of this that any issue that crops up become politicised! Maybe a good start is to appoint non political figures to head any sports association otherwise you can expect more of such irrational decision making and foul up.

I remember when the debacle ended, the coach was offered a similar job but with reduced pay. Of course he did not accept as he rightly said he made no mistake. He has to make a decision there and then when another coach was ill.and he rightly chose to be with the female players. Any right thinking person would have done the same- the reason is so obvious!

If the STTA has offered the job to LIU, how come he was branded, unprofessional, lack of integrity and support from the players now?. If this was so, why did STTA offered him the job in the first place with reduced pay? I feel honesty is the best policy otherwise one will be caught with the pants down!

Singapore has thrived and prospered because we believe in meritocracy, integrity and HONESTY. So it is best for STTA and all other sports associations to be open and have a clear conscience of all its actions and decisions.

Liu was originally invited to end Singapore’s medal drought. This was the only reason why he came to Singapore and, he really did it in Beijing Olympics. Therefore, Lee Bee Wah’s argument on integrity and professionalism are entirely nonsense, at least inferior to what STTA team had achieved in Beijing. What is STTA’s most important job? Surely Olympics medals. If a coach has a good connection with Lee Bee Wah, both publicly and privately, as well as with players, but fails to win big event medals, I wonder if Lee B W will nominate him/her. Let Jing Jun-hong take this test by Lee B W now. Bear in mind that a coach must be strong enough, just look at Sir Alex Ferguson and his football team. A good coach behaves like an wild and shrewd wolf, not a mild and blind sheep. As a matter of fact, after Liu returned to China, he helped a table tennis club be among the top 3 in China, within a rather short time. His coaching capability is beyond the question. Lee Bee Wah should step down as she knows little about SPORTS! STTA’s 2012 London’s goal never turns so gloomy under the manipulation of LEE B W.

Whatever mistakes LBW did will only lead to further drop in the vote count in the next GE for the PAP, simple as that, so let it be.

LBW should just go. It will be healthier for the progression of the sporting life here. She is an anachronism and her continual presence will degrade not only the STTA, but the status of professional sports in Singapore. We need dynamic management, not people who are petty and dictatorial. she should just retire peacefully to her MP job. Give it up, LBW. You are not there yet in people management or professionalism. And get your face out of the tv cameras! It really is irritating to see the face that spews such venom at your subordinates.

Yes, agreed with doc, LBW should just go. She never learn and watch what she says. Yeh. NOT PROFESSIONAL IN WHAT SHE HAD DONE.

Lee Bee Wah’s arrogance, her high-handedness, her complete lack of fiancé and diplomacy in dealing with matters brings a bad name to women and to table-tennis.

As Singapore matures, such imperious, high-handed and despicable conduct/ remarks, will no longer be tolerated and there is bound to be back-lash.

Any lack of integrity and professionalism, is on her part and not Liu’s! Her initial unhappiness has degenerated to personal vendetta. In the face of such personal, emotional attacks, I support the call for her resignation. She should step down graciously because she has showed no graciousness nor acknowledgement to Liu from being instrumental in bring the silver medal home after 2 decades of drought.

It does not matter anymore. The golden age of table tennis in Singapore is over. The China gals who came here and worked so hard for years to get a medal, have done their part, and really, they and everyone around them know the GOLD belongs to CHINA only. today and in the future. The people with the “Olympic experience” are getting married, having babies and smiling already – their fight is over.

Please, let’s not fool ourselves. Even for the YOG, asa host, our target is ONLY 5 medals ha ha ha ha ha. what a joke, and most SIngaporeans are not even in the excietd mood about the YOG.

2012? go there and enjoy London. Or prepare all the full-proof excuses early, because it is clear we are finished. There is no fire left.

LBW – another spolit PAP doggy that will misbehave because of the so-called clout around her. i don’t know and don’t care about her anymore.

hei, why hasn’t LBH step down. Making other people a scapegoat for all the trouble, mess she has created.

In other countries, heads would have rolled especially from the over top, which is the President.

I can’t image anyone coming up with the idea of asking Lee Jia Wei to either have BABY NOW OR TILL 2010. THAT IS ABSURD AND UNREASONABLE.

wELL, I GUESS LEE AGREED BECAUSE SHE WAS EXPECTING, OTHERWISE anyone in a sound mind would not have agreed to such a ridiculous and unaccpetable proposal or should i put it utimatium.

She wont step down. Unless the richest elite club that she’s in boot her out.