What caliber of graduates do we expect from Singapore institutes if we muzzle their ability to think for themselves? Universities are institutes of higher learning where students should be challenged to expand their narrow perspectives, analyze and formulate their own opinions. Perchance, even to dream and think outside the box. But not in Singapore. Here they are told to conform, and tow the line.

It is indeed a sad state of affairs.

Following up one of your response to my post (#31) regarding “..the education system can be used in the manner I’ve mentioned.”

The captioned response you’ve made (#32) is indeed a very serious insinuation and a great caused for concern if you have substantial evidence to share that it is being abused. I think not only the NTU students need to know about this, their parents too should be aware of this. If this has been proven in past record, it should be exposed to all levels and made known to all constituencies representing MPs to demand for clarification and assurance in declaration that the abuser will be stripped of its practice and be pubished. Don’t you think so?

It is not a matter of choosing what to believe as you have responded. It concerns the education system that supposedly to nurture our young fellow citizenry who by all means are the future of Singapore.

I would urge the NTU students/alumnis who had participated in the protest to take note and be encouraged to report and share publicly online as well as to your representing constituency MP.any detectable (with factual evidence) abusive behavior (if any) arose out of this protest by the Universities’ Authorities. For this matter, I think, all students who are courageous enough to speak out for your own rights should do the same. We are living in a globalized world with information flowing freely at any given time thorugh the internet medium, I seriously doubt the Institution Authorities dares to embark on such acts and risk openly being challenge.

Farragut was lucky. He didn’t hit any mines. I’m not really a fan of any plan predicated solely on luck.”

Yes, I read the article and it was mines. Farragut had a war on hand and he took on a risky strategy and won (and yes, you may call it luck).

Any difference from the many risky endeavours that a lot of professional soldiers are called to take for the sake of nation – yes, it is worth it if it is really for the sake of the NATION, our families, our way of life and not ONLY for the lopsided benefits of a few.

Lim, a lot of people here are not trying to take some cheap potshots and hope to get some hits based purely on luck. We as a nation will have to pay a even bigger price if certain thing is not set right.

Certain loud and clear message must be driven into some people if they do not behave. From your past posts, I understand that you are a very learned person. Surely, it cannot be a case where we can see things so differently as far as how things should proceed at the next level, if you know what I mean.

Unless, of course, you are just a paid propagandist, just doing your job. If this is the case, well this is going to be a long drawn tic-for-tac between you and a lot of people here.

I would take this as something positive as this frank discussion is going to lead to a better understanding over various issues among us.

so guess who will die,,who will win..

i tell u guy now,,if u guy contiues to be soft singaporeans..
u will continues to suffer…

BUT is the BIG BIG suffer…

here have two type of pp..
1.pp disagree with gov policy by using soft method..
2.pp disagree with gov policy by using HARD method…

ON my view..both method is needed..
if all singaporeans really against the gov..
the internal of parliment will break up easily…

becos RUILLing gov can”T use ARMY to attack us…if we riots.
if they did,,,it mean tat sing is a communist country,,so west or USA will involve in sing policiti,,in order to stop..

so by tat time,,u will have a real freedom..
If gov treat young generation like a dog,,don think tat we r fear,,
is we singaporeans really need to against…hahas..

<<>>
think what will happen next…

i prefer using votes in the election,,but tat method also could be use..:)
From:
@young generation@

It is really brave to initiate this protest, baring in mind the possible repercussions.

He did cite a reason and that was that the Students had ‘questioned the judgement of the School Authority, but I believe most would regard that as a poor if not flimsy reason, for I think NTU will not be that vindictive. Nonetheless, it still showed that lim is concerned for the Students.

But, lim was(is) not being fair to suspect that others(non-political public) who supported the Students were(are) anti NTU Management/Government and or were(are) opposition supporters/sympathizers or instigators. There is an issue here of our students’ freedom and rights to their studies and activities, especially activities related to their studies. Most supporters of the Students here in Cyberspace, want our students to pursue their studies and personal developments without hindrance and curtailment.

I do hope that I have read lim correctly.

patriot

Farragut was lucky. He didn’t hit any mines. I’m not really a fan of any plan predicated solely on luck.

Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead – Farragut (paraphrased)”

So what are you suggesting. Students holding a flower each in their hands and waving and smiling at participants with buffet spread to go with as a form of protest.

A lot of people have been waving flowers all these years and things have not changed much. Maybe we should follow Farragut afterall.

I have read the article on Farragut and his loud order. He won. I wonder why you have used this example. At first, I thought he ended up badly because of your use on Farragut in order to analogise the likely ending of the students’ protest.

“Repeated scaremongering by the Singapore Polytechnic’s administration” is another example of the extent the education administration is willing to go to.

The difference between this incident and incidents like James Gomes inviting JBJ for speeches at NUS is whilst the latter has absolutely no bearing on NUS (although it does on the PAP), criticising NTU’s administration of the matter whilst rejecting NTU’s explanation and branding it as “undermining” education is a direct criticism of the university’s competence.

I have not even suggested an alternative to the student’s actions and already its branded as “toothless”. Amazing. Just goes to show how open you really are to alternatives and how entrenched the views are…I know, actually to you guys, the only kinds of protests that will work are those advocated by the SDP. LOL. In any case, the students have done just that (or at least differs from what the SDP advocates in that it is legal, whereas the SDP advocates civil disobedience).

I’m sure you guys have the expectation that the HLP protest will work wonders and the changes to NTU are now so fantastic, I am entirely under-whelmed. lol.

In the meantime, there’s all this thunderous applause with only the students in the line of fire.

Alternatives? The only one advocated on this forum so far is the following:

Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead – Farragut (paraphrased)

Lim (#26):

I did not make the above statement.

I also do not deny the possibility that university staff may use underhand means to deal with dissident students. Repeated scaremongering by the Singapore Polytechnic’s administration was used to quiver any attempts to revive an independent student government at Singapore Polytechnic. Although none of the threats actually materialised, the key student actors were unable to finish what they had started as they were in their final year and by now have already graduated. One of key student actors actually topped his department.

Anyway, going by your line of reasoning, any protest towards NTU should not be tolerated if the protest constitutes as a threat. However, I must remind you that protest works if and only if it threatens the strategic interest and/or bottom-line of the organisation the protest is targetting. The kind of protests you advocate for are the toothless kinds whereby figures of authorities can easily reject or look over without fear of repercussion on them.

If one chooses not believe that the education system can be used in the manner I’ve mentioned, that’s your choice.

If one believes that nothing can be done to the students. That’s your opinion.

There will always be “yes” men on both sides of the political fence and today I can see some of them who just would not believe how the system can be used.

I only hope that you guys are right and I am wrong. I will be happy to be wrong in this case.

Have a nice day.

“In fact, threatening NTU could indeed make matters worse for the students eg by making a political mountain out of a hong lim park molehill. A mountain that only the students will have to carry.”

As analytical as you are, I failed to understand why you chose to politicize with exponential magnitude on the NTU protest at Hong Lim Park. Your perception of this event is hard for me to fathom. You have got to remember this, Not every protest has a political stigma.

To be perfectly honest with you, I wasn’t present at the event as I am living in Hong Kong, but I do care about what really transpired at the Park on Sunday. Judging from the posted transcript, it is purely a non political driven event, nothing more than just NTU students/alumni vocing their concerns on why a carefully edited (netural) factual report cannot be published in their Chronicle. It is indeed unnecessary censorship largely out of fear from the Authority, to the extreme I would call it an infringement on the rights of Freedom of press.

For one, I would hope the NTU Administration Authorities will give a convincing response as to why the ultimate decision not to allow the publication of this factual report that were hard work of the students and four professors who edited it to ensure clarity and conformity to Journalism practice (i.e. factual and non bais). Bluntly put, it is an insult to these NTU students and professors integrity and intelligence, and if you see it in a different perspective, it is a failure of their very own recruitment and appraisal system.

You have further elaborated that by protesting, these students may be “invisibly” punished through examination’s result and future job reference. This is quite far fetch hypothetical situational analysis. I will, including the parents of these students and marjority of citizenry too, raise doubts that the institutions will embark on such a despicable act.

These young students (including all other universities and institutions) are the future of Singapore. It is indeed a sad episode to learn if the Singapore education system is being coerce into a suppressive institution for higher learning. What will we expect of our future leaders? Only politically “YES” men with no fundamental principles of their believes? We had enough of these already.

Imagine the repercussions if they do.

Lim, you think and analyse a lot and you should have no problems speculating on the likely scenarios. Some of us are just fighting against a whole new paradigm of thinking and looking at things,

Why CSJ ? Why Gopalan ? Why opening up of Hong Lim Park ? Why protests even by students which was a no go in the past ? Why so many blogs (some by respectable people) with not so good opinions on the establishment ?

However, if these are not, the people who are exposed are these students themselves not the people goading them with thunderous applause or political opportunists making it a political issue.

I can warn the education institutions but how effective will this be? I have no illusions over the influence of my posts. In fact, threatening NTU could indeed make matters worse for the students eg by making a political mountain out of a hong lim park molehill. A mountain that only the students will have to carry.

The people in the line of fire are usually the people who will most benefit from a “look out” call. In this case, its not the education institutions but the students themselves.

“It is indeed a brave thing to do as I have mentioned. Assuming that the lecturers will not be affected by the University board who are their employers is a leap of faith.

It is just a habit of mine to think of consequences (potential, imagined or otherwise). ”

This was the very problem of our past students (not all but most) – dare not speak up for what they felt deeply in front of authority who are always in cloud nine believing that their decision are always right and final and should always be acted on without much interference.

If you do not have a robust citizenry in which our students are our future hope and if they are always coerced subtlely into a submissive lot in most aspects of their life in polical matters which emcompass a lot of areas, then do not keep on blaming decent singaporeans for relying much on authorities when things do not quite match up.

“I prefer to do things with open eyes and moreover, the last thing I want on my conscience are naive students who jump into the abyss on the goading of a certain group of people when a simple warning of “look out” could have helped.

btw, I sincerely hope nothing does happen to these students but sometimes better safe than sorry. We were all young once….”

The warning should not be directed on the students but should be directed on the institution itself. As a place of higher learning (knowledge), why should penalty, if any, be directed for a different event (exams vs protests). Well or maybe I forgot, with “so-called talented people” like them around, should there be any surprise.

So do you still believe we need more talents from other countries who by the way are not submissive at all, even those coming from places supposely rated not so world class like ours..

“The fact the event had a political leverage, postive or negative, students ought to keep away from been used by ‘riders’ for their politcal mileage.”

Surely students cannot be blamed for the action of free riders (opportunists).

Doctors prescribed certain medicines for a good cause but should they be blamed for overdose if instructions are not properly followed.

Free riders (as the names suggest) will just ride free – and do you think they are going to your tiring lectures ?