TOC has arrived: http://journalism.sg/2009/01/02/singapore-journalisms-greatest-hits-2008-good-news-for-news-media/

No one deserves to be set on fire.

Not even fellow MPs Low TK and NCMP Siew.

Watching how the PAP vultures tried to set the 2 of them on fire makes my blood boil.

Lui is correct – no one ought to be set on fire for pointing out weaknesses of the JCS.

Thank you.

“RADM Lui and his government need to begin engaging websites with critical mass by leaving comments at the end of articles or writing letters of clarification to these sites. While responses might border on the insulting, that is the nature of democratic dialogue.

The benefit to be reaped is a de-radicalization of the dialogue: attacks will be less harsh if genuine sincerity in listening to alternative views is shown by the government”

If the govt tries to engage with websites which have insulting comments, aren’t they lending legitimacy to these comments (and also a waste of time)? Furthermore there’ll always be a discontented minority who keeps attacking, regardless of the govt’s sincerity. It’s really up to us bloggers to create a higher standard of discourse, before we can demand the govt listens to alternative views.

够理性，我赞同。

Not if you can see things in context.

Lui is accusing Netizens for being unruly and lacking in self-regulation based on his take on the SHT incident.

He is correct only if you start buying into his idea that SHT is blameless and that Ong is guilty as charged. The court have not decided yet and Ong is still undergoing psychiatric evaluation, therefore his take is nothing but insinuations.
Can we agree with Lui based on his insinuations? I think not.

What Lui failed to see and understand from the reactions of Netizens is that the outpouring of support for Mr Ong is simply because Netizens are able to feel the pain of Mr Ong which the govt, represented by SHT, could not.

It will be a missed opportunity if the PAP govt continues to turn a blind eye to such show of outrage, from the flames thrown by Mr Ong to the reactions of Netizens.

SHT will continue to suffer in vain if the govt starts blaming everyone else besides themselves. They are just as guilty of the crime as any of us who think nothing of the pain suffered by SHT as well as Mr Ong.

Why people emphatized with Mr Ong is because his suffering and pain are out of his control while the pain and suffering of SHT is his own doing, for ignoring the suffering voice.

Lui is one cunnig SOB, and he is using Seng’s suffering to try and pursue his own agenda of stifling blogosphere with PAP regulations.

To Lui is correct :

Yeah, nobody should be set on fire.

But can you regulate the feelings of people?

The sad thing is after such a drama, nobody from his constituencies go on to see the burnt guy?

When Wang Na was murdered, you see a long queue of people at her funeral.

For the funeral of the other lady who was dismembered, you see a long queue of people too.

The Chinese papers reported these news over a month on the front page.

I don’t see that happening to this burnt guy.

There is a discrepancies between the underlying people’s feelings and the impression the current govt project.

That’s the least to say.

The govt needs to do some soul searching.

We are generally sensitive and law abiding people. We donate a lot of monies to charity a year. Remember?

Maybe we are not that nice after all. (not credible)

Would you say that?

6) neversaydie: “The sad thing is after such a drama, nobody from his constituencies go on to see the burnt guy?”

Have you not read that MM Lee visited him 5 times?

To Anonymous:

so you agree that no-one (ordinary folks) from his constituency went to see him?

I don’t want to speculate why MM went to see the guy 5 times.

Could be he is damn free?

could be he is doing some soul searching because his earlier generation MP was working in turblent Singapore and never got so close to being burnt or killed or hurt but in peaceful Singapore just prior to the Golden Era, that one of his guys got burnt?

There are possibily many many reasons.

I am sure you had one on your mind too? Ha.

@ 7 ,

Yah lah ! BUT did MM ever visit the family of ordinary victims, so many…right ?

How about Chia Thye Poh ? did MM visit him to check that he is not ill treated
and not losing his mind after being in detention for 32 years ?

Low EQ leaders please take note that
“empathy from ordinary folks is the true measure of your worth”.

If more people(citizenry) are driven crazy and have to pay for treatments which drive them crazier, more crazy things can be reasonable expected.

Having given the mandate to rule with good policies and kindness, parliamentarians should work towards achieving the goal of a happy and caring nation.

Adm Luis’ Parliamentary Speech sounded intimidating, threatening and at best very unfriendly. He does not seem to understand the sentiments of the people nor does he appeared to want to understand.

Army trained and hardhearted??

patriot

My aology:

first sentence; the word reasonable should read reasonably.

Please forgive.

patriot

Lui is in denial.
Lui is a member of the govt.
Therefore, the govt is in denial.

Remember when Mas Selamat escaped from top security detention, MM Lee said the fault lay with Singaporean for being complacent.

We have to take our hats off to the creativity and imagination of the govt in always turning things around and putting the blame on everybody else but iself. The reasoning and rationalisation in the Mas Selamat affair is no mean feat which is beyong mere motals like the rest of us.

Seriously, can anyone be blamed for playing the blame game when the govt itself is such an exemplary player?

Liu is right. But the problem is who is his target audience. If it is netizens. Then he must understand there is no such thing as the united states of blog-o-sphere. It is more like a collection of small states. That is the main probem. There is no common platform to get the message through.

Lui calls for objectivity; but the funny thing is that the Govt does not meet that objective standard either.

Hence like TOC, the Govt is necessarily slanted in a certain fashion. Hence, to ask TOC or other blogs to be completely objective, is in itself, a red herring – the day they can do it themselves will be the day they can ask others to do it.

Thank you for your well-written and objective article!

I hope to see more of such writing on TOC, which I believe in turn will inspire more constructive discussions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wee_Shu_Min

Let Ang Mo Kio GRC, MP Wee Siew Kim give the best answer:

What she said did come across as insensitive. The language was stronger than what most people could take.

Hopefully, after the discussion, everyone will be the richer for it. As a parent, I may not have inculcated the appropriate level of sensitivity, but she has learnt a lesson, and it’s good that she has learnt it at such an early stage in life.’

At the end of the day, the PAP wants the People to do as it says but not do as it does. Wishful thinking!!

I think we are seeing aplenty even with some wool over our eyes. And what we see isn’t pretty.

Dear People,

What does this Lui fellow want ? Does he want to force Singaporeans to like the PAP MP’s ? Like, love, admiration, appreciation and so on – cannot be forced ! Matters of the heart cannot be forced onto the people. If we don’t like to see his face – what is he going to do about it ? Force us to like him ?

This is very silly of the PAP. Almost juvenile. Any serious politician can tell you that – sometimes – you have to accept the angst of the people. You have to accept the reality that increasingly many Singaporeans do NOT want the PAP anymore…….The PAP is there because of their rather un-democratic methods as highlighted by Choo Zheng Xi in the above essay. If the PAP does not use these un-democratic methods – would it still be around today ?

Singapore cannot look back towards the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s – the true Golden Era of PAP rule. The world has changed. Cyberspace and the Internet is here. Should the PAP try to legislate cyberspace – the outcome could set Singapore back by 20 years ! Smart and talented Singaporeans will leave in droves !

The Seng Han Thong affair – is a symptom. The PAP should ask itself why significant numbers of Singaporeans despise them so much. The Seng Han Thong affair – should make them think about the socio-political realities of today’s Singapore – if they haven’t thought about it yet.

Finally – if this can happen when LKY is still alive – I seriously wonder what can happen when LKY is gone !!

Best Regards
Dr Syed Alwi

No matter what, we should not hurt each other. Anyway, I sympathized with Mr Seng.

However, Mr Lui or the government should respect people’s opinions. That’s called freedom of speech which until now the government still has no idea what is that.

I think it is unproductive of Rear-Admiral Lui to only admonish the radical and extreme views in the blogosphere without acknowledging the merit of the sincere, heartfelt and honest views similarly expressed in the net.

Being the Senior Minister of State for Information, Communication and the Arts, he should know that it is wiser to engage netizens than to dismiss them with equal rancor.

I suggest TOC invite Rear-Admiral Lui to be an occasional Special guest writer to contribute articles to TOC. That way, he can learn to respond and participate first-hand in the cut-and-thrust of net discussion and see for himself the benign nature of blogo-politics!

Although I agree that no physical violence should ever be condoned, what I can see as an objective observer is that there is such a big gap between the govt and the poor that the twain shall never meet. The poor and the uneducated in this case is trying to communicate in the only way he can. The perpetrator was unable to use words to communicate, so he used action. That was his only way to get attention. Also, I feel that he had probably tried other means but most likely his words fell on deaf ears. A man will not for no reason set another on fire. A dog, no matter how tame will turn and bite, if cornered.

It is a wake up call.

“In the dialogue with online media, instead of harping about destructive energies on the blogosphere, RADM Lui and his government need to begin engaging websites with critical mass by leaving comments at the end of articles or writing letters of clarification to these sites.”

Is it possible for Lui to make time to sit down and engage websites or even political blogsites?. They will also not chose to engage as it will mean that they will face the onslaught of insults and flaming comments from the public. Pro PAP comments and suggestions don’t go down well on alternative blogsites.

The rest of the article I agree undoubtly. Their self protection mechanism are all too clear to the public and not only to the politically aware. Every time an election looms closer, some citizens will be confused as to which consistuency they belong to.

Empathy from the ordinary folks is the true measure of your worth –Very true indeed

regards

This Lui is talking what ? He expects everybody to symphatise Seng ? One kind of rice produce 100 kind of people, the Chinese say. So this Lui want us to follow Pap style, you say what I follow, that means we citizens have no freedom of speech. Now I realise what Dr Chee preaches is correct.

There is one serious erroneous assumption shared by by Liu and many commentators here, that there is indeed A community, an illusion based on the use of the term ‘netizens’.

There are countless different communities online, and hence it is impossible to have a consensus

Would it be better for Lui and some other MP to find out why ordinary citizens is becoming unhappy over many things and fed up with what the ruling has to say.

I am not talking about 1 or 2 nutcase or a few discontented netizens. The unhapiness is growing in numbers.

It’s time for ruling party a take a step back and find out why before it’s too late

What is this MP SHT like as a person? Is he from the labour movement and if so he must have a heart of gold for the workers, poor and downtrodden.

Is he such a terrieble person and if so how terrieble?

If he is so hated then how is it that he was selected to stand as a MP?

After this terrieble burning will he be selected by the EEElite to stand again as an MP and this time as a burning hero.

How much pain has he suffered and is he so tough that he is gung ho to go on and as he said he is and all of us should ‘move on.’

Why didn’t he help this poor Mr Ong retain his flat and to get his 200 dollars ang pow? Is SHT a mean fellow and so mean that that he wants to see this down and out person go from dignity to ditch. How far down can he go? H decided to go up – free climb – BURN.

I am not saying that he deserved to be burnt. Do not read me wrong. I am trying to look at the situation from a rational perspective and from my approach – it means I do not know the two persons but what is it that motivates a person to do a drastic thing like burning a person. I reason that this person must be pushed to the VERY extreme. The limit.He appears to be saying that if the law wants to get me then it is alright and they can torture me to kingdom come, but I have done the deed and I can rest in peace.

Analogously, it is like the fighting spirit of the French Foreign Legion. Do a La Camerone. Fight to the end and let us all die. They have done it. It is their tradition and such a tradition is very strong with this force.

I think all bloggers should have a week of I love Lui tuck Yew ‘ campaign.

All bloggers should sign off their blog with a “I love Lui Tuck Yew’ to show how much we love PAP.

Sound idea?

Ps – I love Lui Suck Yew.

“The first misunderstanding is RADM’s Lui’s expectation of ‘self-regulation’ of the blogosphere. Bloggers are in no position to assert coercive power over one another.”

I agree.. and how does someone like Lui get to become MICA minister is puzzling. anyway.. I would think the childish and ‘wrong’ responses from the Netizens are exactly a result of the nanny gahmen controlling everything and thus keeping singaporeans infantile. i dun necessarily see a difference between netizens and MSM readers. we’re all sgreans and the thing abt the net is it allows us to say wat we truly feel.

unless the gahmen’s point is that we all shut up? ah.. hahah

Netizens went and still go to P65 ers’ Blogs to talk with them, some MP Bloggers even refused to publish netizens’ comments.

We have never had any parliamentarian came in to engage any single blogger and commenters, none even came in to refute the numerous allegations that appeared in the Net. The Parliamentarians treat the netizens and their writings as invisible, maybe they feel safer that way.

The conclusion that I can draw from their(parliamentarians) silence is that the netizens are not worthy of their attentions. Now, the Senior Minister Of State is accusing netizens for the lack of objectivity and balance. Did any of them came in to provide objectivity, balance and objections to allegations??

patriot

Being a top scholar and ex-military top echolon, Liu should have the wisdom of reading the ground feelings. Instead he has obviously SQUANDERED (to use his own word) this opportunity (citizens’ expression of their true pent-up feelings) to do a systematic soul-searching as to WHY such an incident has occurred and why people are commenting the way they do for this case in point.

Instead he is taking this single incident of the netizens’ negative comments on Seng Han Thong’s case as an opportunity to further his own agenda, i.e. as an excuse to propose for tighter regulations upon the netizens, the internet and cyberspace.

I am really disappointed that our supposedly top scholar can’t even think and speak properly in parliament, can’t even empathize with the feelings of the common people on the ground, and can’t even realise that he is in contempt of court for attempting to tilt the balance of judgment of the court, when the case in now in the hands of the court.

I just wonder how he could have managed to reach such a high position of command in the Navy?

Very sad case for Singapore. We are really scrapping the bottom for good calibre politicians.

I think Mr Lui is not talking sense when he attempts to regulate Internet. If you say I’m a cyberbully in a particular website, at most you can only ban my IP for life, but definitely not criminalising me because it goes against freedom of speech, even in Internet.

Whatever. Anyway, may I point out a mistake in the second paragraph, first sentance…”No political fault should ever warrant physical violence in a respectable democracy…” Sorry? Did I read right? You call ours a respectable democracy?

I hold the view that defending the attacker, justifying the attack or even rejoicing in the attack are extreme views. I think, or at least would like to think that most people agree that there is no room for this sort of violence regardless of grievance.

However, that is not the impression I get from reading forums. Either the ones happy with the attack far outnumber those that don’t, or many people who disapproved of the attack simply didn’t say anything.

If that is the case, then is the extreme views that shouted down the moderate, not the other way around.

I personally didn’t approve and didn’t say anything, and I actually do agree that moderation – as in where moderate, reasonable voices dominate – did not occur in this case.

I somehow do not believe that Mr Lui wants to clamp down. That would be unbelieveably dumb. Perhaps regulate was the wrong word. Perhaps he meant moderate. I don’t know, but I don’t think Netizens are completely blameless here.

Our reaction when criticised is always to push back first, at least that was my reaction. Always try and pick holes. Never stopping to think if the person has a point or not.

1. No one should be imprison for political reason.
2. No one should be sued till bankrupt for political reason.
3. No one should treat others like slaves and beggers.
4. No one should be deprived of a decent and dignified life.
5. No one or party should be allowed to dominate political power for decades.
6. No one should be denied their right of a fair go in life and politics.
7. No one should be paid multi$million for poor performances.
8. No one should shirk their responsibilities when the prisoner walk out.
9. No one should stay as a leader when he disappeared in a crisis.

I guess Lui’s idea of objectivity is to transcend one’s viewpoint and connect with his. hehehe
His choice of language read like he is quite ready to court marshall anyone who doesn’t toe the line.

Those who do not listen, will lose their ears.

Some years ago, out of charity I hired an eager beaver, “subject to medical clearance”.
I went to Beijing fr business. On return after a week I heard his behaviour freaked his colleagues out. I had an unsatisfactory talk with him and decided to pay him and asked him to go. He got aggressive and abusive. I faced him down. He went home and in his mindless rage killed his old mother.
Subsequently we found out that if he is on his medication he can be quite rational.
Ong clearly needs medical treatment.
I could see that a few of the contributors above are equally paranoic.

liu whatever his name senior minister of state is clearly NOT a politician. if he was, he would take heed of the feelings of the ground expressed by netizens. i think all agree that torching anyone is a very bad deed but that stated, people are expressing their feelings and if they are outrageous in their comments so be it! liu needs to learn and i think he is clearly unsuitable to be a politician! you can imagine what singapore will be like if he ever rises to greater heights. we MUST all conform to his view OR ELSE! i was told by a friend that a retired mp said of the newer ones, that they are not politicians. this arose when a charitable ngo was made to pay rental for their premises at a community club when previously under the ex-mp they did not have to pay any!
its a sad state of affairs and i expect that when the GE comes, liu will understand the meaning of the vote! he is damned silly! this is NOT the SAF!

A good politician will always have the wisdom of reading the ground feelings correctly. A mediocre politician can sometimes make mistakes in not empathizing with the feelings of the ground. But the worst kind of politician is one who seize upon a single incident in order to condemn everybody else instead of trying to find out the cause of the problem directly and find answers to solve that problem.

When one talks about squandering away something, there must be that something that exist first in so that it can be squandered. An opportunity is not an easily discernible or graspable item that many may seize upon. Some may see it as an opportunity, whilst others may not. Even if it is seen as an opportunity, different people will interpret the opportunity in different ways. While one may think of it as an opportunity to self-regulate, others may think of it as an opportunity to send a strong message to the people concerned to do some soul-searching, or to wake them up from their slumber in the halo-effect, or to tell them to come down to ground zero. So, it is actually something like “your guess is as good as mine”.

While some may have given negative response, some have also wish MP Seng Han Thong well and a speedy recovery. So, actually a balanced view from both sides were projected in the cyberspace, especially at TOC. Whoever chose to single out only the negative aspect without giving any due mention of the positive comments given cannot be seen as being fair, rational or logical.

Moreover, while a case is in the hands of the court, won’t it be a case of contempt of court if one tries to slant objectivity towards one side of the spectrum?

38) interested
liu whatever his name senior minister of state is clearly NOT a politician.

……………………………………………..

Most PAP MPs are not politicians. They are technocrats or scholars but not politicians. That is why PAP invented the GRC to get them into parliament. They can also be removed easily because they do not have their own grassroot supporters like politicians of our neighbouring countries. They are all controlled from the top like puppets.

MM Lee visited SHT 5 times? Does SHT seriously think MM Lee is so concerned as to visit him 5 times? Get real man! Did not readers read an article a couple of days ago in ST, written by LKY’s daughter Lee Wei Ling, on why she does not intend to emigrate? In it, she had said that the article was written from her hospital bed in SGH. She had been hospitalised in SGH since early January due to “some surgical complications” or something like that. Is not SHT also warded in SGH Burns Unit? Do readers now see the co-relation? Yes, MM Lee had made those trips to SGH primarily to see his daughter and just simply drop by to see SHT since he is already there. It’s that simple, so do not be too elated and over-the-hill that MM Lee visited him 5 times.

I agree with Mr Lui too. No one has the right to set anybody on fire.

BUT, Mr Lui must also understand this -

No one has the right to put out the fire within us to want to see Singapore becoming a more humane society because of the failure of our government!

Good Morning,

A wise man never reinforces failure. If you say netizens are cruel and heartless; then thats certainly true to point in the case of Ah Seng.

But the REAL question is that a truth or truism?

Because what you must NEVER forget is the SAME net that Liu describes pejoratively has also demonstrated a remarkable capacity to love, show uncommon compassion and empathize; example: when it responded vigorously to how the military junta once treated the monks in Burma; along with how it rallied people during katrina and most recently galvanized so many around the world by voting in obama.

So the case is clear; the net is ying & yang; like a capricious woman; she is sometimes ruled by the mind but also the heart at the same time. Something like this:

http://dotseng.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/mr-brown-and-the-man-who-got-burnt/

Whatever the outcome. One thing remains CRYSTAL clear to us. This is STRICTLY A PRIVATE matter for the individual to work out; the role of govt is NOT to tell ppl what to think; you can suggest; but you have no RIGHT to demand. Otherwise the next thing we may end up having is kids spying on their parents etc

Neither do we believe ANYONE has a right to set such a thing as TONE in blogosphere; just as no ugly man has a right to kill off all the eye candies of this world just to increase his chances of finding love; he should instead try to make himself more attractive and consider reading broadly to cultivate an interesting personality bfr he makes unreasonable demands on society, that we believe will save him and others alot of embarassment and trouble.

Remember a wise man never reinforces failure.

SD (Internet Liaison officer of the brotherhood)

12) George says on February 6th, 2009 4.11 pm
Remember when Mas Selamat escaped from top security detention, MM Lee said the fault lay with Singaporean for being complacent.
We have to take our hats off to the creativity and imagination of the govt in always turning things around and putting the blame on everybody else but iself. The reasoning and rationalisation in the Mas Selamat affair is no mean feat which is beyong mere motals like the rest of us.

It is in the way we were brought up – when young kid fell or hit the table, the parents would beat the floor or the table in front of the crying kid blaming the floor for causing the fall or the table for hitting the kid.

Admitting mistake is not part of our culture – we always look for someone else or something else to blame.

Mistakes made by manager:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTnl4Dvdugs

The main reason why the internet platform of commentary has grown so rapidly is because the main stream media such as the Straits Times has lost their credibility and is seemed as the government’s spokeman only.

Look at how JB Jeyaratnam was “burnt” and insulted in the mainstream media for the past 20 years till the day he passes. Did any other media in Singapore, MP and Minister ever speak up for him?

Isn’t this cruel as well, if not more? To “burn” him this way?

RADM Lui should start to engage the online community and get close to Singaporeans. Otherwise, I fear for his propspects in the next General Election.

“Flame on”

Can someone remind me which comic book hero, shouted this when he became a rocket-propelled super hero.

Why should I give a damn about those low-EQ, money-driven MPs??
WE ARE THE ONES SUFFERING!!

“If the govt tries to engage with websites which have insulting comments, aren’t they lending legitimacy to these comments (and also a waste of time)? Furthermore there’ll always be a discontented minority who keeps attacking, regardless of the govt’s sincerity. ”

So if its just “always be a discontented minority” why RADM Lui bring it out in parliamnet? and that Netizens not being self-regulation.
Is it not also a waste of time??

if everyone praises this ah lui for what he said, so we need to be regulated? when the mainstream media is always full of praises of the government, not able to reflect the other perspectives, does this media needs to be ” regulated” too in order to provide a more balanced perspective?

the free-to-express nature of the blogosphere reflects the sentiments of the people, whether they condemned this incident or are being cynical about it.

this mr lui’s statements are all too lame. it seems like this mr lui is still comfortable in his own cocoon thinking that the world must revolve around his ideals.

wake up mr lui, we r not your soldiers who will obey your commands without questioning u.

u r being paid such a high salary not to be in your own dream castle, u got to step out of it and give me more convincing arguments.

all these military-dumb scholars are communists who want citizens to obey their orders like NSFs.

regulate the internet?

try it and we shall see how stupid policies affect Singapore’s GDP when every country started treating Singapore with mistrust like North Korea.

given the response of the netizens, we should expect the downfall of the PAP in the next election.

It is a real joke that a close-minded person can be a MInister for Arts and Communications. This display of attitude is like a Nerd expecting people to say he’s cool when the world (except himself) knows he’s far from it.

Mr.Lee, I know you are coming to realisation of true sentiments and that’s why you are suggesting relaxation of rules. So, please, I’m begging you, educate your people and try your very best to pass them some wisdoms.

Haiz.

Recent commments and insensitive conduct on the part of MPs n civil servants points to something very serious, which is, political leadership. Who is in charge, pulling the strings, getting the political act together during such difficult times. Much as he is not in good books nowaday, MM was always ready to speak n take action during our early independence days. Someone who could be counted on then, to put out the the fire before it starts. I feel a vacuum now, ever since from the great escape of the limpling terrorist..

What are the impressions our leaders have imprinted in us?

Will be nice to know how Singaporeans feel, thus far arrogant and boastful are the the most common descriptions.

patriot

This whole discussion is somewhat weird,

Blogs thrive on the subjective and the passionate. If they were not extreme…no one will read them…then why blog?

I remember attending a talk by a well known internet guru, I think it was Steven Pierce, he said about blogs, “you either kick ass, or you kiss ass”

Twitter a micro-blog is probably more frightening…its thrives on what our minister mentor often accused Jeyaretnam of “innuendos” The people who are effective in this can spin powerful mental suggestion with their 140 words to stir people to action..

So there is a whole lot of activity, science and art developing of how people, organizations, and governments monitor what been said about them or about issues….and how they react to counter and manage these “statements”

Its the new PR activity that individuals and organization have inevitably got to manage in the new media world. You can actually deploy twitter as one of your monitors…get a bigger crook to catch a smaller one!.

As Singaporeans, pragmatic as we are…we often react by saying, “what a waste of time” …”just get rid of it..or regulate it”

Well …I don’t know if that line of thinking will work in this case.

Blogging in the larger Blogsphere have created new paradigms in the management of communication…which have led to new types of business activities, new jobs….and so on.

Change for the better? I don’t know….but its change that I see as inevitable….and as sooner we are able to attain the maturity of the larger blogsphere, the better equipped we will be to cope with New World Media.

This person Lui must first earn the respect of the people, must remenber that he is no longer in uniform

Being a MP and a Senior Minister of GRC not the choice the majority but nevertheless place there to serve the people should not dictate what the people can or cannot do

Respect must be earned not force upon.

If there are discontent among the people, it is in the interest of the ruling party to find out the reasons behind all this unhappiness.

Quite frankly, the blogosphere is becoming the Singaporean’s only real avenue of expression of dissatisfaction with the government especially since that other more traditional avenue – the polling booth – has been rendered quite useless by the GRC system, not to mention the inevitable slew of lawsuits after each election.

As one of Singapore’s newly-poor sandwich class, I see the the anger and lack of sympathy over the SHT incident as an expression of discontent at anyone who represents the ruling class. I wonder why our super-intelligent, best-in-the-world, most-expensive-in-the-world government can’t see as far as their noses and acknowledge the anger for what it is – not directed at SHT personally but at their entire cohort. It is an expression of the helplessness of ordinary Singaporeans to self-determine.

I think he should just stick his head in the sand so that he sees no evil, hears no evil and makes no evil comments, then everybody is happy!

Why did MM see him for five times?

Is it to find out what is wrong on the ground. Whether he had angered and provoked the people on the ground.

MM must feel that he has to go all out to patch up the ground and restore it so that is friendly and supportive of pap.

The ground is beyond repair.

Gone are the days when people will listen and obey MM and the other big names of pap.

People will wonder what had driven this man, Ong to do the burning deed and be prepared to face the all the punishment that will be targeted at him.

Then they will ask what has this MP and pap done to Mr Ong.

The answer for the Ah Seng, Ali and Maniam is that this man had been driven to the limit and he had reacted according to the basic human instinct. Fight back and killed or be killed.

Seng Han Thong’s 是被人性不和谐的人伤害，是‘为民请命中’的代罪羔羊。

We must realise that in countries where peaceful protests, as a form of collective expression of unhappiness and frustrations are allowed, people only burn effigies and not the person physically, e.g. the Shin Corp protests in Thailand.

The clamping down on peaceful protests too extremely and forcefully could be the contributing factor that turns individuals to physical violence as a form of protest. It is just like crimes of passion. At an instant of provocation, a screw simply went loose and uncontrollable rage took over, resulting in unimaginable consequences.

We know that most of us will not condoned such violence. But let us take a pause and look at the case of the Israelis vs the Palestinians recently. What have they been doing? They simply went berserk. If at the national level, people can collectively express their frustrations and unhappiness by using unimaginable violence, can we than be 100% sure that at the individual level such violence will not occur?

In the famous words of our beloved PM: “It has happened….what to do? Lets move on …”

Should we move on? I think not.

We can only move on after we have taken remedial action. And that remedial action is to open up more and allow people to hold peaceful protests to vent their frustrations and unhappiness. Because too much pent-up feelings kept too long would lead to a tsunamic explosion in the future. And that would be even more painful, horrible and unthinkable.

It is just like playing a guitar. If the strings are too loose, they won’t sound nice; but if the strings are too tight, they will simply burst.

Lui seems to be symptomatic of what I find distressing about our ruling party’s politicians, in that they seem to be ensconced within their comfortably – government – regulated and insulated sphere from within which they practice their version of so-called politics.

Simply outrageous is how Lui assumes all Singapreans would come out in support of SHT and roundly condemn Mr Ong for that violent act.

Although I am deeply sympathetic towards Mr Seng, the beauty of internet blogging is that a wide range of views and opinions can be expressed. and not all may be in support for the government of the day.

This to me is REAL politics, not what our ‘leaders’ so sneakily attempt to portray as requiring ’self-regulation’, as with any democracy, freedom of expressing one’s opinion is a fundamental right, and Lui’s self-serving attempts at using his moralistic stance in condemning those who do just bristles of his contempt of democracy in Singapore!

rightly so i guess, since the version of democracy we get is what our ‘leaders’ want us to follow, and this is the latest govt attempt at shaping how we should view things…

democracy in Singapore! simply amazing…

“To those (leaders around the globe) who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist” – President Barrack Obama.

How come there are only 14 comments when actually there are 63 comments?

Has it occurred to anyone that Ah Lui may simply be subtly highlighting the real problem of people’s unhappiness. Ever since he mentioned the “10 things MP Seng should be thankful for”, I bet many MSM readers have googled it and some have found what the real problem is.

Or perhaps pur civil servants like Ah Lui are really that dumb?

I call upon Adm Liu and the relevant ministries to take a look at some of the shitty shows on our Television that we are paying $110 a year for. I do not want these shows that corrupt our young leading to our teenage girls indulging in immoral behaviour before they are even 16. Can they send their people to stop those shows as what the experts have pointed out? And these experts are not even paid top dollars yet they know where the problem is. So please, do the job that you are paid to do and clean up those shows before our country goes to the dogs.

I asked a few of my kopitiam regular buddies about SHIT.

They told me if they had more balls, they would do it too.

Unfortunately, they had kids who had families. ” I die never mind, but u know PAP lah, they will make life difficult for my children and grandchildren…”

Mr Lui should visit more kopitiams to regulate this sort of sentiments.

The Seng Han Thong’s case is indeed unfortunate, but this is an one-off incident that involves a man who is mentally not very sound. Adm Lui should read it in a bigger context, that Seng is part of PAP and public unhappiness towards the PAP is growing. If people like Adm Lui continues to read the grassroot wrongly then very sadly, the PAP is going to lose more ground. By all means, censor the internet, and the PAP is going to lose even much more.

Very sad indeed, instead of listening to the ground and lead, they want to do things their way, things are changing very very fast, support for the PAP is not eternal, for their own survival they better listen hard.

For instance, stop making statements like making a foreign roadsweeper in
Singapore sound like a FOREIGN TALENT. We need to pay Ministers high pay because they got higher pay outside previously, well, not all Ministers were high paying officials before they went into politics, only a few. People are no longer as gullible as before.

Stop pushing people to accept things and policys. People do not like to be cornered or walled in.

How dare a homophobic person like Lui talk about objectivity?

Totally shameless.

He has NO HONOUR for failing to resign to take responsibility for the totally reckless collision of the RSS Courageous resulting in its total write off and the death of 4 SAF(NAVY) personnel while he was the Chief of the Singapore Navy.

There is no evidence to link this incidence to the on-line blog community. PAP is using this incidence to extend their control into the cyper space. I do not condone any violence against any person. Those in power should take note that there are profound dissatisfaction and anger in the general community. I do not have all the fact but reading many of theTOC blogs gave me an idea that many people are dissatisfy with many gahment policies. The public lack a voice and representation in Parliament to raise questions of interest to them. The public perception of MP is not exactly one of high esteem.There are many issues of interest to Sinkaporean e.g. FT/FW policy, granting large number of foreigners PR and citizenship status and the high cost of living. There may be no esay solution to the questions but if the public perception is that the gahment is actively addressing those issues, their views could be changed to one of more sympathetic to the gahment. I know the PAP is not in the habit to listen to the public, it is just too much to ask/expect. Their control of all the instrument of power is total and absolute.