there are lots of things the government SHOULD do, the ST SHOULD do. But we know they don’t. So that is very infuriating!

It is easy to gloss this incident over. The plight of migrant workers are at stake, and an almost corrupt system allowing maltreatment of humans are continually being perpetrated.

It is natural to be angry at TOC for publishing the letter. Alex has this issue very close at heart. He has done his utmost in helping the migrant workers. It is so easy for you to pay lip service.

But we learned and moved on. I seriously hope something good stil come out of this and that TOC has promised getting reporter to highlight this issue.

Stephanie, sorry for this late reply. Was out most of the day. Hey, sorry for the embarassment. Ha… but it was necessary to do this.. ;) I look forward to working with you more… :) Been a pleasure to have you as a friend and to work with you.. :)

Doc Huang, yes, we all live to fight another day.. No worries about Alex too. We know he meant well.. we take his criticism positively.. ;)

To everyone,

Thanks for your words of support and commendations. We (and I) will learn from our mistakes.. ;)

Regards,
Andrew Loh

I think some people are making mountains out of molehills.

I have much experience in getting letters published by ST forum and I gladly share my experience and my thoughts:

1.ST Forum exercises its near-monopoly power by forcing writers to accept its terms that only if letters are sent to them exclusively and not published anywhere else ( ? including blogs) will they consider it for publishing. I have been on the wrong end of the stick before as by the time I get a rejection letter from ST Forum editor ( which could come as late as 2 weeks later), the topic has already become stale and not worth sending to another paper or even posting onto a blog. So sending to them is like a gamble.

2.To say that letters published on the ST forum will likely elicit a response from govt agencies is not always true. Many of my letters go unanswered even if questions were asked point-blank.

So to say that TOC has damaged the cause of the migrant workers by publishing the letter is rather far-fetched.

Anyway, it was nice for TOC to apologise for its oversight ( esply not getting Stephanie’s consent).

The whole world has not ended and all of us live to fight another day.

Thank you for your openness and willingness to take responsibility for mistakes, even if unintended. Way to go!

Good work and my hats off to you guys. This is the right way to open communications. and accountability. By your private and public apology to Stephanie even though the mistakes was accidental, you have shown the way how to conduct best practice in a public forum platform.

Sincerely,

Observer (SG-HK)

—
if you send something to them and there is a CC party visible, they will not publish it as well.

This, is what i believe alex was concerned about.

The Straits Times is remiss in its duties for not publishing it; regardless of whether who publishes it first — if the letter warrants national attention then the ST as the prime MS newspaper here SHOULD publish it, no ifs not buts.

Then of course, there’s the government who never ceases to make me laugh…

Time and time again they trumpet to the world how wired, IT advanced and IT savvy the country is, and then proceed to ignore whole swaths of online content. Nice!

Mr Au needn’t have worked himself into a lather over this.

This is slightly embarrassing but I appreciate the sentiment.

Alex Au’s article was strongly-worded but motivated by a keen sense of fairness. I see that evident in most of his posts and his courage in speaking out on controversial issues has contributed significantly to online (and offline) debates.

I do believe, however, as Benedict has pointed out, that this was a genuine mistake. It was easy to accept Andrew’s personal apology because it was sincere and came with an assurance, “Will not happen again”.

As a former freelance writer, I have been subject to unethical practices by publishing houses. Often, there was a lack of recognition that mistakes were made and a dismissing of any objections as ‘being difficult’.

The Online Citizen, and my working relationship with Andrew, is of a qualitatively different nature. There is open communication and mutual support and I believe that the integrity of this site and its reporters should not be judged on one mistake alone.

This experience presents an opportunity for us to grow as active online citizens.
Both Yawning Bread and The Online Citizen play critical roles as leading social media outlets, particularly important in our local context.

I remain committed to working with them both.

Stephanie Chok

These sort of things do happen in media and its great that you have offered Steph both a public as well as a private apology. Its very big of you.

I do know of blogs that have been irresponsible and have even behaved in a manner that jeopardised different members of civil society both professionally and socially. Details I will leave out.

Point is, you guys made a mistake unknowingly and you had no malicious intent.

Benedict