TR EMERITUS

Translated from Lianhe Wanbao (20 Jan 2009) by Cheng Siew Peng: Permanent Secretary Tan Yong Soon spent $40,000 for a family trip to France to learn cooking, triggering a polarizing response from ordinary Singaporeans. While older uncles and aunties criticize him as "hao lian" (hokkien for arrogant), the younger generation feels he is simply writing the truth and has no intention of belitting others. The minister in charge of the civil service, Mr Teo Chee Hean criticized Mr Tan's article in Parliament yesterday as lacking sensitivity and being "ill-judged". Tan Yong Soon brought his wife and son to Paris for a 5-week cooking course last Deccember and wrote a travelogue on about which was published on 6 January in the Straits Times Life section. The exorbitant fees for the cooking course which costs $15,000 per head and $45,000 in total earned the irk of netizens who felt "top civil servants do not practice what they preach and even brag about their wealth to the public." Most netizens are of the view that Mr Tan is not empathetic towards the plight of ordinary Singaporeans facing the threat of retrenchment in teh face of an economic recession. On one hand, they ask Sinagporeans to lead an austere life and yet they are happily bringing their family for a holiday cum cooking course overseas. Said Madam Chang (67 years old): "My children says they consider themselves very lucky not to be retrenched during this period. Being a civil servant, he should understand the sufferings of the common people, our treasured societal values of thrift and humility have disappeared." Mr Lee (46 years old) said: "I need to spend a few months to earn even half of his cooking course fee. I feel disgusted at him spending such a big sum of money during an economic downturn like this." However, young Singaporeans whom we interviewed and a portion of netizens felt that Mr Tan did not wrong in writing about the truth. Miss Shen (29 years old) said: "There are many people who spend more than him to enjoy their holidays, just that it is not reported in the press ok ? How to spend one's money is a personal freedom and there is nothing wrong with it. Source: Lianhe Wanbao  Read More →

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By Eugene Yeo In a recent interview with "Talking Point", Gerald Giam, Senior writer of socio-political blog - The Online Citizen lamented about the government's apparent lack of interest in engaging in "serious, cogent and rational" bloggers like himself in cyberspace. Interestingly, he draw a sharp rebuttal to fellow TOC writer P N Balji, who chatises him for "barking up the wrong tree." Writing in TODAY, Mr Balji retorts: "What extra value will the Government’s engagement of bloggers add to the state of public discourse here? " Indeed, Gerald's pleads for the government to pay attention to the views of blogosphere may sound presposterous to the almighty PAP which had seldom listened to the concerns of ordinary citizens in the first place. I'm sorry, Gerald, but who do you think you are ? Or rather, who are we bloggers to expect the government to engage us on our home turfs ? Does Gerald represent any constituency or residents ? Who is he speaking on behalf of ? In reality, there is no need for the government to respond to bloggers in their official capacities as they are already doing so discreetly. Let's not forget the PAP had set up an "Internet brigade" in 2007 to deal with rising anti-establishment sentiments in cyberspace. Their agents have infiltrated into every internet forum and blogs to fish for information and to assess the feelings on the ground. Even this blog is not spared from the close scrutiny of the internet brigade and the state media. Articles published here were soon reflected in the media a few days later, albeit in a much watered-down tone. Annonymous individuals post regularly here to defend the government's policies and lampoon us for getting personal. After we exposed the extravagance of Permanent Secretary Tan Yong Soon in his cooking trip to France last week, it stirred such a furore in cyberspace that the international press Reuters soon carry a report on it. The question of Mr Tan Yong Soon's cooking trip was soon raised in Parliament by NMP Siew Kum Hong which draws a sharp rebuttal from Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean. The next day, all the major papers in Singapore publish the story, two weeks after the featured article first appeared in the Straits Times today. The state media is a mouthpiece of the government. All reports and articles on political leaders and civil servants have to be vetted by the senior editors before they are allowed to be published. Another case in point is the ACJC ragging incident which involves Dr Vivian Balakrishnan's son, Mark. The photos was first posted on STOMP which soon spread throughout blogosphere including this blog. The Chinese evening tabloid, Wanbao published a writeup on the fiasco yesterday without any reference to Mark Balakrishnan. Obviously either the senior editor has chosen to practice self-censorship or he has been instructed by the relevant authorities not to drag Mark into the picture. In a way, the government does engage netizens subtlely and discreetly on its own terms instead of the way Gerald wanted, which is to lend both credibility and recognition openly to prominent socio-political bloggers like himself. Even if the government were to seriously engage bloggers, how are they going to do so ? Are they going to post comments as officials on their blogs or invite them to chit-chat sessions just to give us the impression that our views do matter ? At the end of the day, will they bother to listen to us and act on our opinions or is it merely another wayang to soothe our bruised egoes ? I fully concur with Balji last sentence in the article - "Government recognition can sometimes end up being a kiss of death". Being recognized is tantamount to being regarded as a potential threat and will invariably heap pressure on bloggers to be politically correct so as not to incur the wrath of the authorities by being overly vocal or critical. It is a quiet relief to the writers of this blog that the government and the state media have chosen to ignore our existence so far though we are aware that we are always on their radar screens. Bloggers need not go on bended knees to seek attention from the government. Once your blog's viewership has attained a certain critical number, they will be compelled to sit up and pay attention to you. They may not wish to engage you officially, yet they cannot afford to take their eyes off what you are writing especially when there are a few thousand people reading your blog daily. Isn't victory sweeter this way ?  Read More →