The Wee Shu-min Cyber-drama

I don’t know man. I didn’t follow that one. You might want to check with Agagooga.

Well, people are bound to get personal. It’s not that surprising, really. Why do you think tabloids are so popular? Not everyone is interested in intellectualism.

It does bother me somewhat that someone who has been through the best education our society has to offer actually behaves like that. I do hope that the young lady takes away some invaluable lessons via this episode that she would never have received in school.

Haha, you have an interesting take on the matter. However, I see the uproar as a good thing. Who said Singaporeans are apathetic? They do care.

Education is a double edged sword. You just reminded me of something that I’ve yet to put down into words regarding education and the PAP. Stay tuned, I’ll probably get it out in a few day’s time.

I was from The Chinese High School, and subsequently, Hwa Chong Junior College.

I think the honesty is fine. What is not fine is the condescending attitude, and the worse thing is that the attitude stems from a lack of knowledge of the poorer part of society because she is from the upper class of society.

I don’t think she has the right to pass judgement on someone whom she has no understanding of.

Well, the key problem is the in terms of probability, GEP students are more likely to become future leaders of Singapore because of the way our system is structured. That being the case, we should certainly be more alert to dysfunctional mindsets.

And yes, we need honesty because if everyone is hypocritical, how are we going to improve? What is more important after honesty is open-mindedness. We need to bring out all these things into the public domain, have a rigourous debate and then come to an informed conclusion.

Ms Wee is most certainly misinformed, and worse, she chose to run away rather than stand by her word and defend herself. Maybe she is stil young, but that at best is a mitigating factor, not an exonerating factor. She certainly needs alot more real life learning, and not textbook learning.

Hi Chris,

Maybe she really doesn’t know better; we were once 18 and how much did we know then?

However, to use another Chinese saying, 养儿不教，父之过 (translated: To raise a child and not to teach the child, the father is in the wrong). I really wonder what her parents have been teaching her all these years for her to have such a mentality. I’m sure RGS and RJC doesn’t teach such things.

Rey:

Make sure you teach your kid well.

You think anything will happen? Sorry man, but you should know this Chinese saying called 官官相护 (translated: government officials will always help shield each other).

Hi William,

It’s alright to be honest and express your views. That’s what freedom of speech is about. However, she does not have the courage to stand up and defend her views. If you want to speak your mind, be prepared to get shot and be prepared to defend your views.

By shutting down the blog, she shows that she’s a coward, and along with the cowardice, she probably isn’t open-minded at all. Some people are out to get her by being personal, but I think the vast majority of us, while ruffled, are not like that. We just want to set the record straight.

Too bad she doesn’t want to set the record straight. For all her brains, looks like she won’t survive in a true democracy.

Dear Benjamin,

I’m completely with you. Those people up there have a good reason for making the policies the way they are doing it. It’s always at a maco level, crunching statistics and numbers. You must achieve xx% of growth, have xx% of the population as graduates, have xx% birthrate and so on. If the numbers don’t match up, it doesn’t matter; just squeeze those at the bottom.

I think we need to stop making these macro level policy. We need to go down to the micro level. I said in another reply that human beings are not numbers. Everyone has their own difficulties and stories and their problems cannot be solved with armchair economists and politicians.

Well, I’ve stopped read SPH, unless I need a laugh at how biased they can get. My professor told me the Chief Ed of ST’s interested to offer some of the journalism students in NUS an internship. I told my prof straight that I don’t want to work for propaganda paper. I think I rather write on my blog and get it posted on tomorrow and intelligentsingaporean.

Dear Iowe,

I guess she has some preconceived notion about communism up in her mind. Did she even understand why people embraced communism? What were the social and economic circumstances? Why were people disillusioned with their system of governance? Why did they so readily accept communism?

See the parallel yet? Did she understand what Derek Wee was going through? Did she understand what drove Derek to write that? Why was Derek disillusioned with the system he was brought to believe in?

Ultimately, her looks don’t matter. Aside from being mean, that’s discriminatory.

I find it funny that someone who has been through RGS and RJC can’t even leave a proper name for me to address. Wee Shu-min closed down her blog, and now you don’t identify yourself. Is this what the Raffles schools teach?

That aside, I shall take your points. You say that Shu-min distinguishes people like Derek from other non-elite but hardworking Singaporeans. Let me quote that exact line:

“i should think not. dear derek is one of many wretched, undermotivated, overassuming leeches in our country, and in this world. one of those who would prefer to be unemployed and wax lyrical about how his myriad talents are being abandoned for the foreigner’s, instead of earning a decent, stable living as a sales assistant.”

Nowhere in Derek’s letter did Derek mention about prefering to be unemployed. In fact, he said he was willing to take a pay cut. I’m not sure if I’m reading you right, but such a person is a “leech” to society?

I too hail from schools that can be considered elite, and so I think I am qualified to talk to you at the same level. If you have at least some sense of Rafflesian in you, reply the following question, put your name by it and stand by what you say.

If you were Derek and facing the same set of circumstances he faced, would you be willing to be a shop assistant or taxi driver at age 40, where you are a degree holder who was previously a senior manager in an MNC?

I certainly hope it’s not a trend that Rafflesians these days like to either run away or cloak themselves under the guise of anonymity and not dare stand by their convictions.

The Rafflesians that I know from 7 years back were not like that.

Well, I remember reading Bernard Leong’s article about the two Singapores. It’s a compelling read. Check it out.

I am inclined to agree with Bernard that there’s a gulf seperating the haves and have-nots in Singapore. Those up there simply have no understanding of the problems of those down there.

Hi Phantom,

I’m not in favour of violence. A full scale revolution along the likes of the French revolution is the last thing we want. Violence and extremism does no one any good.

I think that it is better to use the vote to change things. A democratic process too can “hunt down and crucify”, provided there is a lawful reason to do so.

Ultimately, I would like to think that Singaporeans are pretty civilised and that we resort to the pen rather than the sword.

Hi Ernest,

If I were PM Lee, I would have given Wee Siew Kim a good scolding. Basically, WSK shot the PAP in the foot by implying that what his daughter said was right. It totally flies in the face of their election manifesto. The same words will come back to haunt WSK next GE. And if WSK remains in Ang Mo Kio GRC for the next GE, I wonder how many more votes the “suicide” WP team will get.

Well, as a student of communication and new media, I will tell you straight up that there is nothing on the blog that is private. To say that the blog is private illustrates a very mistaken view.

On the Internet, there are things called robots, which are essentially software that crawls through the billions/trillions of web pages that exist on line, archiving their content. These robots are usually employed by search engines.

There are two ways to stop this. One is to have a file that instructs robots not to crawl the site. However, because it’s an instruction, not an order, some robots will ignore. The other way is to password protect the website or pages.

As an analogy, think of Shu-min’s case as a diary of private thoughts that was left on a table in school. Anyone that stumbles by can take a look at it, even though the intention of the author was for his/her own eyes, or for those that the author deemed eligible to read.

If the diary was really meant to be private, it should have been kept in the school locker, and padlocked away.

And yes, you pointed out another contradiction. I didn’t really think much of that myself. Looks like WSK shot himself in the foot more than once.

Hi Anonymous,

How about a pseudonym at least? It makes it easier for me to remember who I responded to. I try and make it a point to respond to the best of my ability. And yes, I am for free debate and discussion. I believe that it makes everyone wiser.

I have to disagree that her “basic point” is valid. Well, I concede that there may be some lazy bums around (it happens everywhere), but as far as I read from the original wording, Derek is not one who is a “leech” to society. He qualifies his assertion with examples. Does that not make you wonder if there is indeed something that is going on?

I wouldn’t have been so uptight if Shu-min had written some semblance of acknowledgement that as an 18 year old with little knowledge of society, she cannot be completely sure if her stand is true. I’ll be totally fine with letting her stand her ground, even with her obnoxious way of expression. What really cheesed me was she appeared all high and mighty, adopting such a condescending attitude when throughout her entire life, she has had a bed of roses.

While the fact that she came from the Raffles line of school makes it all the better to ‘bash’ her with, I don’t think it’s the school. I know my share of Rafflesians and I’ve yet to see one half as obnoxious. This is why I suspect that something is not right with the way she was brought up.

As for the most worrying problem, for me, I was wondering how many of our government leaders are like WSK? He has gone through the PAP’s selection process, which I would imagine to be quite stringent. However, he turned out to hold ideas that educated people shouldn’t bemoan the government. You mean to say that educated people don’t have problems? That’s a very simplistic way of thinking, not to mention a very convenient way of sweeping the matter under the carpet and consider it settled.

I think that an MP should have better sense than that. As the chinese saying goes, 无风不起浪 (translated: there can be no waves without the wind. The Chinese equivalent of there can be no smoke without fire). Instead of dismissing it so quickly, I would have expected him to go check things out first. And if he did, he would have realised that 2 months ago, two other MPs have raised this issue as a concern.

Dear Chap,

Somehow, apology seems to be something taboo in the Singapore political circuit. Even LKY’s ‘apology’ for his remarks on the plight of Malaysian chinese is not an apology at all. Have you seen Kenny Sia’s take on that? His picture just hits the nail on the head.

Anyway, I seriously doubt the PAP want to do anything to WSK now. It’s classic of them not to do anything. I presume the reason is not to show that the party is fragmented. It’s always a united front.

I wish our PAP politicians will lose a little of their pride sometimes. They can’t take jokes, can’t apologise properly. Another reason not to vote them.

I’m no scholar on the PAP. I derive my views based on reports and discussions. If you are “new”, my advice would be to read widely. Whatever you read, be critical. Don’t accept it at first look. Ask yourself what’s the other side of the story.

As you apply critical reading more and more, you will naturally come to your own conclusion. I may hold certain notions, but let that not affect you. You are an individual with your own thinking ability. Don’t let others try and convince you; you should be the one convincing yourself.

With regards to the rest of your post, yes, I agree that PM Lee is trying to portray an image that’s more tolerant. However, if you follow through time, you will notice it’s a case of two steps forward, then one step backwards. It appears to me that the PAP is not comfortable enough to fully loosen up.

Well, yes, I agree that the PAP had done a fantastic job. Notice I used the word ‘had’. Whether it is the case now, it’s up to you to judge. Read up newspaper reports and alternative media online. Compare and contrast, then decide what you want to believe in.

Chris, I could still access it. I think you’re joking, right?