Comments, opinions and an occasional ramble
Young PAP exposed!
If you have not read The Online Citizen’s latest entry, I recommend reading it.
In what I think is a very funny development to “bicycle politics”, The Online Citizen found out (with screenshots as evidence) that Young PAP has quietly dropped (it’s obviously not quiet anymore) cycling from it’s events calendar. One can only speculate why the guys at Young PAP decided on such a move.
This little episode is funny on another count. Vivian Balakrishnan said this not too long ago:
The most potent impact that the new media will have on politics is that, politicians will find it impossible to lie in the future. The truth will always be out there, because somewhere, someone has the facts, or has seen something, and will publish it. Fortunately for us in Singapore , we have run a clean system, and hence have nothing to hide. (Source: Ministry of Information, Communication and Arts)
I wonder if Vivian is now wishing he never said that. To be fair, we have to keep in mind that technically, the YPAP guys are not politicians, at least not yet. However, it’s still embarrassing that the party leadership said one thing and the youth wing decides to do the direct opposite.
Since we are on the topic of exposition, check out Wikiscanner, a web service built specially to track who’s been editing what on Wikipedia. Wired has a list of the salacious editing of Wikipedia entries on certain organisations, and the editing was traced back to computer networks of those organisations.
The organisations appear to be mainly U.S. or Europe based organisations, though. I wonder if any local organisations have been sneakily doing some Wikipedia edits as well.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Aaron Ng on 07/09/2007 at 11:11 am, and is filed under Ramblings. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 2 years ago
Hi Aaron,
We too are wondering why they did that. It’s even more amusing because they forgot about taking out the other “cyclethon” event they had in 2006!
And thanks for reminding us all of what Vivian Balakrishnan said.
It’s a quote to keep for posterity.
Regards,
Andrew
about 2 years ago
Hey Andrew,
Check out Wikiscanner if you have the time. That might make for another interesting story for TOC if you guys find out that there are local organisations engaging in “undercover” editing of their not-so-flattering wikipedia entries.
about 2 years ago
Hi Singapore Blogosphere,
http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/name2ip.php?orgname=&location=Singapore&pagetitle=
Have fun.
about 2 years ago
Thanks, Aaron. Yea, we’ll check it out. Looks rather interesting..
Michaelk, thanks…. cool
about 2 years ago
Re: Wikiscanner
Tsk, tsk, look at the vandalism that came from some Npnet and Nanyang Poly network users:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=100789396
http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/f.php?ip1=202.12.94.0-95.255
” [[WPAES|]]Blanked the page”
Oh look, some Temasek Junior College network users added this paragraph:
“There has been some criticism about the lecture system, especially concerning the subject of Biology. The majority view of Biology students is that the lecturers spend more time cracking jokes and giving out sweets than actually imparting knowledge.”
Source: http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/f.php?ip1=203.125.213.0-31
about 2 years ago
China has one country two systems e.g Hong Kong and China. Singapore Inc has two types of law; one for the elites e.g. PAP and one for the non-elites or common peasant e.g WP. Whatever activities conduct by PAP always “OK” while non-PAP always a strong “NO” for the “public safety”.
Singapore Inc is sinking fast if she continues to practise double standard.
about 2 years ago
Interesting. They stop WP’s night cycling, then quietly cancel their youth wing’s own. If they really believed that night cycling would result in violence, they would not have organized it in the first place. Hypocrites.
about 2 years ago
Andrew,
Whoops, the link doesn’t seem to work. But just enter “Singapore” in the location field of the Wikiscanner form.
about 2 years ago
Michaelk, they didn’t cancel their event – they simply removed all traces of an event which occurred on the 28th of July this year from their website not long ago.
It doesn’t just make them hypocrites.
about 2 years ago
Whoops!
I will never join the YP. Remember “The Alternative Vision for Singapore (and I mean Alternative!)”?
about 2 years ago
They responded. You hear the usual tones and the famous one – “honest mistake’ said in a different way.
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STIStory_155683.html
Why rush to take the information down from the website immediately when people start to question the YPAP events in comparison to the WP event? The website event information could have been updated during the August month, right after July. No updates till someone spotted their events.
They have probably weighted the cost of silence and the cost of saying something about it. But, it still showed they CAN ORGANIZE a cycling event (even no one wants to cycle) and the rest cannot. It is not about what did not happen!!
about 2 years ago
Check out the lame response from our highly paid highly talented elites MPs
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STIStory_155683.html
“….The second YP event, a Children’s Day activity done in Amazing Race-style has been postponed for ‘practical reasons’, said Hong Kah GRC MP Zaqy Mohamed. Our main concern was manpower, as we’d be too tied up with other YP events and dialogues taking place around that time,’ he said, adding that these dialogues were to discuss the latest CPF measures….”
Whats up with our government man?
I am glad there is internet and we could talk about this online since we will NEVER get the chance to talk about such things in public.
about 2 years ago
I think the MPs’ explanation or excuses, if you like, still does not answer the question – why is the YPAP allowed to conduct outdoor activities while other parties are not?
The MPs’ explanation does not explain why in June 24, 2006, the SW YPAP branch also conducted a “Cyclethon”. (This is a seperate event from the Night Cycling and The Amazing Race which the 2 MPs explained away.)
See here for the screenshot from the YPAP website.
Andrew
about 2 years ago
Andrew,
>>>why is the YPAP allowed to conduct outdoor activities while other parties are not?
Did you really have to ask that one?
I think we can all make a very good guess at the answer, yourself included.
Could it possibly be the same answer as to why only one political party out of the whole of Singapore was allowed to be fielded as a contingent during the National Day Parade?