Mr Brown's supporters protest in mrt station!

SilverPal SG

And who will the the first matyr for an ungrateful nation led by an even more ungrateful leeder? Who will sarcrific their, not pursuit of money but fight for survival in the face of such overwhelming opposition?

Once upona time I was very idealistic. I wanted to better MY country. After getting slapped in the face many times, called anti-establishment, I decided that, if this is not what I want, the door is always open, no one is stopping me from migrating.

I do applaud people like robertteh, atobe, chiam, slyvia for actually standing up for what they believe in, but until I can leave the clutches of those who decide my fate, I can ill afford the same fate as mr brown and csj.

LazerLordz SG

Politics is not the only field where we can improve this nation. It can come from many other fields, e.g academia or theatre too.

I'd rather groom students with similar mindsets, at least there is diffusion of ideas.

barhonda92 SG

why spore government so strict with all this kind of thing sia Question

LazerLordz SG

Laughing

oxford mushroom SG

In the Straits Times today, 13 July:

SINGAPOREANS will lose confidence in the Government if it does not rebut distorted views expressed in the mainstream media, said Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lee Boon Yang.
Dr Lee was responding to media queries yesterday about the Government's reaction to the mr brown column in MediaCorp's Today newspaper.

Full-time writer and blogger Lee Kin Mun, who writes under the monicker mr brown, commented on June 30 that hikes on taxi fares and electricity tariffs had come after the General Election and at a time when a government survey showed a widening income gap in the country.

The Minister's press secretary K. Bhavani issued a strong res- ponse which was also carried in Today. Last Friday, the freesheet's editors decided to suspend Mr Lee's column, drawing sharp criticism from bloggers and netizens.

Dr Lee said Mr Lee has made 'very unfair, unjustified comments' on key government policies and strategies as well as 'unfounded allegations' in the mass media.

'Should we just remain quiet, let it pass and treat it as just humour, laugh about it and forget about it?'

He stressed that the Government is 'duty bound' to set the record straight or these distortions 'will make it more difficult for the Government to rally Singaporeans for national objectives'.

At the end of the day, it is the ordinary folks who will suffer, he added.

In responding to Mr Lee's comments, he said the Government was merely exercising its right of reply.

If Mr Lee had posted his comments on his blog, it would be treated as 'part of the Internet chatter'.

'We understand that there will be certain elements of humour, sarcasm and cynicism expressed on the Internet and we just let it be. It is not our intention to chase after every single posting,' he added.

But the crux of the matter is that Mr Lee's comments were carried in the mainstream media, which the Government expects to be responsible, accurate and objective in its reporting.

'They must adopt the model that they're part of the nation- building effort rather than going out and purveying views that will mislead people, confuse people, which will in fact undermine our national strategy,' said Dr Lee.

fudgester SG

Ah I see... LBY's definition of 'rebutting' opposing views is shutting up the people who would come up with those opposing views.

Oh dear... I was a school debater once, and one of the first things I learnt was that to rebut an argument is to either provide facts that undermine the argument or to provide a counterargument with facts supporting the latter.

Typing 'define:rebut' in Google yields the following definition:

refute: overthrow by argument, evidence, or proof; "The speaker refuted his opponent's arguments"
refute: prove to be false or incorrect
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

There are several other similar definitions provided, all of them are in a similar vein. But I'll just focus on one for the sake of clarity.

So I suppose they're going to say that the Princeton definition of 'rebut' is wrong then? That to 'rebut' means to shut up the opposing side?

Truth be told, I am losing whatever remaining confidence I have in the Government from the way they're 'rebutting' Mr Brown. Rolling Eyes

dragg SG

all they need to do is to correct mr brown's comment if they disagree.

why do TODAY need to suspend his column?

fudgester SG

We're no.140 in the world press freedom rankings mah.... Laughing

nanren4ever SG

sadly, no one country can truly claim to have a free press.

Manager433 SG

I just wonder, does TNP pay Brown for his work ( writing )?

dragg SG

of course, he is paid as a columnist.

BillyBong SG

With typical precision and coordination, local reporters probe Dr Lee on the brown incident and he of course, obliges with a severe reprimand over the usual jazz....'distorted truths', how it will 'wrongly influence' the mindset of singaporeans etc and how the govt would be irresponsible if it failed to respond.

It even went on to split hairs, giving the hypocritical claim that had brown published the article in his blog instead of TODAY, no action would have been taken against him.

Bah Humbug. Dour crap from our MICA head.

If a statement is wrong in principle, you respond, whether it was released in a blog or in print. There should be no discrimination between the internet or newspapers.

The only difference is: the govt has to ACT in closing his blog if they so chose and they would be OPENLY incriminated in such a destardly act. In this case, they have TODAY readily scalped as the scapegoat, thereby innocently feigning ignorance.

Once again, the govt shames itself for being the big playground bully, with it's instrument of response - TODAY editorial board, or hum ji kings, who have strong-armed a popular columnist into publishing exile.

I sure wish more people would sit up and take notice of these laughable acts by our petty and 'infallible' govt.

LazerLordz SG

Hum-ji is the word.

Anecdotal evidence usually show that playground bullies are less well-off than the class punching bag in society.

dragg SG

i agree it is a typical case of trying to bully him into submission.

drawer SG

The foreign press already laugh at our government how they can say one thing n do another thing so differently from what they said. Mr. Green

fudgester SG

Hmm... what will happen if my friends and I were to wear a brown T-shirt with a picture of a white elephant while eating peanuts in an MRT station? Laughing

ditzy SG

You are not allowed to eat in the mrt station. Mad

fudgester SG

Ok then...

What if the brown T-shirts had images of white elephants eating peanuts? Laughing

ShutterBug SG

What LHL said:

In his inauguration speech on 12 August 2004 as Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong's jested, Ours must be an open and inclusive Singapore. On the anniversary of his swearing-in, the Singapore Democrats launch this segment to track how Mr Lee intends to fulfill his vision.

fudgester SG

Well, we've seen how the word 'rebut' can have an alternate meaning.

I suppose the phrase 'open and inclusive' is widely open to interpretation as well.... Laughing

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