Reposted from Redwire Times Singapore
“It becomes like pack behaviour. You scold, you swear, you
curse. All the wrong instincts get fed and in a group, there’s a
certain group dynamic and it is like a pack of hounds hunting,
which is bad,”
That’s probably Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s best impression
of his father, Lee Kuan Yew, who resoundingly said years back that
Singaporeans need to get the “spurs stuck in their hides”.
Both statements sound pretty upsetting to their intended target
audience, and both appear to be a lack of tact from our dear
leaders and top politicians. While we can criticize and condemn Lee
senior and Lee junior, both men do make a fair point.
Prime Minister Lee was referring to the extremism that goes on
on online media, which sometimes borders on fanaticism. We see
instances of keyboard rage towards public figures which at times
speaks of blind fury rather than thought-out discourse.
Prime Minister Lee raised the instance of Mr Anton Casey, the
foreigner who got driven to exile arguably by the strong sentiment
roused by keyboard vigilantes. The man made a mistake and without a
doubt he sounded like a total prat. But did the punishment fit the
crime?
And of course, there’s the rants often targeted at our
government figures by netizens on alternative news websites such as
Temasek Review Emeritus (TRE) and The Online Citizen (TOC). There
are sound comments full of wisdom, and progressiveness.
On the flip side, many comments are unrestrained, unwieldy
and untempered tantrums. The government should pay attention to
such comments, as they signal an underlying rage that cannot be
expressed in its entirety of being. Still, many of them appear to
be emotionally-driven personal attacks, and if we can hardly
stomach such treatment in our everyday lives, how can we expect any
less from the next man, even if he is an authority figure?
If we should need any reminders, people have killed
themselves because of online social media pack
attacks. It’s called cyber-bullying, it’s unkind,
and it’s unjust. Reflex – that’s what moves animals. Humans work on
reason. Such vitriol is unreasonable.
So while it stings to be fingered and chastised, we might do
well to remember Prime Minister Lee’s words. Let’s have reasonable
discourse – discussions based on facts and not ego. It was a tough
statement, and it’s pretty uncharacteristic of Prime Minister Lee
to adopt such a standpoint (after all, we remember all the
apologies from the last GE). But this time, he’s right.
The future of the nation shouldn’t bend to the politics of the
day.
