Daily Discourse – Cyberspace Self Regulation?

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On the Straits Stooge Times:

Minister rues poor conduct
05-02-2009 己丑年 正月十一
By Zakir Hussain, Political Correspondent

Excerpts:
RADM Lui was replying to Ms Penny Low (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC), who had asked for his views on netizens’ response to the physical attack on Mr Seng, MP for Yio Chu Kang.

He said: ‘I do not think the community itself has done enough to rebut some of these unhelpful comments delivered by fellow netizens.

‘It is a squandered opportunity for a higher degree of self-regulation.It would have been an example of the genesis, of the first steps, towards a more responsible, greater, self-regulatory regime.

‘But many of those responses were not rebutted or answered, and I think it is not healthy for some of this to remain on the Net unchallenged, unquestioned and unanswered.’

First of all, I am rather amused with the correspondent’s comment that the attack on Yio Chu Kang MP has drawn many online attacks. I will not nitpick on this, but I politely disagree, as many or few depends on the yardstick used. Personally, I would consider the number of such opinion (i.e. the vicious attacks) to be in the minority when measured against the deafening silence or simple indifference from the majority of the netizens, if not the entire population itself.

I am even more amused with His Excellency, Rear Admirer Admiral Lui’s remarks. How does he define ‘self regulation’ in this case? ‘Self regulation’ as characterised by an uncountable number of flame wars between bloggers and forummers?

Here’s something on this matter perhaps His Excellency should hear about:

A friend of mine found it funny and couldn’t bring himself to sympathise with MP Seng when he read the news, even though he couldn’t bring himself to voice support for the old man who committed the atrocity. Some even felt sorry for the old man, when they heard he might be given a life sentence for his actions and I personally wondered whether some the vicious attacks weren’t in part generated by the very report stating this fact! In fact, even now it is still not clear to us whether he will still be charged for this attack and sentenced severely after he has been remitted to IMH.

On top of that, some simply pointed out that without more details on the matter, one has nothing to stand on to speak up for MP Seng, even though they felt indignant and agreed that no such thing should be committed against any human being. Among some, there is also the considered opinion that ‘there cannot be smoke without fire’ – i.e. they believed there is actually a ‘slim chance’ the old man has good reasons for the attack.

As to my personal opinion, I found no reason to play mata-mata (policeman) and a part in self regulating cyberspace. In fact, I was clearly under the impression that unabated flame wars was the reason why a decade ago, His Excellency George Yeo (is he still BG now?) said that the Internet is so full of rubbish and it is almost like reading graffiti on a wall!

Now, is His Excellency the Grand Rear Admiral Lui faulting some of us for taking your colleague’s words to heart and doing our part by not participating in flame wars? Or are we now to participate in such senseless and rather meaningless endeavors when there are ‘good moral reasons’? Whatever gave His Excellency the idea that mere words (a lot of them, actually) from other netizens will have any effect at all in stopping a vociferous muthafxxka the vicious comments? I suggest His Excellency hire someone to do this if he does not see the futility in doing so.

That’s not forgetting, most net denizens (aka “netizens”) dislike regulation, be it state implemented or even community enforced. While most generally try to abide by a set of socially acceptable net etiquette (aka “netiquette”), much is left to the netizen to ‘police’ himself. There is nothing much anyone of us could do if another netizen is being an irresponsible prick. As much as I would say no to state regulation, I would say no to community regulation or another person attempting to shut me up. Putting myself in another person’s shoes, when I don’t appreciate another self righteous prick enforcing his personal code of behaviour upon me, I don’t expect myself to do the same to another person.

Beyond that, His Excellency the Admiral might want to look at just why the general populace finds less reason to be indignant about the attack on a Member of Parliament compared to that of an old trishaw-man getting bullied by 3 foreigners. Is it because that the populace no longer consider respect a part of the package in view of the salaries of your esteemed colleagues are already earning? Is the numbers in the elections all there is to consider one as ‘having the mandate’?

We Chinese have a saying: 将心比心 [meaning: to treat another person as he treats you]. Perhaps it is time for the Tali-PAP to reflect upon itself whether its ‘heart-ware’ has suffered a catastrophic failure to the point the people no longer respond in kind.

In short, while speaking the truth frankly may be the best option at times, consider how the people would feel hearing it. I am not proposing implement popular policies or running the government gahmen by popularity, but a lot more humility when speaking to the very people who put you in power would go some way in gaining their respect.

Finally, with all due respect, it is my considered opinion that His Excellency will do better pondering about whether the trade off between monetary remuneration and the respect of the people is an acceptable one, instead of talking about how a failure on the part of netizens to self regulate.

Current Affairs: Association of Bloggers Singapore (II)

It has been just more than a week and it appears that the Association of Bloggers Singapore is finished. As of the time this post is written, 7 out of 10 of its committee pro tem has resigned or stepped down.

What has really gone wrong? No one will really know what went on behind the scene in the tumultuous week after its hasty announcement, and one can only guess the reasons behind the departure of the majority of the committee.

This post is not an attempt to pin any blame or anyone but rather to report what is seen and known to me. The most apparent would be some of the comments made by the Association’s President, eastcoastlife to the press, the comments on Facebook as reported by other bloggers, and also on one of her blogs – To PM Lee Hsien Loong.

What started the uproar, was the following statement:

[Singaporean bloggers were] easily manipulated and even banned for standing up against the foreign tyrant from self-proclaimed ‘community meta weblog for Singapore bloggers’

It is understandable that this statement created an uproar, as the matter spoken above refers to a series of user bans beginning in July 2007 on ping.sg. To many, this is ‘ancient history’ and few would like to see skeletons dancing out of the closets. On top of which, several pioneers in creating online communities in Singapore are Malaysians. To name a few: Cowboy Caleb (Cowboy Bar), James Seng (tomorrow.sg) and Uzyn Chua (ping.sg). In simpler terms, it was a blanket attack that can only be viewed as: xenophobia.

It would have been more diplomatic had eastcoastlife simply pointed out that the Association is the first true effort by Singaporeans bloggers to create an online community for bloggers – both local and foreign – blogging out of Singapore. While it would have invited perhaps the same ridicule for being redundant, at least it would have drawn far fewer criticism, perhaps even with less viciousness in those criticisms as well. It might even have drawn some local bloggers to look upon it in a more positive light.

At this point in time, the position may still have been salvageable, since a very small amount of information about the association is released. With the exception of a few bloggers, it appears to me that the rest simply adopted a wait and see attitude. It is not really clear to me why eastcoastlife then went on rampage in a misguided offensive against some bloggers – viewed by some as a unnecessary resumption and extention of the dispute with ping.sg’s founder approximately 18 months ago.

What drove eastcoastlife over the edge? Was it this one particular comment by a Malaysian blogger, daphnemaia on a social media platform called Plurk that triggered it all?

Whether that comment was referring to the committee, or those in support of the Association, or even bootlickers in her own workplace is open to speculation. All who had that visible in their timeline had politely kept away from responding, since no one is any the wiser what the matter is about. (Note: This is an example of ambiguous and misleading comments which I have always made a fuss of. It generally failed to inform a reader on either of the following: perpetrators, or the act perpetrated. More often than not the reader is blamed for being presumptuous in the end, and the person who caused the misunderstanding is absolved from all guilt and responsibilities. This is yet another situation prevalent in local blogosphere, and it is sad when perpetrated by some self proclaimed social media ‘activists’.)

Whatever the comment was referring to, it obviously was one of the justifications for eastcoastlife’s reaction. Another reason for eastcoastlife’s response maybe Lucian Teo’s response to her statement to the press, and this opened a new can of worms about civil servants.

While indeed the behavior of some civil servants are less than commendable [see below], and in private among some of my friends we do share a less than favorable opinion – such as the lack of need for any of them to stand for elections and be accountable directly to the people makes them almost like the ‘true emperors of Singapore’, we will rap one another for such views and caution ourselves from making such comments on the public domain.

The reason is simple, even had these comments been justified, there are also other civil servants who are truly doing their jobs to serve the people. For e.g. my own experiences with the officers in ICA, no matter how much criticisms I have read about the ICA, have generally been positive, even when it was clearly my fault for losing my IC and passport on those occasions.

It is sad that the Association is almost like our National Day fireworks display, gone as soon as it sprouted. Perhaps this will be the last we will hear about the association, and it is sad it went down in flames for all the wrong reasons.

Addendum 12.2.09: It is to my surprise, cowboy caleb, an overrated ‘top blogger’ has-been who still rides on his past glories to think of this piece as simple-minded and boring. Certainly, it couldn’t be anymore exciting than his site which continually feeds scandalous and controversial nonsense to his audience.

It is of no dishonour for failing to measure up to his rather perverted standards. After all, I am glad I did not spin a story about things I know only in pieces because some of these things are personal perspectives of friends (former committee members as well) revealed to me in confidence. Writing a spicy little story that may earn me fleeting glory or irrelevant praises from those I considered despicable, but I have no regrets in disappointing the cowboy whom I have considered a scumbag. That sure beats adding on to the misunderstanding among my friends and have them angry with me.

Thankfully, there’s still reputable sites like Singapore Daily, which is providing quality links. At times, I truly wonder if the untermenschen feeding all that crap to the Internet is not part of the government’s gahmen’s effort to drown out the voice of the people.

Recomended Reads:
Discuss the Net: Overlooking and Underestimating PR

Random Thoughts: On local blogosphere (III)

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Flaming on its own is hardly detrimental to social media, because at most it impacts just the blogger’s online reputation, sometimes even positively. I doubt there was any real impact to Xiaxue’s Xiasuay’s reputation when she flamed Maia Lee or Dawn Yang Yawn Dang, since it would endear Xiasuay to those who dislike the two. As for the other bloggers, if they intend to become noticed by those doing social media in PR companies, intense flaming may draw attention but when overdone, it might also gives a blogger the label of ‘toxic assets’ – i.e. anyone, any site, any brand associated with the blogger will have their own reputation tarnished. Unfortunately, unlike banks which will want to have anything to do with financial toxic assets like CDOs and CDS right now, it may not be true that few or no PR companies will want to deal with bloggers who some may consider ‘toxic’.

Anyway, flaming becomes overdone and detrimental to social media when bloggers take certain actions beyond blogosphere into other parts of cyberspace and / or into real life.

The following a some examples of some of these actions:

  • Spreading Rumors
    The best real life example would be some of the allegations on forums against the directors of Odex when it took action against anime downloaders.

  • Libellous Postings
    Usually no one is any the wiser as to who is the target, except the target himself and his closest friends. Certain facts about a person can be twisted to present a completely negative picture. A perpetrator can make libellous allegations with impunity without fear of legal action as pressing a legal case on libel is not simple. A hypothetical example would be to suggest that an unemployed person who still has money to pursue a certain lifestyle is leeching on his parents’ money and thus, unfilial.

  • Gossiping
    This is usual either done in casual conversations, in social media tools like Plurk, or instant messengers like Yahoo Messenger. The perpetrator infers that someone’s actions has ulterior motives. The main objective is create suspicion with the end result of making the person an outcast in his own community.

  • Outright Abuse
    An example would be to rally friends, readers, acquaintances to say, subscribe a colleague or a boss email address to pR0n sites, or putting up the a number of a person in public for prank calling on one’s blog.

All of these actions go beyond just the a blogger’s online reputation. It shows the negative aspects of social media and also the true character of a person. Sadly, some of these bloggers continues to be featured and used and much of the world – other than those who are in the same social circle – remained seemingly unaware of their otherwise ignoble activities.

I wonder, whether one who looked hard enough may actually find certain PR people who claims to be cultivating social media to be close with some of these bloggers. If so, it begs the question, is this still social media? Or just the usual commercialised PR in the guise of social media?

Do we really need yet another class of glitterati, when the current existing celebrities in showbiz or singing are already nothing more but leeches in society feeding off the craving of the masses for tabloid, scandalous and outrageous news so that they can pursue a lifestyle at your expense?

Recommended Reads:
Xtralicious: What’s great about the Top Blogger?
Xtralicious: 9 Tips To Pitch Your Blog Successfully

River HongBao 2009

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Went down to River Hongbao on the first day of the Chinese [Lunar] New Year. Met my friend Xander at UOB Plaza to have dinner at Burger King before we took a slow walk down along Battery Road, down the Fullerton Bridge and past the Esplanade. Admission is free and there was a huge crowd.

This year’s River HongBao is held the floating platform in Marina Bay. It’s the first time I’ve been there even though 2 National Day Parades have been held there. I must say they should do something about the entrance even though I understand they want to control the flow of people into the platform, but it is like just 10 – 15% in width compared to the exit and the movement is so slow you end up sweaty (even when the nights are pretty cool lately) by the time you get in.

The lighted displays are nice, consisting of the 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac, a ‘Terra Cotta’ chess set, a large statue of the ‘god of wealth and prosperity’ and even a wishing well. There are also other displays which I have sort of forgotten but you can see them in the slide show below. I saw a number of people setting up their cameras with stands along the Esplanade pointing at the platform so I believe this is a good place for you to go to get the worth out of your camera, or practice night photography if you are a photography hobbyist.

In the center of the platform there is a stage, where some traditional Chinese arts are performed. You can also check out the photos of the stage taken by EastCoastLife here.

Apart from all these, there’s also a small section for food called the ‘Food Street’. I personally think it is too much a misnomer since compared to size of the platform, this covers a even smaller area, perhaps a result of lower take up of stalls due to the worsening economic conditions. There’s also a small tent where Singapore Pools is set up, so I guess a lot of people would have gone to pay their homage to the ‘god of fortune’ and then went on to try their luck there.

I personally think it’s a good place to bring your family out and enjoy the Chinese New Year atmosphere. That’s not mentioning the weather the past few days has been cool so it really gives you that Spring feeling. However, my personal advice is, don’t bring your animals or your babies in prams. I have seen people cuddling their dogs, and pushing their baby prams along. Not that I have anything against people with pets or babies, but please consider that the area is already congested and not everyone likes to rub against dog fur, and the tram takes up space which make the congestion worse than it already is.

Recommended Reads:
James Seng’s: Association of Bloggers (Singapore)

Movie Review: 幸福万岁 [Love Matters]

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Watched this during the gala premier (20.01.2009) with free tickets courtesy of my mei xinyun at GV Vivo City. After the movie, I met some of the members of the committee of the Association of Bloggers (Singapore) who were also there.

The movie is typical of Jack Neo movie, there is much jokes and laughter and also a subtle educational purpose behind it. In this case, perhaps a ‘lesson’ on family, marriage and relationship. Set in Malaysia, the story surrounds these main casts – Bo Seng (Henry Thia aka ‘Alamak’) and wife Jia Li (Yeo Yann Yann), playboy Jeremy (Jack Lim) and girlfriend Ms Wong (Cheryl Lee), and teenager Benny (Alex Leong) and crush Jennifer (Natalli).

In my opinion, each of the couples in the movie depicts a stage of life – from the puppy love of Benny for Jennifer, Jeremy’s playboy lifestyle and his unwillingness to settle down to start a family, to Bo Seng’s otherwise stale relationship with his wife. I believe it is producers’ objective to make the audience ponder on the meaning of love, family and marriage as one stage wife Jia Li made the audience ponder with the question: Can’t there be love without sex? and playboy Jeremy justifying his lifestyle by claiming it to be God’s design. It also showed A breakdown in communication between parents and children in which mother Jia Li found a difficulty to bring up matters to son Benny, and Benny trying to hide mistakes he made in school from his parents.

On the down side, there are parts of this movie which is over-exaggerated, especially the parts depicting how Jeremy ‘turn over a new leaf‘ and choose to settle down. I found myself looking at the time and wondering when the movie will be over. My personal opinion was that even though everyone in those parts acted pretty well, it sort of killed whatever message that the movie wanted to bring across.

But on the bright side, the ending while not spectacular nor unexpected, was good one. At least, Bo Seng finally understood he has a part to play to maintain a healthy marriage, Jeremy finally settled down, and Benny won the heart of his crush Jennifer.

I’ll give the movie 3 stars out of 5 and not more as I felt it could be better done.

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