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.
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