"Yee’s arrest doesn’t just underscore his complaints about Singapore’s backwardness on rights and freedom. It shows the country’s dire need for cultural education through intelligent dissent. In the days after Yee’s arrest, a slew of local celebrities, including three Singaporean starlet types, wereinterviewed about his videos on national TV. In sequences depressing to watch, they all sided with the state. “If you say that, ‘Oh, people can say whatever they want, all the time,’ then what about those people who are listening?” Joshua Tan, a young actor, said. Well, what about them? The suggestion that citizens should withhold political criticism for fear of offense is preposterous—far more embarrassing to Singapore than any videos by Yee could be."
In any case, this is the New Yorker - I bet the majority of Singaporeans have never ever heard of it, they probably think that it is just some magazine or newspaper from America. Even though the article is available online for free, I doubt many Singaporeans actually bothered to read it even if it is not that long (it is shorter than most of my blog posts mind you) and it is a very well written article. Here is an example of the kind of response by typical Singaporeans on social media (taken from TOC's Facebook page):
Keith Soh Our Lau Lee will whack the Ang Mo to a Pulp.
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| Do you respond with reason or violence? |
Oh yes I had deliberately cut and paste that link directly from Facebook so you can click through to Mr Soh's Facebook page because he was dumb enough to do this on Facebook. Firstly, the 'Ang Mo' Nathan Heller is in America, he is not in Singapore - thus he is free to say what the hell he likes about Singapore and you Singaporeans can't do anything about it even if you are very angry. No, there's nothing you can do. And secondly, what has Heller done? He wrote an opinion piece in a very popular, highly respected American publication - the right response would be to try to get an another highly respected journalist to write a response in another highly respected publication to explain why Heller's piece wasn't justified - this is a war of words. But no, what is Soh's response? He wants "Lau Lee" to "whack the Ang Mo to a Pulp". Oh dear - since when did Singapore become a barbaric state where you respond with threats of violence the moment someone disagrees with you? This reminds me of Jason Tan (aka Cookie Tan) who made similar threats to Amos Yee - how is this any different from the mindset of ISIS terrorists who gleefully behead hostages then? Is Singapore a civilized society or no more than a bunch of barbarians with shopping malls and WIFI?
Oh and in case you were wondering, Keith Soh isn't some dumb kid spouting rubbish online - according to his Facebook profile, he is in his early 40s, married and works at BSH Hausgeräte, a German company as a senior sales manager - I can even see from his profile information that he is in fact rather fat (oh there are some very unflattering photos on his Facebook page). I wonder how Keith is like at work if someone disagrees with him - would he response with a threat of violence, to whack his colleagues to a pulp? I am surprised that a European company can hire someone with such low EQ in a sales capacity, after all, the sales process centers around communicating with the client. One would expect a good salesman should be able to be fairly eloquent and be able to articulate his feelings without acting like a crazy, bloodthirsty barbarian whose first knee-jerk response to a clash of opinions is violence.
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| Be careful what you say on Facebook. |
But at the end of the day, if BSH Hausgeräte is foolish enough to employ a man like that in a sales capacity, then that's their problem - not mine (though I do wonder what kind of gatekeepers their HR division have when it comes to screening potential employees). Good luck to them when sales manager Soh finds himself in a situation when a client disagrees with him and Soh comes up with an eloquent response similar to "whack the Ang Mo to a pulp" to resolve the situation. I disagree with the way Singaporeans hounded both Anton Casey and Ello Edz out of their jobs after they have made similar gaffes online, I even went as far as to say that Ello Edz's idiotic remarks online didn't affect his ability to do his job as a nurse; but in Soh's case, if he was say an engineer, then I would simply ignore the remarks - but this guy is a senior sales manager and I would seriously question his ability to work in any kind of role involving communications. But hey, that's his employer's mistake and problem having hired someone like him.
I despair, I just despair at how incredibly stupid some Singaporeans can be; when seemingly well-educated Singaporeans with decent jobs can spout statements that make them come across like uncivilized barbarians. What does this say about the Singaporean education system? What does this say about the propaganda machine that has brainwashed millions of Singaporeans? Certainly, you have the right to dislike Amos Yee - you have the right to hold an opinion on Amos Yee, but can't you guys learn to express your opinions without resorting to references to graphic violence? What the hell is wrong with you people? Don't you have the ability to reason with those you disagree with?
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| There is a right way and a very wrong way to respond. |
But getting back to Heller's article in The New Yorker, Heller makes some very valid points about the sorry state of Singapore and Singaporeans but I think that even he went a bit too far in his praise for Amos Yee. Now I have actually watched Amos Yee's many videos and I don't really think he is as brilliant as Heller makes him out to be - I have found Amos Yee rather self-indulgent and he lacks the empathy to connect to his audience. This is hardly surprising as he clearly has some form of Asperger syndrome and lacks the help of a producer or director to help guide his creative output, hence whilst I don't doubt his talent as a performer, he is certainly not the humanist that Heller makes him out to be. Amos Yee still has a long way to go and has great potential I'm sure, but seriously, I doubt Heller can appreciate the way that Amos Yee has failed to connect with Singaporeans: his target audience. So let's not get carried away in our praise of Amos Yee just yet, I take my hat off to him for having the balls to pull of a stunt like that - but I reserve my judgement on the quality of his work which simply isn't as great as Heller made it out to be.
Don't get me wrong - I think it is a good thing for an American journalist to put the spotlight on Singapore, to ask questions that no Singaporean journalist would ever dare to ask and stimulate a debate abroad about what kind of society Singapore has become. Singaporeans can only beat their chests for so long about their place in the business world and ignore what incidents like this are doing to their international reputation. After all, Singapore has absolutely no natural resources: it trades on the fact that it is a man-made economic miracle, a world class city built on human ingenuity and sheer hard graft. If you were an oil-rich Arab state, you could have an atrocious human rights record and still expect the world to want to be your friend because they need your oil: Singapore does not have that luxury. Hence that is why Singapore's international reputation is so important as that is what it trades on and what American journalists write in publications like The New Yorker should actually make the government in Singapore sit up and think, "oh shit, we have a big PR problem on our hands because of Nathan Heller... What should we do about it?"
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| Singapore needs to protect her international reputation. |
If I may put on my PR hat for a moment, the right way to combat this PR disaster would be a two-pronged approach. Firstly, you start locally by targeting American expatriates living in Singapore and there is no shortage of Americans in Singapore who totally love their adopted home. In a recent interview for the BBC, American financial guru Jim Rogers and his family sang wonderful praises of Singapore in their beautiful home. He even showed off his two daughters who attend a local school and they were fluent in Mandarin. The interview was carefully crafted of course - there was no discussion about the issues that Heller has raised: the lack of freedom of speech, the ridiculous amount of censorship, the total lack of gay rights, the suppression of opposition parties. the way the locals are totally brainwashed etc. Mr Rogers might actually have an opinion on those issues of course, but the interviewer steered clear of those controversial issues and was eager to present the image of a very happy American totally in love with Singapore. You can watch this interview with Jim Rogers on Youtube (embedded below) and the interview begins at 23:06.
And of course, you'll be playing to the fact that many Americans take freedom of speech for granted because they simply do not exercise that right - you don't miss what you don't need in the first place. I remember when I was working in Dubai, it was actually quite hard to get hold of alcohol. You cannot just walk into a supermarket and buy a bottle of wine or a can of beer, it is forbidden by law there. Now as I am teetotal and don't touch alcohol anyway, I didn't even notice this until my British colleagues bemoaned the fact that they had searched every corner of the huge Carrefour supermarket at the Mall of The Emirates but couldn't find anything containing alcohol in there. My British friends had to pay quite high prices for alcoholic drinks at the bars designated for foreigners - I didn't, because I don't drink thus I wasn't bothered at all by the strict local laws on alcohol. By the same token, you'll be amazed how many Americans would be more than happy to turn a blind eye to Singapore's stance on the freedom of speech.
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| I don't drink so I didn't miss alcohol in Dubai. |
So that's how I would have responded to the PR disaster that Nathan Heller of The New Yorker has brought upon Singapore.. A PR problem requires a PR solution, not threats of physical violence. Are you taking notes, Keith Soh? So that's it from me. Feel free to leave a comment below and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.
This is an example of Singaporeans' egocentric and self-absorbed view of everything. Like you, I would hardly praise Amos the way Heller did. In fact, I find Amos very annoying. However, he hardly did anything criminal. Now, that crazy scholar who poisoned someone --- she is a criminal. Because she did not attack LKY verbally like Amos or scorn the population like Anton Casey did, Many Singaporeans are willing to let it go. Ahhh!!! But if you say anything negative about Singapore itself, it's OFF WITH YOUR HEAD! Therein lies the prove that Singaporeans are unable to think beyond themselves. No matter how educated they are, they have been raised morons by the education system. They are no more than little Stepford PAP soldiers programmed to carry forth the Emperor's edict. Once in a while, someone escapes and cries out foul play, and the whole island of village idiots hunts him down and hangs the poor rebel without a trial. The crowd salivates and cries out, "Crucify the traitor! He dared to criticise us! DIE! DIE, you bastard!"
ReplyDeleteI know, I know - and I totally agree with everything you said. Whilst I didn't agree with everything Heller said about Amos, I am so glad someone had the guts to write an article like that to stick a middle finger to the Singapore government.
DeleteOh Di, don't get me started on the Amos vs Ouyang Xiangyu cases, or rather the response by Sillyporeans. It was really a humbling, doublefacepalm, hide in shame moment seeing so many folks simply saying that Ouyang must be stressed out and deserved a break. That woman needs to be seriously locked up as a menace. Amos just annoys to death but at least no one got hurt. Still boiling over why folks in Sg can't see the huge difference between the two cases. Good grief.
Delete.... and that is why, my dear Shane, Di and I have given up and left Singapore a long time ago, because of the way Singaporeans are so bloody brainwashed and it will take more than a generation to undo that damage. I don't want to spend my most productive adult years surrounded by brainwashed people.
DeleteShane, I do not know how you put up with it, but I do not envy you.
DeleteGood for you and Di. It is the big opportunity cost to return back to Sg for a better job that pays a good dough and a very balanced work and personal life lol. Nobody to blame but myself. Thank goodness there are still some sane folks but due to this unique period of LKY's passing + Anos + poisoner girl, it once again reminds me that the hoi polloi are seriously brainwashed and lacking in critical thinking skills. I used to think only the less educated from my parents' generation were like this but reality is that this trait is also observed in the supposedly educated and internet savvy generation from the snapshot of comments online. I am still finding it hard to believe I have been told numerous times to back off from politically charged comments as they thought I am a foreigner. Jeez, was certainly an eye opener for my underestimation that things actually are in that state.
DeleteShane... I think it's a question of being influenced by the people around you whether you like it or not. I realized that I had a very, very Singaporean accent in the way I spoke English in my younger years because I was living in Singapore and if everyone around you speaks a certain way, well, then subconsciously, they influence the way you speak because you are surrounded by them all the time. It's not even a conscious decision. I believe that can work on several levels, such as social norms and just accepting subconsciously that if everyone around you thinks a certain way, then that becomes the norm you do not question.
DeleteI remember the way my mother used to boil water as a matter of habit because her mother used to do it all the time - and I was like, come on this is Singapore, tap water is perfectly safe to drink. But people just don't ask questions, if everyone else does something, then you do it too.
Hi Alex, Hi Di. Really lovely to hearing from you. To be honest, if I was a typical Singaporean guy (e.g. graduate, secure job, married by 28, bought HDB flat, two schooling kids by 35), I suspect I may be one of the masses, too caught up in the grind of daily life, no time for play, no time for reflection and understanding. Most times, it is fine - e.g. Alex's mum boiling water like everyone else, redundant action but harmless. It is when people started spewing ignorant crap e.g. put Amos in jail; guard telling a visually impaired girl she can't bring her guide dog into the store as her boyfriend can help guide her - now these things that marginalise and hurt others, these are what raise my temperature. For myself, I am just waiting to clock up the requirement to get a posting to head office in US but otherwise, things are really very comfortable socially and financially. So, pragmatic me just got to learn to ignore the crazy antics and responses, laugh them away and try to keep those who really matters sane.
DeleteOne amusing article came up today on TRS on a logic puzzle for primary school mathematics. I thought it was a really great logic game. Try it out, its pretty cool. Sadly the responses and comments suggest otherwise to some folks :(
http://therealsingapore.com/content/primary-5-question-exposes-stress-singapore-students-face
Well, Shane, I thought that foreign firms pay better than Singapore firms in general due to the minimum wage setup and various other factors? It is actually very rare for local firms here to offer something which is arguably better than another firm elsewhere, say in the USA or Canada. Then again, I am single, so I cannot vouch for you.
DeleteAbout Singaporeans' brainwashed mindsets, you should not be so surprised. I think that a large part of it has to do with what Alex call the influence of the greater crowd around you. As a person, I picked up a Canadian accent or at least a large part of what makes a Canadian accent 'North American' over the years due to my years of studies and my exposure to North American media. Even after I left Canada elsewhere to work and live, it never left me, and Singaporeans whom I come into contact with find it hard to understand that I still keep my passport, when I no longer speak with the 'Singaporean' or 'Singlish' notes of 'lah, lor' and whatever else. I mean, to be taken seriously by people, especially other people outside of Singapore, I could not afford to speak in any Singlish, could I? It would definitely affect my chances at the workplace and academy especially because I am trained as an English professor. So, never mind that Singaporeans find it weird that I have a North American lilt somewhere even if I am speaking to them in another country such as Japan or South Korea, when I bump into them, but it seriously depends on the person's choice (beyond environment). If a person desires all that he or she wants in the sense of fitting into Singapore society, even if it means being nondescript and like everyone else, then naturally, he or she will make all those efforts to be like everyone else and think like the lemmings, so to say. That might explain why you noticed a lot of Singaporeans choosing not to be critical about what they are fed in their media.
It depends on you too ultimately since everyone reacts differently. I know a number of Singaporeans who speak and think differently as if they are not part of the herd mentality although they are now rooted in Singapore (they are rare but they still exist thankfully), and I know of (former) Singaporeans who refuse to blend in or stick out like a sore thumb by speaking Singlish even abroad in western countries to others, refusing to change their ways by sticking around with Singaporeans mainly, and even speaking as apologists of Singapore although they have citizenship elsewhere. (As a Canadian-Australian--she holds both passports although she was born in Singapore and lived there till her high school--friend of mine told me herself, a lot of the Singaporeans in the Simon Fraser U Singaporean Society get together to complain about Canada although they have largely immigrated to Canada, and the fact that they complain about Canada despite it being their newly adopted home country other than Singapore simply betrays what I call ungratefulness for their life, when it has arguably improved a lot beyond what they used to have in Singapore while engaging in the rat race.)
Singaporeans complaining ? OH me oh my. That is what singaporeans do la. It hardly means they are not grateful. It is like americans poking fun at george bush jr . More like a conversation starter.
DeleteIf Canada is better than Singapore for them to give up their red passport for a dark blue one, shouldn't they by default be happier in Canada? Why are they complaining so much more then? I have never really participated in those Canadian Singaporean Society activities, but the mere mention of them doing that (complaining) whenever they meet is really stupid. Why immigrate to a society and get the citizenship of that country if you are going to complain about it, even so much more than Singapore? OMG.....
DeleteNational pastime. What to do? I am going complain about my hokkien mee to my wife. Not enough prawns. Chilli not shiok enough.
DeleteHi Kevin, glad to hear you are enjoying what Canada has to offer. I have never been to Canada and the closest I got to was Seattle. Actually, only my first job (5 years) was with a Singapore organisation - a restructured hospital serving the public. After finishing the bond for the fellowship, I took a big risky career switch to a media company handling marketing and communications. Could have stayed in clinical practice but I simply lost it after getting shouted at for saying something truthful the big bosses and higher ups in the bureaucracy did not like to hear. I was largely shuttling between Taiwan, Shanghai, Beijing and HK with occasional returns to Singapore where the APAC HQ was. You will be amazed how one's command of written Chinese in both simplified and traditional script quickly improve in such a situation. Cantonese and Hokkien became a staple when clients expect you to karaoke and indulge in Canto/Hokkien pop. You also learn quickly to switch from between standard English and local lingo as a way to build rapport. I wouldn't say I developed any accent but just consciously spoke more slowly and took care not to mish mash Singlish creole terms when hanging about in East Asia. Similarly, your adopting a Canadian accent was probably a subconscious way of making sure you are being understood more easily in the region you are based.
DeleteIt was fun but I finally returned to Sg as a client gave me a big recommendation in a big MNC drug company. To be honest, working in an MNC based in Singapore is really very rewarding both professionally and financially and you generally work with folks from all over the world. In some ways, it was also a bane - once out, I found it was almost impossible to find anything in common both activities and outlook with old workmates in the public service.
So to answer your question, yes, foreign firms do pay better, including MNCs based in Singapore and the opportunity for cross national mobility and short stints in another location certainly is a very attractive development pathway. It is the main reason why I am still fairly satisfied based here.
Kevin: those people complaining about Canada --- I tell them to go back to Singapore, Malaysia, or wherever they came from. If you chose to come here, do not complain. No one forced them to come here. They should not compare. Why choose a "less desireable" home if the previous home was so wonderful? Balek kampung!
DeleteKevin, I thought you moved to Australia?
Yes, Di, I moved to Australia.
DeleteI think Soh did not mean it literally. Sometimes I say "I was fucked by my boss" but that doesn't mean I was violated by him sexually. He probably wasn't in manager mode when he made that comment. So take it easy Alex.
ReplyDeleteJohn, you may find me unforgiving for naming & shaming Soh like this but I believe that if you are dumb enough to make such comments on Facebook, then you should think twice about what you spout on Facebook. Oh yes we go on and on about the freedom of speech and Soh is free to say whatever he likes - but by the same token, I am also free to respond and tell Soh that what his choice of words was highly inappropriate and reflects badly on himself.
DeleteFreedom of speech requires us to behave like adults and not children - young children have a knack of being tactless, of blurting out the first thing that comes to mind without consider if those words are inappropriate or offensive to others. At best, Soh was behaving like a 5 year old kid - so even if he didn't mean it literally, it was still a highly inappropriate thing to say on Facebook not because Heller is in any danger of being hit by any Singaporean in the near future, but simply because saying something like that would make everyone think that Soh is an uneducated Ah Beng thug.
About that Keith Soh's "Lau lee wack Ang Mo to a pulp" statement, LOL.....the old man is already in his grave, and this wish-fulfillment fantasy is unlikely to come true ever in anyone's life. The fact that he wrote this in Singlish is so telling.....
DeleteOh Kev, why oh why do S'poreans think it is somehow funny to write something in Singlish? If you want something to be funny, it needs to have a punchline, you need some content that is genuinely amusing - simply translating something into Singlish (or bad English) isn't funny per se.
DeleteTake for example: I've once heard someone say, "you Saturday night go Geylang have horfun izzit?" OK I get it, horfun sounds like "whore fun" and there's some kind of pun there and the context of the conversation was about dinner plans for Saturday night and Geylang is the red light district of Singapore. There was a pun that was dependent on the audience understanding the Singaporean context to get the punchline of 'whore fun' in Geylang. Fair enough.
But for Keith Soh just to use Singlish like that - it's just not funny whatsoever. There is nothing that makes him look funny - if he wants to give us the impression that he is struggling with the English language or that he is just plain stupid, then fine he has succeeded. But otherwise, what is the point of writing a sentence like that? It only served to embarrass Mr Soh - talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
The lack of humor in his statement aside, I just found the bare claim that Lee Kuan Yew would have taken (legal or what not) action against the American journalist a tad ridiculous. First of all, the old man probably only cared for what rivals and those who are people to contend with would say, and that includes CNN when they claimed that Lee Hsien Loong's assuming of the post as Prime Minister was "nepotism" years back in 2004, or people with real clout (via speech if not power) such as JB Jeyaretnam. For journalists abroad and those who are not Singaporeans, they (these journalists) can probably try all they can to say anything negative, and I am sure that the Lee family would not do anything because they are not related in any way in the political or social sphere immediately in Singapore, not to mention that they would not take these people seriously because it is from a real distant geographical setting anyway. The only case when such a case was pursued by the Lee family was when Devan Nair, former prime minister, wrote an introduction to Francis Seow's "To Catch a Tartar", and that got them trying to sue Devan Nair to no avail because Canada had stated that he is a Canadian citizen and hence, Singapore's government has no jurisdiction over their citizen(s).
DeleteThis whole trend of thinking a remark in Singlish is funny is actually something I never understood. If it is funny, it is probably because it is ridiculously pathetic. Keith Soh's statement does not sound funny as much as silly and ridiculous to me. And trust me on that, there are friends of mine back in Singapore who would think of him as pathetic too.
I do not want to give you the impression that I find it funny at all! In fact, I found it more like silly and dimwitted.......
DeleteOh yeah, that much we can agree on!!
DeleteKevin,
DeleteDevan Nair was never a PM. He was a former President. I enjoyed his writings as he had the gift of language on par with LKY and it was a open war of words in the forum pages of the Straits Times before he exiled to Canada. What a great command of the English language he had. But he never wrote the final chapter on the skeletons of PAP that he threatened to before he passed away.
Sorry, I did realize that, but mixed up the details. Yes. He never managed to write the final chapter on the skeletons of the pappies, but his writing of the introduction to Francis Seow's book was enough to get him "marked" by them, and they tried going after him, thankfully to have Canada shield him. There was a period in time when Canada was a bastion of freedom and liberty more so than the USA, but perhaps, it is not now.
DeleteLIFT, Nathan Heller gives Amos Yee a lot of credit by doing such a detailed critique / psychoanalysis / deconstruction of Amos' Youtube videos.
ReplyDeleteI dont think Amos had all those intentions (reaching out to local youths, alerting S'poreans that we have been brainwashed, a lone voice among the sheep shouting that the Emperor is naked etc); neither does he see himself as Voltaire in terms of his irony and self-awareness.
Amos made those videos as an outlet for his own frustration and because he has a passion for film, and a gift with words. He also did it for fun and attention, I suppose
But unlike you, I dont see Amos as merely a self-indulgent teenager with Aspergers. He covers a wide range of topics and has obviously read a lot.
He may not be very focused in directing his videos to a specific target audience, but that is simply because he is still young, and therefore not very experienced.
I agree that Amos needs more exposure to a wider range of social interactions and better public relations skills, but I dont think he has Aspergers. Why do you say that of him?
Amos makes eye contact with the camera, he does not obsess over things, he is not repetitive in his actions.
Most of all, he is extremely humourous and entertaining. I would stop short of calling him charismatic, but he has the ingredients. He just needs to hone his craft and mature as a person.
I actually admire him more than Alvin Tan and would love to hear your thoughts about Amos' videos, besides the LKY one. Thanks!
Hi there my friend, thanks for your comment. I do agree with the majority of the points you have made about Amos - what I am told (from my contacts in S'pore who know Amos) is that he is pretty desperate for attention and practically addicted to Youtube hits. You see, another local website mirrored one of his earlier Youtube videos (as opposed to embedding it) which meant that people watching it via this other site did not generate hits to his Youtube page and he got so angry with them over a minor technicality like that - he is a young person who is desperate for validation and approval and for him, that comes in the form of attention online, such as hits on Youtube.
DeleteWell, my gut instinct is that he has Asperger syndrome but without actually having met him, I can't really be sure - I am making a calculated guess based on his own admission on his blog (you can read the piece here http://alvinology.com/2015/03/31/olive-branch-for-amos-yee-and-his-parents/ ) that he had no friends in secondary school and he had problems making friends, forming relationships - that could suggest an inability to understand, empathize and relate to others: he may be totally normal of course and chose to be a loner in sec sch (the same way I was pretty much a loner by choice in NS) - but it is a theory that is simply based on the (limited) evidence that I have access to.
Here's the irony: this whole thing about eye contact with the camera, it's never the same as eye contact with a human being. As actors, we're supposed to ignore the camera and be natural but he finds it easy to stare into the camera directly. We're not talking about an extreme case of Asperger / Austism here but perhaps there is a part of me trying to give him an excuse for his behaviour.
My main gripe with Amos Yee's videos is his inability to consider his audience and adjust his content to cater for them. You wanna address a Singaporean audience, you have to cater for them at the end of the day or you will alienate your core audience.
While I think he should not be arrested in the first place, I don't find him so brilliant at all. Yes the accent and his animated gestures give you pause. But he is too full of teenage self-indulgence, to the point of being extremely annoying. It's nice that the foreign media is calling out the establishment for nailing a minor over some youtube video. But I think the Heller article was a bad idea in painting Yee as some heroic martyr communicator. All the media attention has probably provided the impetus for him to start doing irresponsible stupid shit, like breaking bail after his parents dropped $20k on him. It's making his path out of trouble more difficult, as well as making himself less credible and possibly discouraging those who really can/want to help him. Not the anti-pap dudes egging him on in their comments.
DeleteHe was lucky a counsellor bothered to bail him out. He even got 3 lawyers offering their services pro bono. Why not, when we have most of the Western world weighing in on the issue. I really hope they get him to behave more responsibly for his own sake. He has a whole life ahead of him. All I see now is a self-destructive teenager who doesn't know the stop button exists. They should also take the chance to examine the harassment law, as it appears to be really broad at the moment, to the point that inane shit like this can "harass" total strangers who chose to watch wholly on their own volition.
After reading this,I have no choice but to hang my head in shame for being born a Singaporean.Its perhaps not surprising to me that I made this observation.I have realised that despite progressing material,Singaporeans still have that ultraconservative legacy aka mental "Manchu pigtail" which they cant seem to cut off.That is despite the fact that our forefathers doing away with it just barely 100 over years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe only way that Singapore can truly progress in the societal and cultural platforms is to espouse more open minded libertarian views,snip off that horrid mental "Manchu pigtails" and to adopt a global,big picture approach at large.However,few have the guts & balls to do this.
Anyway,thanks Alex as always for your posts.They indirectly motivate me to migrate out of this country.
Veile Danke.
Hi Jemson, well, whether or not you choose to move out of Singapore eventually is up to you, I am glad to at least be able to show you that there is a big wide world out there where people do think differently and have a very different approach to life.
DeleteGood luck my friend.
Well argued piece. Lhl will ignore this article becos he cannot sue the new yorker. He can only LAN LAN suck thumb as the singlish /hokkien phrase goes.
ReplyDeleteThank you! His supporters will default to the "Angmohs don't understand Singapore" stance anyway and dismiss the article.
DeleteAlex,
ReplyDeleteI fear that Amos might become spiritually broken if he does not overcome his charges. I see his LKY video up again and his new fund raising appeals to try to save himself. By God he is only 16. Whatever he does he cannot and should not go to jail. Even if he poisoned someone like the other adult he should still not be jailed. He must be forgiven because he is young. He is a child. He is OUR child. Furthermore, he has done no real harm to deserve this.
I am very ashamed to be a local like the other poster above. I checked around the office, half of whom are foreigners, and all side the state more or less. Except me. As a parent, it sickens me how the Gov is treating a kid. We have definitely been brainwashed from many years of propaganda, and manipulated by the funeral "LKY is hero" media blitz.
One faint hope is I hear even the religious folks are petitioning to forgive him. That is only right. But the behaviors of the majority has exposed an ugly side of the local psyche that we seldom see beneath the materialistic but superficial success. After all these 50 years we are still mentally deficient when it comes to thinking beyond ourselves. I hope Amos does not get destroyed, broken or shunned by his close family. He is too young to go into exile. He is OUR son and we must accept him - good or bad. We must celebrate our their diversity of views, not harshly break them down to conform, like my colleague who prints out LKY memorabilia and distributes free to all of us without first asking me if I was a fan of LKY. He just assumed I would appreciate it.
Glad to have found like-minded people here. That week was a nightmare! I refused to log into FB as I was tired of all the propaganda being shared by friends, liked by friends and talked about by friends, non stop. All my whatsapp groups were talking about how and when to join the queues. The mummies were discussing how they could join the priority queues by putting their 6 year olds in prams, and then getting upset when other able-bodied people were abusing the priority queues *duh* The scary part about this whole saga is that these are well-educated and supposedly thinking people. They were really mourning and were genuinely sad. They probably haven't gone through losing anyone yet. I was sad when my father and my pets passed away, not for someone I've not even met. Unfortunately, after the week has passed, I have lost two friends due to difference in opinions. They went to queue, one even went twice, and I did not.
ReplyDeleteI think that the people who are critical enough to see through the propaganda will not go and pay respects even if they have some element of respect for the old man. Unfortunately, that is a minority, and really rare. The lemmings mindset is very strong in Singapore among Singaporeans after all, in the usual way of "monkey see monkey do". A friend of my friend actually said this on his Facebook which struck the chord of the issue about this, when he wrote, "Don't forget that some of these people are just there to crash the wake." (He meant that they were there to make sure that the old man is REALLY dead, because they remembered what he had said years back about coming back from the dead if his successor does a bad job.) Well, I ended up feeling speechless. My grandfather's death was a sad event, because most of us did not see him in his dying moments, but I felt nothing about that old politician who was nothing to me but a man lionized by Singaporean media at best. Peppercrabs, about those two friends of yours, they are not worth it if they can end the friendship with you over someone whom they do not even see in real life face-to-face!
DeleteHi Pepper Crabs - nice to hear from you. You are amongst friends here :)
DeleteHi B Tiger, you are a beacon of kindness and sanity. Wish there are more Singaporeans like you. Amos may be a brat, but what a brilliant brat. He is far too young and, really for being daring enough (to the aghast of all kiasu brainwashed Sporeans) to speak the naked truth (perhaps with the savant gifts of one on the spectrum - which doesn't make it any the less remarkable) neither deserve to be subject to cruel punishment nor be spiritually broken - and i really hope the Singapore powers that be, who seem to have now got Amos by the balls, would have the heart and mind to realize that breaking Amos is not really the way to go for a post lky Singapore.
ReplyDeleteTruly, if you look beyond the profanities - which is the teenager's way of saying he doesn't give a shit - what a breath of fresh air. He's like "Lazarus, come from the dead, come to tell us all and he will tell us all" and to hell with not identifying his target audience (as limpeh, the marketing man, seems so concerned about) because he is speaking to each and everyone of us as a human being, speaking truth unto power. Truly a desert bloom. When i first saw the video, way before it went viral, i couldn't believe it. Here is a teenager, in his own way as brilliant as lky and as lhl, and also one of our own. Beneath the turgid exterior, perhaps there is a new Singapore struggling to be born. Amos. Amen
Found another article that agree with what Nathan Kellar said about Amos Lee and Singapore. It is anothe food for though article.
ReplyDeletehttp://yh1978.blogspot.sg/2015/04/thank-you--nathan-heller.html
More and more Singaporean are supporting Amos for what he did in defending the "freedom of speech" in Singapore.
Even "The Real Singapore" are fighting for the "freedom of speech" which many American are trying to champion. The editor of TRS is now being charge in court while Alex Tan had run to Australia to seek political asylum.
For me, I treat what Amos said is being satirical and good for laugh.
Kelvin, that article you mentioned was an openly sarcastic rant AGAINST, rather than support for, Kellar and, as someone commented, by conflating his article with the whole of the USA, attacked him for all that's wrong with the US (so "white man" stop poking your nose into our affairs). Rounds of praise, congratulations and thankyous between writer and readers. You go figure.
DeleteStraits times.17th april 2015. Page A8.
ReplyDeleteFresh police report lodged against teen in online rant.
A lionel de souza 72, ex police officer and assistant secretary of the PAP hougang branch made the report on 16th april.
Amos was instructed not to "post upload or otherwise distribute any comment or content online while his case was ongoing. "
Amos agreed but blogged and asked for 30k in legal fees including links to offensive videos and postings
. Amos also apparently made his original lky video avaliable on his youtube channel.
This is going to be so interesting.
Someone started a petition to charge amos yee as an adult .
ReplyDeleteI will say this, particularly in the light of the mob mentality in Singapore. If they think that they can change the laws as a mob, that will be impossible. It is a tiger that is created by the government itself, and if they were to even change it for another one, they will only draw attention to their own failures. In the words of that African-American woman meme online, "Ain't we got time for that?" Seriously!
Deletehttp://yahoosg.tumblr.com/post/117763293265/amos-yee-slapped-en-route-to-court-back-in-remand...New developments in the case, Limpeh...I am kind of speechless at that guy who slapped Amos Yee.
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