Alex Au and the letter

scroobal · Feb 19, 2012

I was going thru the various blogs, forums and media mention that carried comments and views on the recent incident and though many agreed with what Alex did, some felt that he had no reason to acquiese. He did nothing wrong to some.

Personally he did the right thing. We have not come to the stage where views cannot be tested on a fair basis without some serious financial and reputational consequences. Alex continues to be a valuable component of Singapore's psyche and in a way our moral compass.

This incident is not the battle that he should take or have taken. Its a question of returns.

On a lighter note, no sure if anyone realised something that was bizarre and quite comical about the incident as its involved 2 Senior Counsels and arguably the cream of Singapore's legal community. One person mentioned it in a diffrent forum but I am sure others might have noticed but did not to raise it.

Lets see if anyone can spot the elephant in the room (always wanted to use the elephant thingy for yonks). Go to the article where Alex responds to the legal letter.

Debonerman · Feb 19, 2012

You need to dumb down. Comprehension skills stretched to breaking point for the general public.

Khun Ying Pojaman · Feb 19, 2012

jeffcwwong 15 February 2012 at 22:46

Since Alex has closed of comments on the resulting letter that arose from the original version of this article, I find terribly amusing that the A&G lawuers FAILED to ask Alex to remove the offending paragraph from their letter before publishing. There is something known as the Streisand effect in modern American media – when you try to suppress something you pull more attention to it. I suspect some other political blog will pick this up and play it up – without even removing the text in question from publication. It is to laugh.

scroobal · Feb 19, 2012

Yes, Thank you bro. Alex was asked to remove the specified content and the same idenical content that caused the grief was instead asked to be placed back via the legal letter.

I am sure the irony was not lost on Alex.

Jeff and Sam both pointed out the Streisand Effect. This is interesting. Not only the particlular content was asked to be published the key that led to what must be one of the most used search in local google history that ended placing that key in google drop down box. That key was never ever mentioned in Alex Au's blog.

Then again we are dealing with smart people. This is where speculation begins. I am sure we all have our opinions. From the proverbial slaugtering of monkeys to scare the chicken or is the other way around to it had to be done before YSL annoucement coming to the fore. After all it was YSL case the triggered this.

TheFootballer · Feb 19, 2012

fear scared the shiatz out of me. good thing it doesn't do nutz to my son and daughter. social media made them disagree with me.

zhihau · Feb 19, 2012

scroobal said:
the proverbial slaugtering of monkeys to scare the chicken or is the other way around to it

it's killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, bro :smile:

scroobal · Feb 19, 2012

Thanks bro. I do recall that Robox used this often. By the way, Robox restated the allegation in TRE comments column and asked TRE to release his details to authorities to bring on a lawsuit.

zhihau said:
it's killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, bro

Thick Face Black Heart · Feb 19, 2012

The actual battle is not being played online, but in the mainstream press. That is where the majority of hearts and mind are either bought over, castrated, numbed, dumbed down, and so on.

A typical person who relies on ST, CNA, and just a smattering of facebook or TOC will come away with the impression that Shanmugam pressed his case, and Alex yielded. Case closed. To Shan, this is enough. Whatever goes on online after that, as long as it never captures public attention, is immaterial.

Khun Ying Pojaman · Feb 19, 2012

FMH was mentioned in the same breath. If the offending paragraph was deemed defamatory, then perhaps FMH might have a case against A&G for instructing Alex Au to publish that defamatory content nationwide. Should that happen, A&G would have no defence because they were the one who claimed the content was defamatory. What a joke !

scroobal · Feb 19, 2012

Agree with the point in the main bro and its a powerful point and that is the reason why the main media continues to be state controlled. The exact same thing or better effect can be achieved without republishing the particular content and not providing the search key. Those who did not have prior knowledge and humans being naturally curious would want to know what what transpired.

Thick Face Black Heart said:
The actual battle is not being played online, but in the mainstream press. That is where the majority of hearts and mind are either bought over, castrated, numbed, dumbed down, and so on.A typical person who relies on ST, CNA, and just a smattering of facebook or TOC will come away with the impression that Shanmugam pressed his case, and Alex yielded. Case closed. To Shan, this is enough. Whatever goes on online after that, as long as it never captures public attention, is immaterial.

scroobal · Feb 19, 2012

Good point, i forgot about that. It is indeed significant. With colleagues like that, I am sure they don't need the opposition.

Khun Ying Pojaman said:
FMH was mentioned in the same breath. If the offending paragraph was deemed defamatory, then perhaps FMH might have a case against A&G for instructing Alex Au to publish that defamatory content nationwide. Should that happen, A&G would have no defence because they were the one who claimed the content was defamatory. What a joke !

zhihau · Feb 20, 2012

scroobal said:
By the way, Robox restated the allegation in TRE comments column and asked TRE to release his details to authorities to bring on a lawsuit.

must admit he's good, can still remember how we exchanged pointers on the Penal Code & some of the Acts back in Delphi, must also admit me almost lost my marbles :biggrin:

much as we had our differences, we are strong advocates for the abolishment of Capital Punishment :p:p:p

neddy · Feb 20, 2012

zhihau said:
it's killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, bro

Hey zhihau,

does it matter what type of animal is being killed (Mr English Leong will know better), it just show how scary Singapore is, with its powderful laws.

Thick Face Black Heart · Feb 20, 2012

Khun Ying Pojaman said:
FMH was mentioned in the same breath. If the offending paragraph was deemed defamatory, then perhaps FMH might have a case against A&G for instructing Alex Au to publish that defamatory content nationwide. Should that happen, A&G would have no defence because they were the one who claimed the content was defamatory. What a joke !

Bwahahahahah! Self-pwn!

HTOLAS · Feb 20, 2012

With opponents like these, who needs comrades?

Khun Ying Pojaman said:
FMH was mentioned in the same breath. If the offending paragraph was deemed defamatory, then perhaps FMH might have a case against A&G for instructing Alex Au to publish that defamatory content nationwide. Should that happen, A&G would have no defence because they were the one who claimed the content was defamatory. What a joke !

zhihau · Feb 20, 2012

neddy said:
does it matter what type of animal is being killed

Chairman Mao quipped that as long as a cat catches the mouse, the color of the cat is irrelevant :p:p:p
so me guess it doesn't matter much in this aspect. then again, it's in my helpful nature to help scroobal jog his memory a bit since he asked if it was the other way round :smile:

neddy · Feb 20, 2012

zhihau said:
Chairman Mao quipped that as long as a cat catches the mouse, the color of the cat is irrelevant :p:p:p
so me guess it doesn't matter much in this aspect. then again, it's in my helpful nature to help scroobal jog his memory a bit since he asked if it was the other way round

Yes. Yes. No doubt about that. I like the way you correct that :biggrin:

Speaking of colours, There is only one colour that is making me smile now.
The colour RED, on Shanmugam's face. He is obviously very very much affected by Scroobal's revelation. There has to be some truth in what Scroobal wrote.

When I did a google search, I found Gopalan Nair also commenting about this "Singapore Tamil"
Looks like that bloke wants some limelight as well.

http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/singapores-playboy-womanizer-lee-kuan.html

goldenmonkey · Feb 20, 2012

zhihau said:
Chairman Mao quipped that as long as a cat catches the mouse, the color of the cat is irrelevant :p:p:p
so me guess it doesn't matter much in this aspect. then again, it's in my helpful nature to help scroobal jog his memory a bit since he asked if it was the other way round

That was from Deng XiaoPeng and not Mao. In fact, he was actually quoting from a colleague, Liu Bocheng. (Source: Wiki)

Leongsam · Feb 20, 2012

zhihau said:
Chairman Mao quipped that as long as a cat catches the mouse, the color of the cat is irrelevant

That was Deng Xiaoping.

In 1961, at the Guangzhou conference, Deng uttered what is perhaps his most famous quotation: "I don't care if it's a white cat or a black cat. It's a good cat as long as it catches mice."

po2wq · Feb 20, 2012

neddy said:
... The colour RED, on Shanmugam's face ...

his face red ... u can c meh? ... :confused:

Alex Au and the letter

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