Hi all,
I am a classmate of Remy Choo during his JC days and I dare bet with my last coin down that he is not a simple fellow. Since JC days, he has been politically very savvy and have great ambitions of becoming a future PM, just like Obama wanting to be the US President. That's why when the rest of us are playing soccer after school, he was volunteering at the Buona Vista CC nearby.
Remy has many connections with the PAP and is well regarded by the grassroots leaders who saw him as a potential MP in the future. During his NS days, a particular PAP minister was his mentor. And recently, it was revealed he actually write the parliamentary speeches of a PAP MP ! Now tell me which MP will trust an undergraduate so much to allow him to write her speeches ?
Do you think Remy Choo is running TOC just for fun ??
There are two possibilities:
1. To attract attention from the PAP. This chap is future PAP MP material. Don't be surprised if he turns a Vivian or Raymond Lim and become 'co-opted' into the system.
2. He is a trojan horse in Singapore's blogosphere. The PAP is much smarter than Malaysia's BN. Noticed they did not make much noise in spite of chorus of opposition against them in cyberspace. What the better way to infiltrate into cyberspace than to plant a mole there masquerading to be an "opposition" blog to attract readers and then skilfully "brainwash" them to protect them from radical blogs like SDP ?
A few observations support the above:
1. TOC pretends only to objective and even mildly "critical" of the PAP. However, if you analyze its articles, they are the usual hogwash commonly found in ST and not some insightful critical dissection of the political malaise we are.
2. Didn't you find it strange that the media kept promoting Choo and TOC while ignoring the other "blogger 13" bloggers such as Alex Au and Ng E Jay ? The Straits Times is not ranked 147th in the world for press freedom for nothing. Given their flagrant biases against any form of remote opposition to PAP, it is indeed strange and even ironic that their coverage of TOC has been largely positive so far. Something must be amiss.
3. TOC website is too complicated to be maintained by a few amateurs. There must surely be professionals running it and as a student, who is going to pay for it ? No prizes for the correct guess given Choo's political affliliations.
4. Choo created a mini-furore a few months ago when he denied completely his involvement with a PAP MP until he was proven wrong with concrete proof which calls to question his integrity. He still haven't answered these questions bloggers post to him:
http://wayangparty.wordpress.com/2008/02/10/8-questions-for-the-online-citizens-remy-choo/
5. As a mere law undergraduate, this Choo guy is a nobody in Singapore as of yet. How is he able to attract prominent establishment figures such as ex-NTUC Chief Tan Kin Lian and ex-civil servants like Gerald Giam ? These people with status and position in society are very careful with who they associate with. Why not they link up with Dr Chee or JBJ if they are so interested in contributing to Singapore's democractic progress. Why TOC ?
6. Choo has been shamelessly promoting TOC as Singapore's "Malaysiakini" to the extent of asking for an interview from Malaysiakini ! As we know, Malaysiakini is an influential independent newsblog which together with others is credited with the March 8 political tsunami. The PAP is of course worried about this scenario being repeated in Singapore and the clever way to pre-empt it is to set up its own "Singaporekini" to deceive voters !!!
7. Lastly, let us not forget the origins of TOC. TOC is started by an ex-PAP member Andrew Loh Hong Puey aka PMonkey10 of the old SBF who switched camps to WP under mysterious circumstances suddenly in 2004. Old SBF forumers will know that this chap is a rabid anti-SDP and pro-PAP lackey who went to lengths to extol the virtues of PM Lee. Surprisingly, the founding members of TOC also include prominent PAP blogger Ephraim Loy and two other PAP members. So essentially, TOC is founded by PAP members and continues to be dominated by them.
In the view of Remy Choo's constant hogging of the limelight to protray himself as the unofficial representative of Singapore's blogosphere, don't be surprised if MDA pass a new law requiring political blogs to register themselves and TOC is one of the few blogs which will pass the stringent requirements. After all, Remy is still deep down inside his heart a PAP man.
