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Forum: ACS alumni’s statement defends privilege, not principles
www.straitstimes.com
The ACS Old Boys’ Association’s widely circulated online statement, urging SPH Media to “remove the school’s name” or “apply a consistent approach across all individuals mentioned” in its article, “Singapore scam gang operating in Cambodia allegedly led by two brothers” (Oct 30), is a masterclass in tone-deaf hypocrisy.
If a person’s actions are publicly known, and his alma mater happens to be part of his biography, that’s not a smear – it’s a fact.
What you are demanding is not fairness; it’s selective amnesia. You are not defending principles; you are defending privilege.
The irony is painful. For decades, Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) and its alumni have basked in the prestige of association whenever one of their own rises to prominence – in politics, business or society. The school name is proudly emblazoned on every press release, every award citation, every glossy prospectus.
Yet, when an alumnus falls from grace, suddenly the name becomes sacred, to be protected from contamination. How convenient.
This is not about journalistic standards or consistency. It is about reputation management – about keeping the ivory towers white and gleaming while pretending the m&d at the base doesn’t exist.
To ask the press to censor factual information because it bruises your image is the very antithesis of accountability.
If ACS truly stands for character before career, and for courage before comfort, then perhaps its alumni association should show some of that courage now.
Accept that your community, like every other, produces both saints and sinners. Integrity is not built by scrubbing names from uncomfortable truths – it’s built by confronting them.
Until then, the statement stands as a perfect example of what happens when institutions confuse prestige with virtue, and image with integrity.
Deen Gabriel Jeremiah
