Gilbert Goh resumes the offensive against Vincent Wijeysingha

[Thick Face Black Heart]

• Gilbert Goh
  
  
  
  Yesterday someone messaged me lamenting how she was slammed by a critic for a cause she is driving at and there was also some name calling on her wall.
  
  She asked me how to respond to such distasteful comment and was clearly upset. I told her silence is often the best policy.
  
  "How can you take in so much criticism and... not fret?"she asked.
  
  I told her that I'm human too and feel the hurt when people criticised me openly for all to see on social media. We are build for compliments and strokes and when we are being brought down blatantly we tend to react back tit for tat often inflicting much more hurt in return but not really solving the problem at all.
  
  Staying silent in the face of criticism is also not easy as we want to defend ourselves and stand our ground. For guys, the ego thing manifested itself naturally and we want to win an online argument at all cost often ending the friendship in the process.
  
  We have been slammed online, offline and on many other media platform and implicated in all kinds of rumours. I have been rumoured to sleep around, swindle money from donations and possessed a personal agenda in all that I do.
  
  We don't only handle critics who are natural foes but also friends who suddenly turn against us midway due to some misunderstanding. They join the other side attacking you and you wonder if the person you have lunch with last month is the same one.
  
  No one touches us for the past few years when we were quietly doing our work for the unemployed but all hell breaks loose after Feb 16th. Even government agencies started to write to us wanting this and that when all along we were left pretty much to our own devices.
  
  COC has already invited us to lim kopi at their office next week.
  
  Welcome to the world of activists whereby you don't need an application form to join - its free for all and there is a huge market out there that is very much untapped.
  
  Contrary to popular belief, being an activist doesn't mean you have to be political or always slam the government - you can start something for the environment or for a social cause like single mums or orphaned children.
  
  However, when your cause grows and turn big be prepared for people to criticise you - often its done out of envy than anything else.
  
  As for the person who asked me how should she respond in the face of criticism for her own charitable cause, I told her to stand stoically as there is a price to pay for what we believe in. We ought to be proud that we sacrifice abit for what we truly stand and fight for.
  
  More importantly, when people criticised us it means what we do have created an impact for others to take notice however diverse their opinions may be - hopefully my young friend can take solace in that as well.

 

[Thick Face Black Heart]

• Gilbert Goh shared a link.
• 
  
  
  As an opposition supporter very concerns with the PAP’s foreigner influx policy among other topics, I watched with disbelief the recent encirclement on Transitioning.org by hidden forces. From m&d-slinging against the call to boycott La Fondue and the errant staff to running down of transitioning.org approaches against the “No to 6.9m PWP or Employment in Singapore for Singaporean first” civil movement led by Gilbert Goh. I’ve no political agenda. I just want to point out a common thread among those attacks.
  
  
  Attack #1
  
  
  Vincent Wijeysingha (VW) facebook posted an article (https://www.facebook.com/notes/vincent-wijeysingha/fuck-off-back-home- foreigner/678499962167930) against transitioning.org and Singaporeans’ call for boycott and sacking of the errant foreigner staff. It’s definitely “pro-foreigner” and “anti-Singaporean” and very disappointing for someone that once aspire to champion for S’poreans as MP. What’s more, the interpretation of the ads is completely out of sync with normal job seekers.
  
  
  First, the ads was clearly discriminatory. Else, why would La Fondue apologize? Moreover, it’s evident that their staff and managers had been employing the same group of foreigners to create a full team for a while already.
  
  
  The ads says: “We are currently an all Filipino team at the service and kitchen department.”
  
  
  Then VW tried to act as if he had been a season hiring manager or a long-time job seeker by saying “open to candidates who are not Singaporean Citizens or PR” is a global industry standard that is not discriminatory! Global industry standard? Please, check with a normal job seeker out in the street if not MOM how it would be interpreted.

 

[Thick Face Black Heart]

• We have just read Jolovan Wham article yesterday and realised that its a concerted effort by the migrant workers group to discredit and bring down the movement.
  
  The movement is started by the people and we will do our best to preserve it so that we can do more for the country.
  
  We will not engage our detractors from now as our advisors have asked us to distance ourselves from them instead of laun...ching into a full fledged confrontation online.
  
  We have seen how divided the opposition is and hope that the uprising civil movement will not follow that pathway and we will not use the online media to retaliate and attack them back.
  
  We hope that our supporters will understand why we stay silent if detractors continue their onslaught on us. We felt silence sometimes is the best response and also the most dignified.
  
  On another note, we hope that your comments from now on will be responsible and not xenophobic so our detractors won't be able to accuse us with that tag anymore. They will use that to taunt us as they have no bullets left.
  
  Let me assure Singaporeans that the movement belongs to the people and we are slowly evolving into a unifying loud voice and no one can stop us from marching on for a better Singapore.
  
  If we can work together with a common goal with our critics we will but if we can't we will stay the distance and try to maintain a healthy respect.
  
  
  
  
  

 

[tanwahp]

After leaving the SDP, VW's activities were not circled around the LGBT movement as he claimed he resigned for, but around transient workers. A good cause though.

VW was never confrontational towards PAP to begin with. All the years he seemed out of place in SDP. It is no wonder he doesn't mind losing political points to support what he believes in and offend the non-PAP crowd.

The writer is too far fetched to say that LGBT people tend to support these foreigners. I am sure it is not connected to some DNA evidence.