TR shows no sign of backing down.
TRs editorial team rejects TNP journalist Ms. Ng coffee session invitation
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/1...s-journalist-ms-ng-coffee-session-invitation/
Further to our official reply to the misleading article by Ms. Ng Wan Ching which was published in The New Paper on 9th October 2010 (Temasek Review’s response to TNP’s misleading article), the same journalist has extended an invitation to the editorial team of Temasek Review to a “coffee session” at The New Paper’s office.
In 2 separate emails dated 11th October 2010 addressed to the Managing Editor of Temasek Review, Ms. Ng wrote:
Email #1 @ 1606 hours Singapore time
Hi, I am interested in one of your postings where you detailed who started Temasek Review and what their individual roles were.
In the interest of accurate reporting, I am requesting a meeting with all the persons named in the posting – “Eugene, me (admin04), Amanda and Damon”.
Please email me regarding the best time for this meeting. The New Paper is also offering its premises for the meeting.
Ng Wan Ching
[email protected]
Email #2 @ 1723 Singapore time
Hi, further to my original request, I am asking now to meet with the members of the current editorial board for Temasek Review.
Please email me with the best times to meet.
We are our premises for the meeting.
Ng Wan Ching
[email protected]
After some discussion, the editorial team of Temasek Review voted unanimously to reject Ms. Ng’s kind invitation and to reply to her email on our site instead of by return email which may be “misunderstood” and/or “misrepresented” by the “spin doctors” at Singapore Press Holdings.
We publish below our official reply to her invitation:
Dear Ms. Ng Wan Ching
We thank you for your kind invitation to a “coffee session” at your good office which unfortunately, we have to reject due to the following reasons and concerns.
1. Many of us have been away from Singapore for quite some time and we heard that Singapore has changed tremendously over the years with many new Singaporeans and Foreign Talents “running the show”, example: most public transport companies now employ these “talents” to drive their buses and taxis.
We have heard from one of our readers (from UK) who reflected that once he took a taxi from Jurong wanting to go to Orchard Road but ended up at the Botanic Garden instead. When he confronted the taxi driver, the taxi driver claims to not be able to understand English very well and thought that the reader had actually wanted to look at “Orchids” and thus he drove him to the Botanic Garden.
It is for this same concern that we are worried a simple trip from the airport to your good office might “accidentally” ended up with us being taken to the Whitley Detention Centre due to communication problem with the taxi driver.
2. Although our acquaintances in Singapore Press Holdings have attested to the excellent coffee served to journalists and guests, we also heard that the coffee served at Whitley Detention Centre “sucks” big time. We certainly are not looking forward to drinking coffee that “sucks” should we be accidentally driven to the Whitley Detention Centre due to the failure of the taxi driver to understand simple English.
3. We also further heard that the people at Whitley Detention Centre are very “friendly and hospitable”. According to an acquaintance of ours Mr. Francis, the last time he was there, the people at the centre were so “delighted and honored” with his presence that they insisted he prolong his “visit” and stay with them for half a year, food and lodging fully provided for. He was even allocated a “big executive suite”.
Embarrassing as it may be to even mention, most of us at Temasek Review are not as well paid as journalist working for Singapore Press Holdings. We have a family to feed where we are based right now. We also have to contribute part of our salaries to Temasek Review to sustain it and cannot afford to take a long leave of absence from our editorial role in Temasek Review as we do not employ “spin doctors” due to financial constrains. We have to practically do our own research, fact findings and due diligence on our articles instead of relying on “spin doctors” to spin one or the relevant agencies to “feed” us.
Although we have quite a few authors, contributors and moderators, they are not involved in the administration aspect of Temasek Review and therefore an accidental detour to Whitley Detention Centre and a prolonged “holidaying” stay in Singapore will effectively destroy Temasek Review, something which many of our readers would not want to see happen.
As you already know, Temasek Review is a non-profit site setup to provide space for columnists and reader comments from across the political spectrum to foster, facilitate and promote serious debate and discourse for true blue Singaporeans.
Million thanks to our readers and people like you (for the free advertising), we are able to make Temasek Review one of the TOP socio-political blog in Singapore. We owe it to our readers to ensure our site’s stability, accessibility and readability at all times, thus taking a leave for a “coffee session or holiday” in Singapore is not an option for the time being.
However, we are not ruling out the possibility of meeting you or your colleague in the future, for a “coffee session” on the Moon or even on the International Space Station if we have time and Singapore Press Holdings agrees to sponsor the “air fare”.
Before we pen off, we again reiterate that Temasek Review is now under a new management and not related in anyway to the “old guards” of Wayang Party. We are not in contact with them and therefore your request for contact information for “Eugene, me (admin04), Amanda and Damon” is something we cannot provide even if we want to. You might want to pay a visit to Sammyboy’s forum by Sam Leong (Millionaire Pornographic Webmaster) as we understand that some of them are still “contributing” there.
Thank you and regards.
Amanda Tan
for Temasek Review