Recently I read a blog post from another student who was also at the Pre-U Seminar organized by NUS.
(See Photo)
In his blog, the writer criticized Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean.
Wait, no. That was a huge understatement. The writer actually said “f— you” to the DPM at least 3 times in his blog, with a generous serving of both sarcasm and arrogance to boot.
While I certainly can’t agree with the DPM on every issue raised during the seminar, I think this blogger was manifestly unfair to describe Mr Teo in such a light.
For the longest time, we Singaporeans have complained that the government doesn’t care about our feelings, or don’t want to hear our views. Well guess what, that’s precisely what DPM Teo tried to do when he came over to chat with us in that auditorium.
I personally thought he spoke politely and humbly with the lot of us, despite being old enough to be our grandfather. Yeah, maybe we do disagree with some of the points he made, or some of the policies of his political party, but that does not mean you should vent your disagreements in such a vulgar fashion.
Yes, it’s true that our generation is slowly becoming more politically aware. We are more vocal and more candid in expressing our political views than our parents were. But this is no excuse to disrespect even your political opponents.
There’s only one way to describe the blogger of fifthazure: 没家教。
There is a bright line between freedom of expression and disrespect.
To the people of my generation, come on! We’re better than this!
Our generation will play a pivotal role in shaping the political future of Singapore. It is our choice, our opportunity to develop Singapore into a mature democracy, where a hundred flowers can bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend.
Or we can dive into gutter politics like this guy, who thinks he’s so cool and so ‘independent’ to hurl profanities against someone else. Sadly, the online media is feeding the frenzy, and there is hardly a voice of reason to stop this madness.
It would be tragically ironic that my generation, the generation that refused to be mindless and unthinking servants, swung into the other extreme, where we become mindless and unthinking haters instead.
The writer is a student who attended the seminar and has a passion for history and political science.
He/she prefers to stay anonymous because sometimes the voice of reason is the one most likely to be hunted down by those who are most unreasonable.
