[h=1]Temasek Review Emeritus website unveils one of its editors[/h]
Published on Feb 16, 2012
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By Tessa Wong
One of the people behind Temasek Review Emeritus (TRE), a socio-political website known for its anti-establishment views, appeared in public for the first time on Wednesday.
Mr Richard Wan, a 49-year-old director of an IT company, is one of five editors running TRE, and is the only one based in Singapore.
He was one of two speakers at a public forum on Wednesday on how they run their websites. The other is Mr Ravi Philemon, editor of socio-political website The Online Citizen (TOC). Called TOC/TRE Faceoff, the event was organised as part of Social Media Week, which is a series of social media talks and activities.
Mr Wan writes some of the articles on TRE and helps moderate comments.
Speaking to The Straits Times after the forum, he said the other editors - a lawyer, a businessman, an IT executive and a retiree - are based in Hong Kong, China, the United States and Canada.
They prefer to remain anonymous, he said, and added that he believes they are Singaporeans.
Married with a 17-year-old child, Mr Wan is one of several directors in a Singapore-based software development business, which he declined to name.
He began his career as a researcher in the late 1980s at the Information Technology Institute set up by the then National Computer Board in 1986. The institute was Singapore's first research and development agency here.
There, he spent nearly a decade researching and inventing IT products, he said.
He then went into the private sector where he was project manager in an IT company before becoming a director in his current company.
Mr Wan became involved with TRE in 2010 when it was known as Temasek Review. He acted as a comment moderator and sometimes wrote editorials under the moniker Kojakbt.
He said: 'I wanted to be an active citizen as I felt that government policies in the last few years had been detrimental to Singapore. So I wanted to contribute in this way.'
After Temasek Review's site went down last September for unclear reasons, it re-emerged as TRE in December under 'new management', said Mr Wan.
Of the original seven editors of Temasek Review, five now remain in TRE, including him.
Mr Wan declined to state why Temasek Review became TRE, or why two people left its editorial team. But The Straits Times understands it had to do with legal issues.
The website began life as Wayang Party in 2004, before it was renamed Temasek Review in 2009. It quickly became known for views that were anti-PAP (People's Action Party) and sympathetic towards the opposition. Little was known about its editors.
But at Wednesday's forum, Mr Wan told the audience of about 90 people that the reason TRE decided to unveil one of its editors is to show it is not an underground organisation but a 'responsible, pro-Singapore socio-political blog site'.
He also said that having a public face would make it easier for TRE to interview people and talk to government agencies.
Published on Feb 16, 2012
<IMG alt="">
By Tessa Wong
One of the people behind Temasek Review Emeritus (TRE), a socio-political website known for its anti-establishment views, appeared in public for the first time on Wednesday.
Mr Richard Wan, a 49-year-old director of an IT company, is one of five editors running TRE, and is the only one based in Singapore.
He was one of two speakers at a public forum on Wednesday on how they run their websites. The other is Mr Ravi Philemon, editor of socio-political website The Online Citizen (TOC). Called TOC/TRE Faceoff, the event was organised as part of Social Media Week, which is a series of social media talks and activities.
Mr Wan writes some of the articles on TRE and helps moderate comments.
Speaking to The Straits Times after the forum, he said the other editors - a lawyer, a businessman, an IT executive and a retiree - are based in Hong Kong, China, the United States and Canada.
They prefer to remain anonymous, he said, and added that he believes they are Singaporeans.
Married with a 17-year-old child, Mr Wan is one of several directors in a Singapore-based software development business, which he declined to name.
He began his career as a researcher in the late 1980s at the Information Technology Institute set up by the then National Computer Board in 1986. The institute was Singapore's first research and development agency here.
There, he spent nearly a decade researching and inventing IT products, he said.
He then went into the private sector where he was project manager in an IT company before becoming a director in his current company.
Mr Wan became involved with TRE in 2010 when it was known as Temasek Review. He acted as a comment moderator and sometimes wrote editorials under the moniker Kojakbt.
He said: 'I wanted to be an active citizen as I felt that government policies in the last few years had been detrimental to Singapore. So I wanted to contribute in this way.'
After Temasek Review's site went down last September for unclear reasons, it re-emerged as TRE in December under 'new management', said Mr Wan.
Of the original seven editors of Temasek Review, five now remain in TRE, including him.
Mr Wan declined to state why Temasek Review became TRE, or why two people left its editorial team. But The Straits Times understands it had to do with legal issues.
The website began life as Wayang Party in 2004, before it was renamed Temasek Review in 2009. It quickly became known for views that were anti-PAP (People's Action Party) and sympathetic towards the opposition. Little was known about its editors.
But at Wednesday's forum, Mr Wan told the audience of about 90 people that the reason TRE decided to unveil one of its editors is to show it is not an underground organisation but a 'responsible, pro-Singapore socio-political blog site'.
He also said that having a public face would make it easier for TRE to interview people and talk to government agencies.
