Friday, November 03, 2006
Wee Shu Min
Ok, I know I'm not supposed to update but soooo much had happened in Singapore's blogosphere during the time I was away!!!! Unfair. Such things never happen when I'm around and I can't resist but to blog about my findings. *smirk*
It all started with this post made by Derek Wee, a 35 year-old Singaporean expressing his views and concerns about employability of Singaporeans after they hit their "magical 40". He sent in the article to The Straits Time which unfortunately was not published "due to space constrain". He thus took the advise of some to post the article up on the Internet.
An 18 year-old RJC girl Wee Shu Min, daughter of Wee Siew Kim, a current Member of the Parliament of Singapore in the Ang Mo Kio Group Representation Constituency (Jalan Kayu) wrote a post in her blog after reading Derek Wee's article. The post was, according to Wikipedia, "viewed by some Singaporeans to be elitist, naive and insensitive statements against heartlanders."
After a series of hoo-ha from the netizens, Derek Wee posted his second post in his blog.
Wee Shu Min's apology can be found here.
According to Wikipedia, two days after Wee Siew Kim had first spoken out in The Straits Times, he has since made an apology to those who were offended by statements made in his interview, and in particular to Derek Wee, though netizens were left wondering that if it was genuine or tokenistic effort at appeasement.
I don't exactly know what was said during the interview, y'all know, me hiding in my shell and all, but the apology can be found here.
*Edit: The initial apology should be the following:
'What she said did come across as insensitive. The language was stronger than what most people could take.
But she wrote in a private blog and I feel that her privacy has been violated. After all, they were the rantings of an 18-year-old among friends.
I think if you cut through the insensitivity of the language, her basic point is reasonable, that is, that a well-educated university graduate who works for a multinational company should not be bemoaning about the Government and get on with the challenges in life.
Nonetheless, I have counselled her to learn from it. Some people cannot take the brutal truth and that sort of language, so she ought to learn from it.
In our current desire to encourage more debate, especially through the Internet, our comments must be tempered with sensitivity.
I will not gag her, since she's 18 and should be able to stand by what she says.
The new media of the Internet is such that if you don't like what she has said, you have the right of rebuttal.
Hopefully, after the discussion, everyone will be the richer for it. As a parent, I may not have inculcated the appropriate level of sensitivity, but she has learnt a lesson, and it's good that she has learnt it at such an early stage in life.' *
A cartoonist drew a series of comics entitled 'Adventures of Elite Girl' which made use of Wee Shu Min's infamous quotes and terms like 'the brutal truth' and 'wretched, undermotivated, overassuming leeches' repeatedly to spoof as well as to poke fun at some social issues (i.e: the haze, flag-the-bus-early campaign, etc.).
Hehe, that's all folks for now. Tata!
1:12 AM; Joy
