The Real Singapore: personal reflections

Hello everyone :D So, it's the eve of my second paper (thank God it's Math and Math is the only thing I'm good at). My hands are itching to write something to release the pent-up exam stress, so I thought I'd write a short one about TRS and its closure as demanded by MDA (Media Development Authority).

The walk of shame (excluding the middle guy, he's the lawyer)

The Real Singapore (an alternative news platform) was shut down as of yesterday when the site operators were found to have used the platform to spread untruths about other races in Singapore. The site editors, of whom two out of three are foreigners (oh the irony), were also found to have been guilty of plagiarism and sedition.

And here are a few random, disorganized comments I have with regard to the whole TRS fiasco:

1. Personally, I've never liked TRS. Never read, commented on shared anything from it. I also find it highly ironic how it claims to echo the voice "of the average Singaporean" when all it used to contain were articles full of hatred, fabrications and falsehood. 

2. After leaving Singapore temporarily for my university education, several incidents happened in Singapore that went viral over social media. In summary I shall just say these incidents left me rather disappointed with Singapore society, and I'm not alone in this. I may have discussed about some of these issues before on this blog, and I suspect some of these bullying, bigoted attitudes displayed by Singaporeans were ignited by TRS. 

Now that this toxic site has been shut down, I find this is great opportunity to pick ourselves up and reflect upon where we want to go as a society. No doubt it's going to be much easier to progress to become a mature, civilised society now that we've removed the source of poison. We really need to come together to think about how we're gonna undo all the damage TRS has done to our social fabric.

3. Just how easy is it for foreigners (the TRS editors) to turn us Singaporeans against each other? I don't even want to think about how scary this is. They must have caught wind of growing resentment against government policies and...somehow decided to milk money from it by exacerbating the social tensions. I must say this is extremely clever and calculating (not in a good way).

A divided nation is a vulnerable nation. Particularly, it is highly disturbing (in my opinion and from my own observation) how National Service, instead of being a weapon against external threats, is now wielded as a weapon against the government, against women, against foreigners.

4. Is the government stifling freedom of speech by taking TRS down? I personally think it is, but it is a good thing considering so many people don't know how to exercise responsibility together with the freedom. 

I feel it is inevitable that conflict arises when foreigners enter the country and people of different backgrounds are suddenly thrown together and forced to get along. But I think it is important to be careful i) who we blame when we meet nasty people ii) when our "rants" cross the boundary into misrepresentation or hate speech.

Terrible people are everywhere and they come from all walks of life. I've personally met a lot of such people the moment I stepped into the working world- racism, sexism, you name it, I've experienced it. However, I think this is not the fault of any particular organisation but rather, a symptom of a deeper illness within our society. We should always think twice before we attribute the actions of one person to an entire organisation (or in TRS' case, a whole race or nationality). 

In the context of a workplace or an organisation, there are many rules in place that ensure people don't step out of line by being racist or sexist towards their co-workers. Problems arise when people don't follow these rules. I think it's important that people learn to not to misrepresent exceptions as the rule. For example, you wouldn't go read SAF confessions and conclude that SAF culture is misogynistic, crazy, violent, xenophobic and condones passing waste on their recruits' beds (GROSS!) instead of acting like normal human beings. By the same token why would you look at the actions of a few foreigners and hate them based on a pre-conceived stereotype?

The same goes for TRS. Misrepresentation of a nationality is tantamount to hate speech. I still think bigotry is a very serious problem in Singapore society and there is a long way to go before we become an emotionally mature and accepting society.

5. Frankly, I've no idea where we can go from here. The damage is done, and is severe. I think we can all afford to be more positive by neutralising the negativity and hate that is prevalent within the Singapore society, and start by tackling small issues one at a time. 

All in all, I'm heartened by this move... at least the tumour is removed before it can spread further and destroy the body. Now it's time for chemotherapy and I hope someone somewhere does something.

Gah I've no idea what the point of this entry is, but here you go, personal reflections :)