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| The photo in question. |
PAP MP Mr Seah Kian Peng responded with an insinuation that Thum harbored ill intentions for Singapore, and threw some shade about why the other two (Jolovan Wham and Kirsten Han) were associating with such a malcontent. Within a day, the Internet was up in arms with cries of "treason" echoing through Facebook. And from there, things started getting messy. Instead of shutting the hell up like a good boy, Jolovan Wham chose to double down with this decidedly defiant response.
The thing is, treason involves heinous acts like selling state secrets or helping outsiders to overthrow the Government... things that none of them are in any position to do even if that had been their intent. And if one wishes to argue that their intent was treasonous, I'm pretty sure openly committing treason and posting the evidence on Facebook goes against all conventional logic.
Now, all of this is Singapore politics. Ill-advised as I think the antics of the five were, this is a tech blog and I'll leave dissection of their actions to more political minds. What I would like to focus on, are the actions of Mr Seah Kian Peng in this entire debacle. Because this concerns the Internet, and all the riff-raff that go with it. I speak today, not as a fanboy of either side (I'm far too busy being awesome to be any kind of fanboy, period) but as a concerned citizen. And as a web developer, surprise, surprise, I happen to know a thing or two about the Internet.
When Mr Seah accused Thum - and Kirsten Han and Jolovan Wham by association - of harboring ill intentions, people jumped on the bandwagon. There were cyber screams of righteous outrage, a great deal of chest-thumping, name-calling and accusations of treason (yes, there's that word again), capital punishment and stripping of citizenship. Kirsten Han reported that death threats had been made against her and Jolovan Wham. Mr Seah then put up a statement.
"Whilst we have different points of views, I call on all to maintain a certain decorum in our comments and we should not get personal or abusive. We can all agree to disagree and be civil about it. It is regretful that I see all kinds of abusive remarks that are made by many different individuals (and trolls) against each other. I do not support such types of comments, regardless of what views or positions they take."
On the surface, it was a nice gesture. Gentlemanly speech. Hit all the right notes and even managed to sound sincere. Unfortunately, it was a case of too little, too late. It amounted to a mild admonishment, coupled with an attempt to distance himself from the extremists among the PAP fan club. The damage had been done. He had stirred up an online lynch mob which was baying for blood, and now that he had publicly distanced himself from the unpleasantness, this gave them carte blanche to do as they pleased without fear of implicating the PAP. Arguably, it made things worse, not better.
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| A mob. |
OK, maybe that's just a wee bit too cynical. I'm going to give Mr Seah the benefit of the doubt and assume he wasn't doing this deliberately. The situation simply got away from him. That would be adequate mitigation in most cases... except that Mr Seah is both a Member of Parliament and member of the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods, a position which, one might say, requires a certain amount of savvy with the Internet. And that makes this entire situation unacceptable. As a public figure, one has to take responsibility for the impact of his words uttered in public, especially when these words stir up such furor.
It's not enough to say he didn't know better, because a man in his position should know better.
Instead of merely saying he did "not support such types of comments", I submit that he should have gone a step further and warned his audience that he neither condones nor tolerates Hate Speech, and that such would be investigated by the police regardless of whose side they're on. Because, you know, some people are awfully brave when they think there are no consequences for their words.
Final Thoughts
To be clear, I'm not worried about the clowns who are screaming self-aggrandizing rubbish like "if I was there, I would punch that traitor's face". All this is hot air and faux-patriotic bluster, nothing more. This is Singapore, and as much as I love her, she's filled with chickenshit keyboard warriors who talk a good game behind a computer screen but totally lose their nerve when their bluff is called.No, I'm more concerned about the ones who are getting quietly stirred up. You'll never see them coming.
Remember Amos Yee in 2015? There was some loser who came out of nowhere and slapped Amos Yee while he was exiting the courtroom. He didn't post on Facebook and say "I'm gonna slap that punk". No, he just came right out and did it. Substitute "slap" with something more violent, like "stab", and Amos Yee's name with any of the three currently under fire - PJ Thum, Kirsten Han or Jolovan Wham - and you see how we might have a problem.
Is Mr Seah going to take responsibility for something like this? Someone has to. Like it or not, this is 2018, and this is the Internet. If this gets out of hand, perhaps we need more capable hands.
You see, I have shockingly low moral standards for leaders of my country. They don't have to be of sterling character - they can be utterly annoying, perverts or even ruthless bastards. But what I cannot - will not - condone, is incompetence. That's a hard, non-negotiable line. And if this was a misstep by Mr Seah, it's not quite gross incompetence, but it's close. On the other hand, if Mr Seah had engineered and intended this outcome, I can only say - congratulations and well-played, Sir. I approve.
That's all from me. Heading out for lynch... I mean, lunch!
T___T
T___T
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