What Minister Yacoob Really Want

Apparently, Minister Yaacob Ibrahim had a fruitful afternoon addressing 800 secondary school children some afternoon ago. In the dialogue, he urged all netizens to come together to develop an internet code of conduct. [report] Who would have expected that?



Young Netizens at the dialogue, clearly impressed by Minister Yacoob's vision

What Minister Yacoob does not realise is that there is already a code of conduct in the internet. Do you know what it meant to TYPE IN CAPS? If you received an email you are reasonably expected to reply if you are the main recipient under "to:" and recipients under "cc:" and "bcc:" can reply but are not expected to.  There are some form of syntax in communication, be in it business emails, flaming wars on a random forum or gaming with your guild mates. The list goes on. Thus, Minister Yacoob's vision was both perplexing and unnecessary. 


How can one create something that is already there? The suggestion is akin the notion of creating darkness. We cannot create darkness because it is already there. Having temporary sun light or an electrical luminance switched on indicate the masking of darkness, not its non-existent. We measure brightness by luminosity, the unit is lux. There is no scientific unit created to measure darkness. Like darkness, the internet's code of conduct exists but it not definitive.


What Minister Yacoob really want was not developing an internet code of conduct but to create a self-censorship culture for Singapore internet users. Think our national papers, the Straits Times. Think of the forum section. That is the way we should be talking in the internet, to the minister.


Though the internet is a double edged sword, it is a level playing field for everyone. Minister Yacoob has probably forgotten how netizens uncovered the Yaw Shin Loong scandal, which many of his colleagues including his boss, scooped up the information in delight and used it to their political interests. To date, I have yet to know any PAP ministers or MPs being forced to step down due to the internet's whistle blowers but it claimed the first causality in the opposition. It was surprising Minister Yacoob has chosen to focus on one edge and overlooked other.

Remember this?

Without the internet, would MND had picked up the NParks' Brompton case, conducted an investigation and found out that they might be foul play? Without the internet, would the tip-off sparkled so much public interests that City Harvest Chuch had to be investigated? Without the internet, the frauds would not be even investigated without proper evidencing. If not for the internet,  the truth behind many of our Singaporean sons who died during National Service would be forever buried in the secret archives of the SAF. Angela He Xue Li might have died of injustice. Cleopatra might have gotten away from the clutch of justice but not in the quiet manner as she would preferred. Without the internet, we would not learn about the story behind that MRT suicide case which saw a quick donation movement to help the mourning family. Without the internet, Singaporeans in Melbourne would not be able to offer community support to a fellow countryman's family involved in a  fatal crash in Australian highway.


What Minister Yacoob really want is not to develop a code of conduct, but to remove the power from the people and to re-instill the right level of fear among the people during the days without the internet. We have enough evidence to show that the internet can be used to do good for the masses. Minister Yacoob warned specifically about alleging him and his colleagues on being corrupted without the backing of facts. What the minister really need is not a code of conduct in the internet, but reinforced commitment among his colleagues and himself to remain as pure as their uniform. As long as our government remains incorruptible, why be afraid of the unregulated, irrational virtual milky way?


Somebody is afraid here. This is just my opinion.

12 comments:

  1. With a very hardworking CPIB, plus more snitchers everywhere lurking in the corners, is no wonder MIW are afraid.
    Why did Shanmugam do what he did?
    Why did Yacob said what he said?
    Why did AGC issue statements more frequently than before?

    The people are smelling fear. And they want to put the genie back into the bottle so that they feel 'in control', instead of the citizens.

    All very silly. If the day comes they will do a stunt like that, all netizens should rise up and fight. They will not take away our internet civic rights again (just like they had taken away from our parents) and left us powerless on the street. As long as we play by the invisible code of conduct, there is nothing wrong with the present state.

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    Replies
    1. >> Why did AGC issue statements more frequently than before?

      But how "clean" is the AGC???
      =============================
      The National University of Singapore associate law professor currently being investigated in a sex-for-grades scandal has been identified as former district judge Tey Tsun Hang.

      Before starting work at NUS Law, Tey was a district judge with Singapore's Subordinate Courts, and had even spent time as a state counsel at the legislation division of the Attorney-General's Chambers.

      According to a The New Paper (TNP) exclusive on Wednesday, the equity professor was arrested in April and is now out on bail.

      The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau has him under probe for allegedly having sex with a 23-year-old law student – who has since graduated – in exchange for better grades for an elective course she was enrolled in last year.

      ========
      Details:
      http://sg.news.yahoo.com/nus-law-professor-under-sex-for-grades-probe-described-as-%E2%80%98charismatic%E2%80%99--%E2%80%98eccentric%E2%80%99.html
      ========

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    2. Just read the comments from the below article:
      http://therealsingapore.com/content/photos-nus-law-graduate-darinne-ko-wen-hui-who-had-sex-her-law-prof-tey-tsun-hang

      ==========================
      Prof Tey is a white horse.

      Despite being investigated in Apr by CPIB in the sex-for-grades case, Prof Tey Tsun Hang was allowed to continue teaching in NUS Law School until 26 July when he was charged in court and then suspended by NUS Law School on the same day.

      Such special treatment was not granted to former SCDF Commissioner Peter Lim, ex-CNB Director Ng Boon Gay and NParks' Bernard Lim. These men were all suspended from duty once CPIB began investigations. Why is Prof Tey any different?

      Unknown to many Singaporeans, Prof Tey is the favourite of the current NUS Law School Dean, Prof Simon Chesterman, who also happens to be the son-in-law of Singapore's President Tony Tan. Prof Chesterman allowed Prof Tey to continue teaching young impressionable female students while drawing his salary despite being fully aware of the on-going CPIB investigations.

      Even though Prof Tey has broken the moral trust between teacher and student, NUS continues to place faith in him.

      Prof Tey is a close associate of various judges and men in the corridors of power that rule. Otherwise, how would a Singapore PR and Malaysian come to be appointed as a district judge and state counsel in Singapore where political masters are especially wary of enemies from up north. How often do you see a PR in the upper echelons of the civil service?

      There are speculations saying that Prof Tey might be not be convicted of the charges or the punishment would be a light slap on the wrist due to some back-door brokering. Some are even saying that the case would not proceed beyond the pre-trial conference where an assessment has to be made if the prosecution has a case.

      Like some lawyer turned high ranking kitchen cabinet official, Prof Tey was also known to have cheated on his wife in his previous jobs. It remains to be seen if Darinne Ko Hui Wen is the only student that Prof Tey had a relationship with.

      A FORMER LAWYER
      ==========================

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  2. Which is worse? A MIW coming out on the internet in self-defense? Or a zealous MIW supporter coming out in defence of his/her "beloved" minister?

    Recently I had an unfortunate incident on my friend's FB entry where she was promoting a certain minister's request for feedback. [She possibly knows this minister personally given his academic background and the way she excludes his surname (i.e. addressing him by the first+middle names only) when mentioning him on her FB replies.] I stated my opinion that this minister lacked EQ skills and illustrated with an example of how I arrived at my opinion. To cut a long story short, my friend attacked me with ungrounded assertions about me and straw-man arguments. After several rounds of ding-dongs, I got so tired of debating with her inferior logic (which surprised me because she was usually of a rather high-caliber) that I told her that I would Unfollow her FB entry because I do not want to see my friend stooping so low.

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  3. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=411486628888338&set=a.274164129287256.58504.201649463205390&type=1&theater

    Great gaffs and laffs for the weekend!

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  4. haha,
    the PAP is really pathetic clown party. They increasingly find it Difficult to spread PAP brainwash to the population. They target adult and university students, and having fails, then turn to JC students, then next to secondary students.
    So what is next ? So if still fails, target primary school student, and still fails, target kindergarden and preschool, and if still fails, don't be surprised that these clowns going to target babies with baby talk ?

    Can't these clowns have better thing to do in cirus ?

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    Replies
    1. If u look at the above pics, some of the students were dozing off, esp. those at the upper rows.

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  5. "Minister Yacoob warned specifically about alleging him and his colleagues on being corrupted without the backing of facts. "

    May I know why only MIWs and PAP elite can defend themselves in public and in parliament but lesser mortals cannot ? And didn't we see how these MIWs defend themselves in parliament that they are worth millions ? Did the public and parliament premises become a place for clowns to defend themselves and attack others with their own self-serving agenda ? You'll be the judge.

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  6. Does anyone really give two hoots to what "Once in 50 years floods" Yakult says?

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  7. That Yaacob brought up the need for a CoC online to a bunch of secondary school kids says a lot about him. It indicates he has no idea what subjects would be relevant to, or would interest, youngsters of their age.

    If the picture of his audience is to be believed, they were bored stiff. Which means all he said fell on deaf ears. What a waste of his and their time.

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  8. If the PAP clowns want to talk cock and sing song and yet want the audiences to agree with them 100%, may I suggest they gather all the babies in Singapore so that the clowns will receive a nod of agreement from babies through their cute smiling face and excitement.

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete