A few days ago, Lim Yee Hung had a post titled PM’s son’s army gaffe and why we have to worry on his blog HUNGonline. As you can see, when you click the link, the post has been removed. Its about an e-mail written by 2LT Li Hong Yi (Prime Minister’s son) to his superiors in the SAF and the Minister of Defence. You can read about that here and here.
Hung’s original post has been replaced with this: The media has run it in the press. There’s nothing here now. To those who provided me with support these few days: a big heartfelt thank you. I’m very glad it all came to light, that I was able to effect something. I frankly believe that everyone came out the better for it. But the episode is over – it’s time to move on.
Why remove the post when updating it with new information would have been enough? Was he pressured or intimidated by his employer to remove it since, according to his profile, Hung’s a journalist with the Straits Times, a pro-PAP government newspaper? If not his employer, maybe MINDEF, or some other government department or agency? I had a feeling something like this was going to happen. So I had saved Hung’s original post along with the links in the post. (See below) The other interesting (or disturbing, depending on your point of view) thing about the original post: it provides a link to another blogger who has also removed his post on the same topic.
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PM’s son’s army gaffe and why we have to worry
Read this from the HardwareZone’s forums and confirmed the story with a friend in the military. A few bloggers have blogged about it too.
2LT Lee Hong Yi, better known as PM Lee’s son, had fired off an e-mail within the military network lambasting the “quality of leadership” in the SAF to the top brass, including the Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence Force.
He had done it after being punished for an error that was largely not his.
What was his fault, however, was involving just about the entire military force of Singapore in this one small matter of his, by addressing the e-mail to entire battalions of people. Committed by an ordinary serviceman, the offence would have warranted a formal military charge – and in an officer’s case, his rank may be stripped.
Nothing so far (or so I hear) has been done to 2LT Lee, save that the Commanding Officer of his unit gave a speech to the entire unit the next day about “following the chain of command”.
While one might argue that the e-mail comes from the military intranet and should not have been circulated in the general public (i.e. in HardwareZone), 2LT Lee surely could not have expected the matter not to leak out when he addressed it to so many people, most of them National Servicemen rather than full-time regulars.
If you looked through the thread, what’s worrying is not the blatant abuse of family ties, by a person who is highly likely to take up an important position in our society in future.
Neither is it the fact that he is being given favourable treatment on two counts: first, the lack of punishment for his offence, and second, his pending disruption from the army (which he mentioned in the article), despite not being bonded under a government scholarship, which, as far as I know, is the only official way of obtaining disruption.
And of course, it’s definitely not the “quality of leadership” in the SAF that 2LT Lee questioned that worries me.
No, it is the perceptible sense of fear in the Hardwarezone thread where the topic was discussed. No one dared to give the full details: one had to sieve through several pages of the thread before getting the full picture. Nicknames like “Bored Dragon” and “Golden bar” were given to the persons involved. There were even warnings given by concerned forum members about the ISD and MSD surveilling the thread.
If it were in other democratic countries like the US, such an incident would have been a scandal and generated a media frenzy. Questions would be asked about his conduct and his suitability for an important position in future. The public would have a field day airing their views on his actions.
What would have been the effect? 2LT Lee would learn a painful lesson in humility, and the transparency of the government would be highlighted, because they did not shield even the son of the most important official when he had done wrong.
The resulting fire of the public would simmer and die down, and the public would have been satisfied that their views were heard and their indignation expressed. That fire would have been a cleansing one.
Instead, the entire deed is hushed up. The original thread on HardwareZone was deleted. But perhaps the worst thing of all is that the public is censoring itself. People dare not to speak up about the topic.
Instead of fire, the incident is met only with self-defeat and fear. The public has lost its voice and its own opinion, and surrendered its position as the main critic of the government. And as we know, the local media surrendered its own position a long time ago.
It shouldn’t be this way.
Governments should fear people, not the other way round.
It’s just a minor incident – after all, there’ve been worse offences committed by officers in the SAF – but it speaks of a larger, darker, and insiduous problem.
“It does not do to rely too much on silent majorities, Evey, for silence is a fragile thing…one loud noise, and it’s gone…Noise is relative to the silence preceding it – the more absolute the hush, the more shocking the thunderclap.- V, V for Vendetta
Errata: Li Hongyi does have the PSC Overseas scholarship, my bad.
July 14, 2007 at 2:57 am |
Hi, just to clarify that I was in no way intimidated by any agency, I took it off of my own accord.
The intention of the post was to draw attention to the matter, not to my blog. I wanted to let people know what was happening without having to sift through countless pages in the HWZ forum.
When the mainstream media ran the article, I felt that my post had achieved its objective. I’m not proud of it (I had not made sufficient effort in verifying my facts when blogging it down), but I’m very, very glad that it achieved its main aim.
I hope I clarify any doubts – I would think the public is paranoid enough already without having to deal with another conspiracy theory
As for the other blogger, it is not hard to understand why he took it down…I’m actually very sorry to have implicated him!
July 14, 2007 at 11:09 am |
Yee Hung,
Thanks for breaking the story in the first place (or rather, summarizing the often confusing HWZ forum which most of us would have never bothered to read).
I still feel you should not have taken down your post. If there were factual errors, you could have just edited it, or put out a correction just like the newspapers do. If we (bloggers) want to be a credible source of news, we must be able to stand by what we say.
July 14, 2007 at 1:13 pm |
Hi there,
Regardless of the airing it’s received in the media, I think documenting the process through which this story came to light and then developed is important for our collective memory. Just because an issue’s been giving a proper airing doesn’t mean we delete the process by which it came to light.
In fact, that process is just as, if not more important than the issue itself. Your post is important to help those who seek to document the blogosphere’s development.
Could you put it back up?
July 14, 2007 at 5:08 pm |
Yee Hung,
you are doing the right thing. We shouldn’t tolerate future leaders who themselves behave like elite. My perception of PM’s son is that he is coward. Why I say that ? I have been in army before and I know how fartUp the place is. If PM’s son not happy, he should have send his unhappinessness during the whole course of army, why do it almost at end of his NS ? So that he can say what he want knowing that he won’t be there anymore soon since he will left for disruption to study ?
And perhaps he did in the past , then why did he did it now ?
His mindset is just typical of many Singaporean. And one who want face and dare not voice out in case of backslash by upper management and place into bad book.
And indeed, I have no doubt, the next PM should be this son. The next clown should I say.
July 14, 2007 at 7:52 pm |
Like the few others here, I feel that Hung-online should not have taken down the old post. I see it as a piece of blog history obliterated. A step in a ladder missing.
I’m very grateful, though, that he had put it up in the first place, he as well as other bloggers. Well done to all of them! I’m sad that they all took them off.
I wish that whenever bloggers are intimidated by outside agencies, if they have any inclinations to delete their post, it might be a far, far better thing to delete and make corrections to the relevant passages instead of deleting the entire entry. Just my opinion.
July 15, 2007 at 12:47 am |
Yee Hung,
I too feel that you could have left the post. It is neither seditious or anything and a simple update could have sufficed. The action of removal of a post could be construed in a negative light. As Zheng Xi says, it is better to leave it up in case people forget (and Singaporeans have notoriously short memories)
Pissoff,
I believe you are being too unfair to Hong Yi. Shooting a letter on the last day is a very practical way of doing things at it limits any potential back lash against yourself. But i agree its typical of many Singaporeans, pragmatism is ingrained in our psyche.
July 15, 2007 at 1:50 am |
Let’s put feelings and sentiment aside for a while and think this through. The problem and focus here should be the internal controls in the Armed Forces. Why are there no whistle blowing practices in place for anonymous informants to tell on the misdeeds of their co-workers? For an organisation as big as the Armed Forces, don’t you think that there should be more effective internal controls in place? This is an organisation which controls weapons and defence systems and yet has arcane controls and management reporting systems. If a bank in Singapore can have whistle-blowing system in place to detect and prevent money laundering, fraud etc…, why shouldn’t an entire army? That is the point that the public and more importantly, the Ministry, should look into.
July 15, 2007 at 3:46 am |
I believe Yee Hung has good reasons for taking down his post.
The factual errors that he speaks of in his entry is consequential — he had assumed that Li Hongyi had sent out the e-mail because he was “punished for an error that was largely not his.”
In fact, Yee Hung’s went on to analyse about an act which did not occur in the first place. In the light of what had actually happened, none of Yee Hung’s arguments would have been valid as Li’s act, on the contrary, is less self-serving than Yee Hung had initially construed.
Thus, nothing short of a complete rewrite based on the actual facts can suffice. Suggestions for “updating”, “editing” or “correcting” the entry would thus be unfeasible.
In fact, my gut feel is that Yee Hung’s initial entry might even be construed as defamatory, especially on the part where he insinuated nepotism.
Perhaps you could do him a favour by respecting his decision to remove the post lest his remarks — bearing in mind that they are based upon inaccurate facts — gets him into trouble. Republishing a defamatory article can also get yourself into trouble.
Best,
Junjie
July 15, 2007 at 6:58 am |
Ned Stark,
it don’t think it is so unfair. Just imagine, when you are unhappy with the management of a company you work for, and tolerate them just to keep your job. So at last fews day of your day in company, since you feel you already decide to leave the company, suddenly voice up your grievance and dissatisfaction to the top management.
What does this show ? It also send bad blood to your current colleagues and management.
If one does want to sincerely voice out displease, one should do so at the right time but definitely not end of day.
July 15, 2007 at 4:38 pm |
i like your post about this issue. i agree with several points except this. ‘Governments should fear people, not the other way round’
in my opinion the government and the people should fear each other. not one party more than the other. this is the rule of law. we are the ones who voted for the MPs, in other words we are the ones who gave them power and authority. in turn, them being the government, they hold jurisdiction over us as well.
imagine a society where the government fears the people, then won’t the circle of checks and balances be marred, the scale of justice tipped?
singapore is still trying to find her footing, and it is sad that the government eases towards a totalitarian approach, where feedback from the people are viewed with much criticism and distrust.
July 16, 2007 at 1:19 am |
Why do Singaporeans so freely censor themselves? I don’t see what the big deal was/is about this?
July 16, 2007 at 7:01 am |
Has anyone bothered to ask themselves who this AWOL LTA was?
July 17, 2007 at 7:53 pm |
He did try to do something, didn’t he. No punishment was meted out despite going through the proper channel. I wouldn’t call him a coward. I think he is just trying to do something to address a (personal?)concern. He could have left things as it was. Afterall, he was leaving for US.
July 18, 2007 at 7:42 pm |
I think perhaps, i have another view, the people already know what happens in the SAF, comon, we all have to serve, however, perhaps this could be part of a long term agenda, for instance, didnt his father, the current PM, serve as a ‘brigadier general’ i use that term in inverted commas, since he’s currently the world record holder for a general without combat experience.
now would people look back when his son is up for elections and thing ‘hey isnt that the guy who blew the whiste, etc etc?
long term propaganda is what i think it is, if anyone else did that, it would be instantly covered up and made to disappear….
now i wonder who is going to be the PAP front man in a couple of years?
think about that. you may support him now for his ‘valiant actions’ but for all you know, it may be a ruse, the news media in singapore is known to be an agent of the government, giving props to the current ruling party for years, and showing the opposition in a poor light.
in this country of not so free press and lack of civil liberties, perhaps we are just all part of a long term plan to keep the lee family in power for years to come.