A link back to acknowledge the source.
http://xialanxue.blogspot.com - With Halloween fast approaching, Netizens are going for blood. Wee Shu Min has retained the number 1 position at technorati's popular searches for the past 5 days. Even after repeated apologies by Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Wee Siew Kim, father of the 18 year old RJC girl, the flaming continues. It appears that the saga would not die down anytime soon unless Netizens get what they want - for Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Wee Siew Kim to step down.
Some have argued that Wee Shu Min would only truly be humbled if her father was not bringing in a pay check of over S$10,000 per month as a result of being a Member of Parliament of Singapore. It is a well-known fact that politicians in Singapore are one of the highest paid in the world. The recent (Wee Shu Min and Wee Siew Kim) vs (Derek Wee and Netizens) saga has been likened by many to the old NKF saga not too long ago where Mrs Goh Chok Tong, a patron of the old NKF and wife of the former Prime Minister of Singapore, commented that a salary package of S$600,000 a year was peanuts. As a result of the old NKF saga, the former management team was forced to step down, investigations into possible misuse of funds were initiated and several lawsuits were filed against the former board of directors.
But the bulk of the argument for MP Wee Siew Kim to step down stems from the first apology that he issued which many have argued shows the fundamental lack of empathy and compassion for the citizens that Mr Wee Siew Kim is supposed to serve. Netizens have made use of simple arithmetics to calculate that if Wee Siew Kim were allowed to serve out his 5 year term as a Member of Parliament of Singapore, he would be bringing home more than S$600,000 (5*12*$10,000++) or what Mrs Goh Chok Tong term peanuts. Good money that would indirectly go towards paying for Ms Wee Shu Min's expensive holidays and overseas trips (evident from the many photos that netizens have dug up of Ms Wee Shu Min enjoying herself on overseas trips). Wealth that has perhaps resulted in Ms Wee Shu Min's elitist viewpoints.
In a society where the income gap is widening and the poor have been driven to take their lives by jumping into the paths of oncoming MRTs, do we really need politicians in our parliament who show by their words/actions that they do not have the interests of the people they are supposed to be helping at heart?
Can you cite hard evidence that Netizens want WSK to step down, instead of just cutting and pasting unsubstantiated claims?
ReplyDeletePosts like this devalue the credibility of the blogosphere.
I am currently having serious issues with blogger, I am unable to post and have shifted all current activity and posts to wordpress.
ReplyDeleteM. Ravi Suspended
Why Does Singapore Imprision the Victims of Trafficiking?
So Inspir3d, everyone is talking about him and it is topping technorati because he is doing a wonderful job?
ReplyDeleteSingapore Elections
These are some commentaries from blogosphere relating to MP Wee Siew Kim:
What truly amazes and shocks me is that her father saw nothing wrong in his daughter's conclusions. Did the father read Derek's article before he publicly announced that his daughter was not wrong on the facts, and did he himself really believe that Derek's standard of English is below those of the peers in Derek's engineering profession? -Robert L
OMG... this apology is NOT an apology at all. The MP is only apologizing for the insensitivity in her daughter's language BUT says that he basically agree with the content of what she wrote.He is just adding INSULT TO INJURY by saying that. Better that he don't apologize at all. APOLOGY NOT ACCEPTED -
I've heard dozens of people curse at him over these past few days. But honestly... many of these same people, their families, their relatives would have voted for scum like him in the last general election. -
I wouldn't begrudge her right to say what she did, but obviously there's a total lack of EQ and empathy in elitist people like her, and probably her father as well. Because this is likely how MP Wee brought up his children, to look down on those uncultured losers and not end up like them. Of course, the extra 15k/mth MP pay would come in handy - hence the patronising MP tour of duty. But how anyone could vote for Wee Siew Kim - and indeed the PAP - after this revelation would be a mystery indeed. Cut through the insensitivity of the language, Mr Wee? If I had a knife that sharp to cut through your daughter's language, I would have stab her motherfucking throat. -
What type of parenting yields a little pest like this? People in AMK must be cursing at this idiot? PAP probably made a mistake in getting him into parliament. At this age of civilization, even the Indonesia and US Presidents have to apologize for their mistakes. What is Wee Siew Kim? Haha ... A clown in a suit. -
If he continues as MP, It is tragic for the residents of AMK and more so the greater good of Singapore. It is time Singaporeans think of reclaiming the values they want in society. -
Yes, you have to love the way Daddy Wee had to render fiction out of her article before expressing his approval of her "basic point". I believe the actual term for "well-educated university graduate" was the "red taloned socialites" or "elitist class". An entirely erroneous point that seems to be the only pillar supporting her assertion that derek is stupid, ironically coming from a person smug enough to put herself in the "elitist" category. - clyde
Mr. Wee should resign as MP and concentrate on his capitalist endeavours. He does not have the qualities to be a person that I want to serve me in parliament. Empathy is a must in public service and his score is well below the passing mark. -
The thing that irks me most is her dad agreeing with her 'basic point'. And from what I understand, the original guy that wrote about how globalisation is affecting the poor here, he wasn't speaking for himself. He was speaking up for the old folks and the uneducated. Is there anything wrong with that? -
Not much I would say except that I expect the government to be even handed in dealing/commenting on such issues. As a father, he might not feel that it is necessary to reprimand his daughter. As a MP, I expect more than the feeble attempt to explain it away. -
i don't really know whether i should laugh or cry when i read this but as one of the "downtrodden masses" i have to aggree with wee shu-min even though it sucks to know she thinks i'm one of those leeches in the society, it still is the truth.
ReplyDeleteand with what i hear from my customers, the more wealthy ones agree with Wee on elitism.
then i'd would forsee the future of singapore under this sort of elitism would certainly be a bleak one as in more sufferings prevail instead of happiness!!
ReplyDeleteWould anyone like to live in a such inhumane (may you ren xin wei) society?
Too bad this did not happen before the elections, else Mr LHL definately will show him the door straight away.
ReplyDeleteThen we can all rejoiced, but since the next GE is a long 5 years away. Nothing much will happen one, especially since the main media news is not allowed to cover such topics, we won't be able to give PAP any pressure to pacify us, plus not really many pple needs pacifying.
MP Wee must be damn fustrated now. Fustrated that words are spreading around blogsphere that he ONLY earns $10,000/month or $120k p.a. That is only pocket money for he. I can bet my "sadder class" arse that he's probably bring in a FEW PEANUTS a year as one of the President of the ST Group...
ReplyDeleteI doubt he would step down, given the kind of pay, trappings and privileges he receives as an MP; it's just too much for him to lose...
ReplyDeleteSo he'd probably stick on, thick-skinnedly, and hope the issue would die down sooner or later when people get distracted by other newer issues...
If he has any sense of decency, of course, he should step down of his own volition, given the controversy he's caused and having exposed himself as an elitist who is so devoid of empathy for the less fortunate Singaporeans that he could have absolutely no moral authority to represent anyone at all, let alone the "peasants" both he and his daughter have disparaged.
MPs and, generally, a lot of people in Singapore often forget that MPs, as elected representatives of the people, are supposed to serve the people..
It is quite disgusting to see how, when an MP comes for his or her walkabout in the estate, the residents' committees would spruce up the place, put up sometimes rather unduly ostentatious welcome banners, and train the residents / hawkers to receive the MP as if he or she were some god from heaven who has condescended to come down and visit them... It is even more disgusting to see the MP strutting around, lapping it all up, quite forgetting that he or she is supposed to serve the people, talk to them, find out how they truly are, hear their concerns and raise them in Parliament, and not behave as if he or she were some VVVIP whom everyone ought to bow and cower and cringe before...
And now, when you have a Derek Wee who raises issues that many Singaporeans are concerned with, you get an MP who, instead of alleviating the fears of the people if he truly feels they are unwarranted, adds his own insulting, uncaring and callous elitist comments to the already careless and heartless rantings of that hateful, cruel daughter of his, thereby showing himself to be no more than a true blue elitist at heart with absolutely no care, empathy or sympathy for the people he's been elected to represent, but masquerading, nevertheless, as an MP of a heartland constituency...
As someone living in AMK, I’m totally disappointed. We do not need MPs like that... He should step down if he has any sense of decency...
I can bet my "sadder class" arse that he's probably bring in a FEW PEANUTS a year as one of the President of the ST Group...
ReplyDeleteThat's right. We should all really stop wasting our time on this blog and get back to work. There are peanuts to make for the elites.
All your comments are of little use unless action is seen and taken seriously.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for that self confessed leech of a peasant, those in China and India have greater dignity than you. Are you sure you are Singaporean or one through application like the PRs?
For those elites who agreed with Wee Shu Min's view, they should start digging their ancestral history and see which hole they came from.
People with class dont' talk crass.
What does a Member of Parliament do anyway? Are they supposed to serve the "Elite" only? I would reckon that when Wee becomes a MP, he is prepared to serve the common people.
ReplyDeleteI am appalled that the daughter of a MP does not acknowledge the fact that her dad is obliged to serve the common people.
I am sorry for Mr Wee. What happened was not directly his fault. Perhaps it is not a bad idea that he steps down from his MP role in order to spend more time educating his elite daughter about the non-elite.
All I know is, as an AMK resident, I am sad and totally regretted to vote for him.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know, and hope that the others also know what to do in the next election...