Two masked women wearing shirts labelled “Press” confronted Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam at his Meet-the-People Session (MPS) on 12 March, causing a commotion outside his Chong Pang branch office. Apparently, they are from some Pro-Palestinian group as they had the names of journalists killed in Gaza printed on the back of their shirts. Videos that had gone viral show them questioning Minister Shanmugam in an aggressive tone as residents and volunteers looked on. At one point, they even showed onlookers the middle finger.
Latr, Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo revealed that she too had encountered opportunistic individuals taking advantage of ministers appearing in public during MPS to confront the ministers without going through proper channel. Will they be treated like 上访 people in China? While I sympathise with the latter, let’s be clear about one thing. Disrupting MPS with a pro-Palestinian cause doesn’t get any support from me, period. I may not agree with most of the things that this government does, but actions like these are deplorable. Are these two women more concerned about Palestinians than Singaporeans? What if “Singaporeans” of Filipino descent start badgering our ministers to stand up for Duterte in the International Criminal Court? I urge everyone not to support the wrong kind of “opposition”. What sort of agenda do these folks have? Who are behind them? Should we also bend over backwards for foreigners who are here because they love Singapore according to one minister?
It’s easy to be woke. It’s easy to virtue signal. In the West, a White person fighting for the rights of Blacks becomes famous instantly.
Coming back to these two women, let’s not get distracted from the hard truths. Some people started a war they can’t win. They sacrifice their own people to make themselves look like victims. Be careful who you sympathise with. The civilised world is shrinking.
Prof Tay is an architecture professor who is a very vocal critic of the government. I agree with many of his views against our government’s elitist and “conservative” approach, but like Mr Tan Kin Lian, he is extremely naive about China and simplistic about the scenarios in the Middle East. In spite of all that, he has many times more fans and followers than I have.