Got this news from my fellow Barflies that our dear MP of Potong Pasir, Mr Chiam See Tong, has suffered a stroke.Fortunately, it was mild and that other then a slight difficulty in movement, everything else, including speech is alright.
The strange thing was that there was very little coverage on the English papers and there was none on TV either. Anyone smell a rat?
Some may argue that this is a personal matter and that as such it is deem as not news worthy and a way to respect Mr Chiam's privacy. I beg to differ as I felt that this is news of national interest. Mr Chiam is a leader of the Opposition and the role of an opposition is to be part of the system of checks and balances on the Gahmen. You may say that it is a matter of only one person but let me remind you, lest we forget, how many opposition members we have in Parliament?
His absence is a disruption to the proper functioning of the Gahmen and as such warrants a report to the people of Singapore as are we the taxpayers their employers?
Also did we not plaster news all over the place when Mr Lee Hsien Loong and Mr Ong Teng Cheong were strickened with cancer? Would that not be double standards at play if we cover Mr Lee and Mr Ong's illness and treat Mr Chiam's stroke with nonchalant contempt? Or is there a qualify criteria that you have to be a cabinet minister and above before the papers would give a rat's ass about you?
Oh come on. Strip away the position and political affliation, we are fellow Singaporeans underneath. Where is the love, people?
So anyway, there was a conspiracy theory going on in the Cowboybar saying that given the papers and TV are state-owned, Opposition are given less coverage unless it is of a negative light like that of the moronic antics of Dr Chee "Glucose Cheat" Soon Juan.
And I quote Jump from the Cowboybar (pardon the typos as I left it as is):
| . This si a low blow to the opposition lo... Gary, i've had half a mind to call u a fool... btu i decided not to.. i rather blame it on ur youth and ignorance... English paper(only got ST) in singapore is state-controlled. TNP is tabloid. Why would they report on stuff like Chiam havign a strroke to invoke sympathy amongst singaporeans. Another plus point for the rulin party is by broadcasting it in chinese papers, - it would delve out the 35% of the population of younger singaporeans who do not read chinese papers and the other 38% of non-chinese singaporeans. lastly Chinese newspapers have always had the street-rep and credentials of gossipy and tabloid like news.. hence news of the opposition MP in there would seem to good news for them - Jump, 06 Mar 2008 . |
There is only one thing that I make have to highlight is that the report at OMY.sg mentioned that Mr Chiam's stroke was mentioned in the $traits Times even though none of my friends have seen it. Must have been tucked away in some obscure corner of the broadsheet. (Afternote: Found the article.)
Question: Why do we harbour these ill feelings that whenever we smell something fishy, the Men-In-White are always the first one that we all point our fingers at? Ok, don't answer that. It's rhetorical. Have our Gahmen not already woken up and realised this simmering dissent?
If the bladdy Men-In-White continues to wear their eyes and nose on the top of the heads, I guarantee you a massive battle at the next elections. You can count on me to fly back to cast my vote (assuming no walk-overs).
Does that mean that I will be voting for the Opposition? Not necessarily. It is too early to say. I support quite a number of the PAP policies in general but it is their attitude, aloofness, arrogance, detachment from the ground that really annoys me.
If they can resolve all these short comings, I will support PAP (assuming no walkovers) or I may be forced to vote for the Opposition, or spoil my vote if the Opposition candidate is just as much as an idiot case.
OK, to put everything aside, let's get back to what's really important here.
Speedy recovery, Mr Chiam.
Relevant News Articles:
- The Straits Times (05 Mar 2008) - Chiam Misses Most Of The Debate; On Leave Of Absence
- OMY.sg (05 Mar 2008) -资深反对党议员詹时中 农历新年前夕轻微中风
- 联合早报 ZaoBao (06 Mar 2008) - 詹时中轻微中风 已出院在家疗养
- 中國報 China Press (05 Mar 2008) - 新加坡反對黨強人 詹時中輕微中風
- 中國時報 China Times (06 Mar 2008) - 傳星反對黨領袖輕微風 但妻子不願證實
On a separate note, while I was googling for articles related to Mr Chiam's stroke, I chanced upon this old article dated back to that fateful night of 07 May 2006 where Mr Chiam retained his parliamentary seat for another term.
It was quite amusing as I laughed out loud reading about a young lady supporter of Mr Chiam who got up to the table to wave her homemade poster only to realised that the TV was announcing some other constituency's election results.
It was also very heart warming to read about how the cheers erupted when Mr Chiam was finally declared the winner as if we had won the World Cup.
Read here -> 詹时中是我唯一的偶像!
- Voxeros
1. sunflower left...
Monday, 10 March 2008 12:49 am
OMG, i din know... sad... Monday, 10 March 2008 7:44 am ::
Sunflower: Don't be sad lah. It's not like he's dead. On the contrary, reports say that he is recovering fine. 
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