The Spitting Lion: Wee vs. Wee: The Beginning

The blogosphere furore which spilled into the mainstream. How it started...

Derek Wee's original commentary which prompted Ms Wee's response.
By Derek Wee
Oct 12, 2006
When I read the Straits Times article (dated 24 Sep) on PM Lee calling the young to be committed and make a difference to Singapore, I have so much thought about the issue.
I am 35 years old, graduated from University and gainfully employed in a multinational company. But I cannot help but feel insecure over the future of Singapore. Lets face it, it's not uncommon to hear, "when you are above 40, you are over the hill".
The government has been stressing on re-training, skills upgrading and re-adapt. The fact is, no matter how well qualified or adaptable one is, once you hit the magical 40, employers will say, "you are simply too old".
We have been focusing our resources and problem solving on low unskilled labour. But in reality, our managerial positions and skilled labour force are actually fast losing its competitiveness.
I travel around the region frequently for the past 10 years. It didn't take me long to realise how far our neighbours have come over the past decade.
They have quality skilled workers, and are less expensive. When I work with them, their analytical skills are equally good, if not better than us.
It's not new anymore. Taxi drivers are fast becoming "too early to retire, too old to work" segment of the society. I like to talk to taxi drivers whenever I am heading for the airport.
There was this driver. Eloquent and well read. He was an export manager for 12 years with an MNC. Retrenched at 40 years old. He had been searching for a job since his retrenchment.
Although he was willing to lower his pay expectations, employers were not willing to lower their prejudice. He was deemed too old. I wouldn't be surprised if we have another No. 1; having the most highly educated taxi drivers in the world.
On PM Lee calling the young to be committed and make a difference. Look around us. How dedicated can we be to Singapore when we can visualise what's in store for us after we turned 40? Then again, how committed are employers to us? But we can't blame them. They have bottom lines & shareholders' gain to answer to.
Onus is really on the government to revamp the society. A society that is not a pressure cooker. A society that does not mirror so perfectly, what survival of the fittest is.
But a society, where it's people can be committed, do their best and not having to fear whether they will still wake up employed tomorrow. Sadly, Singapore does not offer such luxuries and security anymore.
On the issue of babies. The government encourages us to pro-create. The next generation is essential in sustaining our competitive edge. Then again, the current market condition is such that our future has become uncertain. There is no more joy in having babies anymore; they have become more of a liability. It's really a chicken and egg issue.
Many of my peers, bright and well educated have packed up and left. It's what MM Goh called "quitters". It's sad but true, Singapore no longer is a place where one can hope to work hard their lives and retire graciously. It's really the push factor.
A future is something we sweat it out, build and call our own. Unfortunately, people like me, mid 30's going on 40's, staying put by choice or otherwise, we can't help but feel what lies ahead is really a gamble.
To PM Lee and the Ministers, we are on a different platform. Until you truly understand our insecurity, the future of Singapore to me remains a question mark.

From Ms Wee's blog:
http://www.suchvividnothing.blogspot.com/
Thursday, October 19, 2006

mom's friend sent her some blog post by some bleeding stupid 40-year old singaporean called derek wee (WHY do all the idiots have my surname why?!) whining about how singapore is such an insecure place, how old ppl (ie, 40 and above) fear for their jobs, how the pool of foreign "talent" (dismissively chucked between inverted commas) is really a tsunami that will consume us all (no actually he didn't say that, he probably said Fouren Talern Bery Bad.), how the reason why no one wants kids is that they're a liability in this world of fragile ricebowls, how the government really needs to save us from inevitable doom but they aren't because they are stick-shoved-up-ass elites who have no idea how the world works, yadayadayadayada.
i am inclined - too much, perhaps - to dismiss such people as crackpots. stupid crackpots. the sadder class. too often singaporeans - both the neighborhood poor and the red-taloned socialites - kid themselves into believing that our society, like most others, is compartmentalized by breeding. ridiculous. we are a tyranny of the capable and the clever, and the only other class is the complement.
sad derek attracted more than 50 comments praising him for his poignant views, joining him in a chorus of complaints that climax at the accusation of lack of press freedom because his all-too-true views had been rejected by the straits times forum. while i tend to gripe about how we only have one functioning newspaper too, i think the main reason for its lack of publication was that his incensed diatribe was written in pathetic little scraps that passed off as sentences, with poor spelling and no grammar.
derek, derek, derek darling, how can you expect to have an iron ricebowl or a solid future if you cannot spell?
if you're not good enough, life will kick you in the balls. that's just how things go. there's no point in lambasting the government for making our society one that is, i quote, "far too survival of fittest". it's the same everywhere. yes discrimination exists, and it is sad, but most of the time if people would prefer hiring other people over you, it's because they're better. it's so sad when people like old derek lament the kind of world that singapore will be if we make it so uncertain. go be friggin communist, if uncertainty of success offends you so much - you will certainly be poor and miserable. unless you are an arm-twisting commie bully, which, given your whiny middle-class undereducated penchant, i doubt.
then again, it's easy for me to say. my future isn't certain but i guess right now it's a lot brighter than most people's. derek will read this and brand me as an 18-year old elite, one of the sinners who will inherit the country and run his stock to the gutter. go ahead. the world is about winners and losers. it's only sad when people who could be winners are marginalised and oppressed. is dear derek starving? has dear derek been denied an education? has dear derek been forced into child prostitution? has dear derek had his clan massacred by the government?
i should think not. dear derek is one of many wretched, undermotivated, overassuming leeches in our country, and in this world. one of those who would prefer to be unemployed and wax lyrical about how his myriad talents are being abandoned for the foreigner's, instead of earning a decent, stable living as a sales assistant. it's not even about being a road sweeper. these shitbags don't want anything without "manager" and a name card.
please, get out of my elite uncaring face.

Straits Times - Oct 31, 2006
blogosphere

Singaporean Wee Shu Min was the most-searched name in Technorati last week.

The 18-year-old Raffles Junior College student, who is the daughter of Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Wee Siew Kim, owed her popularity to a blog post she made.

In it, she chastised a Mr Derek Wee for being unmotivated after he wrote in his blog that the Government should try to empathise with Singaporeans' employment woes.

Her post drew flak from many bloggers. They lambasted her for her 'elitist' views. But among the hundreds of posts about the incident were some in support of Ms Wee. They say that the affair had been blown out of proportion. - Tham Yuen-C

Reinforcing the elitist divide

http://atarashi.livejournal.com

'All I can say is, the people who are getting so pissed off about it are only reinforcing the whole elitist divide. A lot of the incensed comments and blogs which I've read just come off sounding like they're written by people who have an inferiority complex...'

An important lesson on self-reliance

http://jairusotieno.blogspot.com/2006/10/things-we-take-for-granted.html

'Being unpopular for your opinions is one thing. Being browbeaten and bullied is another. The young lady isn't at fault because of her family circumstance and shouldn't apologise because her dad is successful. Her father's political position shouldn't censor her, neither was she wrong, in my opinion. Too many people sit around expecting the government to improve their positions and blaming foreigner's when they don't. Wee Shu Min teaches Derek, who is much older an important lesson; its self-reliance and self-improvement that serves one best... and if she is a bit condescending, its because of her youth.'

Brave to speak her mind

http://perspectiveunlimited.blogspot.com/2006/10/hypocrisy-of-moral-indignation-it-was.html

'I can certainly understand how Miss Wee's remarks could have come across as insensitive.

However, the level of moral indignation aimed at the teenager beggars belief. I can't even decide for which of the following reasons I find most perturbing about the whole episode - Is it the oppressive political correctness that prevents anyone from giving their frank opinions? Is it the fact that people cannot deal with sarcasm? Is it the pettiness in people that makes them take issue with a youngster? Is it the disgust that even a blog on the internet has to be silenced? All in all, this is a warped form of censorship.'

Nov 9, 2006
Reactions to teen blogger's views 'show social rifts'

By Aaron Low

THE anger in the Internet community over remarks made online by a teenage girl revealed more about the deep divisions within Singapore society than the subject of the debate itself, said Mr Sin Boon Ann (Tampines GRC).

And while she was entitled to her views, he said that it was unfortunate she said what she did, even if she is cut some slack because of her age.

Mr Alvin Yeo (Hong Kah GRC) noted that many of those who protested against her felt that the remarks should not have been made in the first place.

This shows that freedom of expression is 'not an unmitigated, absolute right', said Mr Yeo. 'It has to coexist with other rights or values, and on occasion give way to them.'

The MPs were referring to Raffles Junior College student Wee Shu Min, who criticised fellow blogger Derek Wee, 35, on her blog for his voicing the older Singapore worker's anxiety over his job security.

Neither MP mentioned the 18-year-old by name. She is the daughter of Mr Wee Siew Kim (Ang Mo Kio GRC).

Mr Sin said many had diagnosed this episode to be symptomatic of the widening gulf in society here: 'The perception exists that Singapore is a society that is bifurcated between elites and the commoners, the scholars and the Normal stream... and the rich and the poor.'

As globalisation continues, the income gap will widen, he noted, alienating those who cannot compete.

Mr Sin said Singapore's highly stratified society was showing up in how people defined their sense of self worth by the school they attended and the car and kind of house they owned.

He said it seemed no longer good enough to get into a top school - a 'successful' student was one who got into the Gifted Education Programme, or took 'S' (or Special) papers at the A levels. Similarly, scholarship holders from overseas universities were perceived to have better opportunities in the civil service than those from local universities.

Singaporeans obsess over academic performance because it is seen as the key to social mobility, he said, so even low-wage parents would 'scrimp and save to provide tuition for their children'.

And if the social stratification hardens, those who see the way up closed will feel resentful, so the Government must strive to close the income gap.

Mr Sin called for the civil service to lead the way by inculcating a spirit of service and responsibility among those who have gone overseas on a scholarship.

He said: 'Only through the spirit of humility and service can the barriers of arrogance, pride and snobbery be over come.'

Labels: current affairs, singapore