O Bhavani

In Singapore, when the Government says you are distorting the truth, and you are dressing up polemics as analysis and that you are speaking in a calculated manner to foster despondency and cynicism, that you are hiding behind a pseudonym, exploiting access to the media to champion political issues, such accusations are usually targeted at Chee Soon Juan, James Gomez and the other Opposition politicians who irritate the ruling party tremendously.

No. This time round, they are targeting these accusations at Mr Brown. Yes, the blogger Mr Brown, and the owner of browntown in the pre-blog days.

In a letter dripping with sinister undertones and implied intimidation, which is the other ever-present hallmark of our Government other than its smiling and happy public face, Mr Brown was given the Catherine Lim treatment. Yes the Catherine Lim treatment which gave birth to the famed lexicons of political speak in Singapore : "OB markers".

This letter bears the exact same discursive triggers as the admonishments levelled at Dr Catherine Lim almost a decade ago. Exact to a chilling degree. With only one deviation.

Making use of the privileged role as a columnist in a mainstream newspaper to champion partisan political views. Check.

Distortion of truth, the dressing up of polemics as analysis. Rememeber Dr Catherine Lim and her views on Ministerial pay and the great affective divide that was then, in her eyes, opening up between Government and Singaporeans. Check.

Offering no solution and alternatives. Unconstructive criticism. Hiding behind a pseudonym and hence, freed from accountability and responsibility to answer for his views. Read : talking politics having not joined politics. Check.

Seeking to undermine the standing of the Singapore Government. Check.

The only deviation is this. There was no challenge to mr brown to join politics. Perhaps they fear him joining a political party. Or perhaps they were saving this challenge for the next salvo to be fired at mr brown, probably by a Minister-level personality. This letter is the formal opening of hostilities. Lee Boon Yang's veiled threats at the IPS seminar were but the pre-cursors.

Despite having progressed another ten years plus in Singapore, these relics which subdue expression still re-surface in Singapore with easy impunity. When such relics lose their cloak of invisibility and comes out into the open again, we are at once reminded of what has really changed in Singapore? When such relics re-appear, Time in Singapore has inched into a crawl, a horrible Trauerspiel, slowed down to an extent that we realise that the song remains the same. Oh dear.

What has really changed in ten years plus of Singapore's progress? What has changed? Nothing. Simply nothing.

New Prime Minister, old Prime Minister, all the promises of change, more good years, Singapore21, Heartbeat Singapore, inclusive society, lose their glamour, lose their sheen of hope when such a cold cold letter emerges in our mainstream media of impeccable high standards. Standards so high that only those of similar stratospheric vision can read and understand.

You see, mr brown is entitled his views but such views cannot grace the mainstream media which is of loftier and higher standards. His are views which belong below. For the low standards. And so in one fell swoop, one cold letter relinquishes all readers of mr brown as of low standard. Low brow.

The standard of the mainstream media is so high. So much so that the phrase "to stretch out incomes" is not a distortion of truth. So much so that a civil servant can impugn with subtle and cold sarcasm the motivations of mr brown as driven by his own child's experience. These are then the high standards of civil service correspondence which automatically qualify into the same league as our impeccable mainstream old papers? The letter contained an insinuation, a sinister insinuation. It reeks with the stench of dirty Government, dirty politics.

This is the type of humour that these people enjoy.

This is the type of laughter that the Minister of the same ministry condones. This was how he laughed when he first levelled the veiled threat at mr brown in the IPS seminar. This is the laughter of vindictiveness, of malevolence.

A laughter of men in political power.

Read this letter by Bhavani as a threat. Nothing less. And I anticipate that this will be addressed in the National Day Rally speech. Couched in the exclusive humour of all Rally speeches where the audience comprise the power elites of Singapore.

You see don't you? mr brown is deemed a corruptor of us pure Singaporeans. His views, his polemics contaminate the mainstream media. Poison the minds of us pure Singaporeans. The "masses" who are always deemed pure, optimistic people. Shiny, happy people. Us pure Singaporeans who are always four minutes to midnight or one tiny slippery slip from the chasm of despair and cynicism. His views are for STOMP. Not for TODAY.

His views are politics. Partisan politics. Which party Bhavani? The party which is not the PAP? That party which from another view could actually mean the rest of Singapore. The real Singaporean? Come on Bhavani. Which party if partisan?

Like a Trauerspiel, we are stuck in a terminal loop, watching the same narratives flash us by, watching re-runs of History, absorbing the same stories, the repeated morals.

Give me a Catherine Lim story anytime, when the rich and the powerful, the snobs always get their come-uppance, in an ironic kind of a way.

Mr Wang and Molly, my two most admired Sg blogos hath spoken more quickly on this. And so too will others. Let it not rest as it did ten years ago.

Quote of the Day --

"Once she was tempted to approach Ah Soh to borrow some money-she had heard whispers of the immense sum of money that Ah Soh had slowly accumulated over forty years, money she had saved from her sale of cakes and puddings, and from extreme frugality ... But she had quickly rejected the idea. What, degrade herself by seeking help from a relative who was no better than a servant? Mrs. Khoo’s inherent dislike of Ah Soh was increased by her suspicion that behind all that effusive humility and deference was a shrewdness and alertness that saw everything that was going on, and she even fancied that the little frightened-looking eyes in the thin pallid face sometimes laughed at her." -- Catherine Lim, The Jade Pendant