A step backward for free speech

I guess for those who follow blogs closely, especially political blogs, you would have seen the blog entry by this fellow by the name Gopalan Nair claiming that some top level Minister suffers a massive heart attack. I will not go into details here because it is a distasteful hoax and would stain my blog. In fact, the mere mention of his name makes me feel dirty. (I’ll go wash my hands after I finish typing this blog entry. My advice to you is to wash your eyes after reading)

The hoax came at a very bad timing. This is a time when the new media is trying to establish its reputation as a trustworthy news source. Gopalan Nair is a moron to create such hoax and discredit the new media. Not only did he cast a bad light on the new media, he also cast a bad light on the opposition parties. I can’t believe the Worker’s Party actually field him during the 1988 and 1991 elections. But luckily for us, he is no longer in the opposition party and I’m pretty sure all creditable political parties would disassociate themselves with him.

It’s a step backwards for free speech. And if you know Singapore, you know that we already aren’t that forward in terms of freedom of speech. Well done Gopalan. Look what you have done. Seriously, if you have nothing better to do, maybe you should just Go-Pa-Lan. Ask your hokkien friends if you don’t know what that means.

I can already imagine how someone will quote this one freaking incident and use it to justify that Singapore new media cannot be trusted. But let’s make this clear. Gopalan is no longer a Singaporean. Whatever he do has nothing to do with the Singapore blogosphere. Do not associate his childish action to Singapore bloggers.