Sin Ming forced to publish Dr Allan Ooi’s farewell letter with a different SPIN to distract attention from the real reason behind his suicide

March 13, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Opinion

By Eugene Yeo

How low can these Sin Ming journalists get? After their blatant lies were exposed by us, they now backtracked and tried to cover up for their embarrassing mistake!

6 hours after we first published a portion of Dr Allan Ooi’s farewell letter here, Sin Ming Daily had no choice but to publish the letter, but with a different spin to distract and confuse readers. (read article here)

MYTH # 1: Sin Ming claimed the letter was revealed on the internet today to create the impression that they are not aware of its content at all.

FACT: A friend of Dr Allan Ooi told us that she had forwarded Dr Allan Ooi’s email to a journalist on 5th March 2009. Yet, the letter was not released by Sin Ming until now 7 days later. In the meantime, the mainstream media have been trying hard to vilify Dr Allan Ooi by concocting all kinds of hogwash about the cause of his death such as over-indulgence in online games, losing a fortune at gambling and depression. Why didn’t any of the papers publish the letter then? If we had not published the letter on our blog this morning, will we ever know the truth?

MYTH # 2: Sin Ming got the contents of the letter online from us.

FACT: From the manner the article is penned, it seemed like we are at fault for revealing Dr Allan’s farewell letter which was chanced upon by a journalist who copied and translated the letter into Chinese. Unfortunately, in their eagerness to exonerate themselves from any blame, they made a terrible blunder. We published only a small segment of Dr Allan’s letter today leaving out the part on his relationships, yet Sin Ming reprinted the letter in its entirety (while conveniently blanking out the part on his work which we published). How can Sin Ming possibly obtain the information from us? Obviously they already possessed the letter, but chose not to publish it earlier.

MYTH #3: The headlines give readers the impression that Dr Allan Ooi committed suicide because of problems in his relationsip.

FACT: Sin Ming chose to leave out the most critical sentence of Dr Ooi’s letter – “That (work) was certainly the main cause of the severing of ties“. At that time of his departure, Dr Ooi was very angry at SAF purportedly for not allowing him to break his bond, not because he was heart-broken. Shame on Sin Ming to attempting to pull a wool over our eyes again to smear the poor doctor who is unable to defend himsefl!

Why are the papers trying so hard to hide the truth from Singaporeans when they should be asking SAF questions about Dr Allan Ooi’s problems with serving out his bond?

Since the mainstream media had published Dr Allan’s farewell letter, we can expect more outrageous spins, lies and rubbish to come from them in the next few days out of desperation to salvage their battered reputation.

I urged all readers who have read this article to forward the link to everybody you know. Please do not let these charlatans get away for destroying the reputation of an innocent person again!

 

(This article has been viewed 6,313 times as of 13 March 2009, 9.00pm)

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Comments

40 Comments on "Sin Ming forced to publish Dr Allan Ooi’s farewell letter with a different SPIN to distract attention from the real reason behind his suicide"

  1. Kaffein on Thu, 12th Mar 2009 6:44 pm 

    Wow… such disgusting GUTTER journalism!

    Pui!

    Really, I’m absolutely disgusted and appalled that even such a letter has to be censored! I mean it’s his last letter for God’s sake!

    Why would they do that? Isn’t it just as bad as North Korea? Why hide the facts and truths, SPH? What does that bring you except loss of bloody pride and credibility? It’s not as if in recent years you had any. It used to be good. I don’t know what had happened.

    Thank you Wayang Party for portraying the truth. I cannot imagine how we would think of Allan Ooi if you hadn’t published the full letter (albeit snipping out those personal contents).

    You sicken me, SPH! I’d never thought you’ll sink to a new low.

    I was wrong.

    Kaffein

  2. koh on Thu, 12th Mar 2009 7:02 pm 

    I cant thank wayang party enuff for bringing this to our attention. the msm is really sick to the core and those journalist rot in hell.!!!!!!

  3. Wonder on Thu, 12th Mar 2009 7:16 pm 

    This is not the 1st time the newspaper distorted the contents of the story by using the irrelevant title. Especially Chinese Newspapers. Never believe what the title telling about. The irrelevant title might be partially due to the low comprehensive standard of the Chinese language of the editor. Because nowadays those so-called editor or reporter are English but not Chinese educated. So nowadays I seldom read their newspaper because it could reduce my Chinese language standard. Try reading other foreign Chinese Newspapers. Even Malaysia Chinese Newspaper like 星洲日報,南洋商報,光華日報 their Chinese language standard are very very much high than our Chinese newspaper. I can say our Chinese Newspaper only equal to Primary Standard. Our Chinese language Standard has been dropped to such low level that every Chinese educated people from other country like 李敖 are laughing at us. We are really 笨 (stupid and foolish).

  4. Rainnix on Thu, 12th Mar 2009 7:38 pm 

    Shameless! Utterly shameless, stop using online games as an excuse for killing and suicides! Dr Allen Ooi and David Widjaja will haunt you if you continue spread lies to those who cannot depend themselves!

    “You sicken me, SPH! I’d never thought you’ll sink to a new low.”

    They are always at that level to me. No one will believe you any longer.

  5. annoying mouse on Thu, 12th Mar 2009 7:47 pm 

    SD we all respect you and Darkness alot and maybe the whole troupe that makes up the brotherhood. But you boys have been directing us all here. Now there are thousands here and we just want to make one thing clear to darkness.

    The old ways are finished SD. We will not read and go like all of you wish. Everywhere you ppl go, comments are barred or some excuse is made claiming the comment box is spoilt. This site belongs to Eugene SD, pls respect our right to speak our mind.

    As I said, none of us want to go against you guys, we are really on the same side.

  6. Sinming on Thu, 12th Mar 2009 8:08 pm 

    You cannot blame them completely. They had no way of verifying the truth of Allan’s email, and if they cannot prove the allegations against SAF (regardless of whether it is actually true of not), they can be hit by one of those defamation suits that the PAP is so fond of.

    SPH is haemorrhaging money now, to the extent that they have to cut the pay of their journalists. They certainly cannot afford being fined or sued by the Government.

  7. The Patriot on Thu, 12th Mar 2009 8:35 pm 

    SPH is haemorrhaging money now because many S’poreans are boycotting reading its 154th rated STs. I had stopped subscribing and buying STs for a long time already.

  8. Harrylky on Thu, 12th Mar 2009 10:20 pm 

    These people are despicable. They will pay for their sins. Singaporeans can punish them by not reading the state media anymore.

  9. Alwin Loi on Thu, 12th Mar 2009 10:21 pm 

    After David Widjaja, now Dr Allan Ooi. Who’s next, Spindoctor?

  10. CC on Thu, 12th Mar 2009 10:32 pm 

    I don’t think it’s the threat of defamation by the government. Pls try to recall who really owns Sin Ming. To sue Sin Ming, it’s like taking money from the right pocket to put into the left pocket.

    Secondly, on the subject of ethics. It is NOT okay to slander against a dead man just so that you think you won’t get sued.

    Either way, the newspapers suck big time.

  11. Anonymous on Fri, 13th Mar 2009 12:18 am 

    what i think is that the papers could have no choice either.
    believe it or not, we are living in singapore, and IT IS an island which goverment CONTROLS

  12. Mr Tan on Fri, 13th Mar 2009 3:34 am 

    This is terrible. I am sick of secrets and am going to leak out a secret that Allan’s superiors in his SAF unit are well aware that they are the major cause of his death. But they wanted to cover up so they told SPH authorities to divert all attention. I know this because my good friend is a fellow medical officer in his unit and anyone who leaks this will kena DB or something like that. Well I’m not from his unit so I’m just sharing.

    very disgusting.

  13. read TODAY on Fri, 13th Mar 2009 11:26 am 

    Go get yourself a copy of TODAY everyday at least their reporting is more truthful and not so pro garmen…have come across SPH and TODAY reporters before and boy the ones from TODAY are much more professional in asking questions…the SPH ones just tried to put words into your mouth…inferior bunch of rubber stamped gutter reporters!

  14. The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Daily SG: 13 Mar 2009 on Fri, 13th Mar 2009 11:35 am 

    [...] Passing of Dr Allan Ooi – Wayang Party Club: Sin Ming forced to publish Dr Allan Ooi’s farewell letter with a different SPIN to distract attent… – Kaffein-nated: What you read is not what you read – Everyday’s Life in a Snapshot: [...]

  15. huh? on Fri, 13th Mar 2009 11:53 am 

    Why was Shin Min forced? Because of WPC? I mean I’m shocked that they decided to run a suicide note in any case, and am glad to see no other media followed, but to assume your article forced them is just getting big headed

  16. Anonymous on Fri, 13th Mar 2009 12:27 pm 

    Thanks for the article!

  17. xtrocious on Fri, 13th Mar 2009 2:21 pm 

    To the contrary, I still buy and read the ST – never hurts to have a good laugh every day…hahah

    And the paper itself does not go to waste – the ST is wonderful as a pet litter – this is my real use :p

  18. soojenn on Fri, 13th Mar 2009 2:34 pm 

    “Sinming on Thu, 12th Mar 2009 8:08 pm – You cannot blame them completely. They had no way of verifying the truth of Allan’s email, and if they cannot prove the allegations against SAF (regardless of whether it is actually true of not), they can be hit by one of those defamation suits that the PAP is so fond of.”

    Come on. Do better than this? It does not mean that when you cannot verify the truth of Allan’s email, that you print mistruths instead and other slanderous insinuations. Do they instead have prove that it was because of the gaming, relationship problem that he died that they are printing all this rubbish? Our ministers tell the netzitens to have more empathy when one of their kind gets flamed by the public. Where are they now, when the MSM perpetuates such hogwash and insensitivity.

    The letter is by the dead man. At the least give him the opportunty to air his grivances. The MSM need not speculate and write ludricous reports further tarnishing his name. They have NO prove of anything about Allan yet they can print so many speculations, insiuations. On the other hand, they keept their mouth shut on possible issues and truth of the matter raised by Allan regarding his work.

  19. Sicgaporean on Fri, 13th Mar 2009 4:50 pm 

    Pray, tell what is happening in this rich little tiny dot known as SIN.

    Homicide in Tertiary Institution.

    Suicide of SAF Officer.

    Assault on Member of Parliament.

    What’s next ? ? ?

  20. Dana Elliott on Fri, 13th Mar 2009 5:59 pm 

    One of my classmates, also an SAF Scholar doctor, was just allowed to terminate his bond, after trying for months or maybe even years! Initially they refused.

  21. QWERT on Fri, 13th Mar 2009 8:50 pm 

    Just want to put things in perspective.
    Fact… he AWOLed (and hence must face the consequences of DB, just like any other AWOLee).
    Fact…. he signed a contract (& based on his background, I believe he was not forced into it).
    Fact… he has resources/options to overcome challenges (compared to countless others in less privileged positions).
    Fact.. he was a commissioned officer (who must know that rules are paramount in a military organisation; who shd put others/team/family before self; who must understand that AWOL will never solve anything).
    Speculation… there may be a case where he AWOLed on impulse, but was unable to face the consequences, hence the tragedy.

    A like is wasted no doubt, but it is a long shot to blame the organisation.

  22. QWERT on Fri, 13th Mar 2009 8:52 pm 

    I am disappointed by the quality of thinking in this forum.

    Yes, a life is wasted. But it is an individual’s decision ultimately. And I believe the decision in not in the best interest of his family/love ones.

    No point cry father cry mother… blame organisation blame society. It just shows the world that Singaporeans are too sheltered and have no fortitude to rise up to face challenges. While the system may/should try to accommodate the individual (in an ideal world), but (in the real world) the onus is ultimately up to the individual to adapt & survive the life knocks.

    I feel very very sad for the family.

  23. working man on Sat, 14th Mar 2009 12:31 am 

    Hello guys. First, sin ming is a tabloid paper. like any tabloid papers, truth is not their agenda, they frequently mislead readers with their titles to increase sales.

    Should a society has a place for tabloid papers?? Personally, i think the law of the country should hold editors for these papers responsible because the celebrities and the people involved will be defamed and reputation ruined and hurt mentally, which can lead to long term pernament damage.

    Well, as for the SAF responsiblity. I guess their system probably has some problems, so i guess they should send some of their supervisors to jail if they are found guilty..

  24. Driven To Despair. on Sat, 14th Mar 2009 7:12 am 

    First, one minute silence to be observed to pay respect to our late Dr Allan Ooi.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    One minute is over.

    Now, to me, Dr Allan Ooi’s death is not just one death. It signifies three deaths.

    1. The death of a young up-and-coming promising professional who could have saved many many lives …….

    2. The death of the old media that prefers to spin half truths instead of the whole truth.

    3. The death of a scholarship bondage that cannot be broken.

    Of course, it also signifies the death of certain organisations which I do not wish to mention less I get sued until bankrupt.

    Last but not least, I believe a person only takes his/her own life when driven to total despair with no one whom he/she could confide in or turn to. I was driven to such an extent twice in my life – once when I was 24 years old (while serving in the SAF) and another time when I was 40 years old (during a mid-life crisis when my morale was at its lowest, everything seemed to have gone wrong) – during both times I had no one to turn to, not even my closest friends or family members – the thought of/for my parents never existed during those moments.

    How did I managed to survive – I really don’t know – the line between death and life was so thin – it could simply go either way. Until today, I still don’t know how I managed to get out of that death trap twice.

    Perhaps it was fate.

  25. scumbuster on Sat, 14th Mar 2009 11:07 am 

    Read Today? Today more truthful? Hahahaha

    They are all the same! All scums of the earth.

  26. disgusted on Sat, 14th Mar 2009 6:26 pm 

    d@mn our media for obviously bowing down to government pressure.

  27. penelope on Sun, 15th Mar 2009 4:14 pm 

    Hi guys,

    why are we scurrying around here online and muttering to nobody but ourselves?

    If we all believe that there should be a change — either in the local journalism, or in the SAF doctors’ worklife, should we not do something about it? Like something more substantial than all this meaningless and probably useless mutterings online?

    At least the Thai’s, who went about protesting which lots of passion and fervour, have more pride and more guts than us mousey Singaporeans, who only worry about our “ricebowls”

    Here’s to a truly democratic society… let not Dr Allan Ooi’s sacrifice amount to nothing at the end of the day.

  28. Chong on Sun, 15th Mar 2009 4:37 pm 

    The Press here is a total disgrace. What do they get from blackening the name of Dr Ooi? How to be a good journalst when you do not have the moral courage to report about the truth. The parents of Dr Ooi should sue them not for the money but to uphold the good name of their son. What is worst, they tried to blame everything on on-line games. I will not purchase any sin ming paper for my mom anymore.. TRASH AND LIES…

  29. everton on Sun, 15th Mar 2009 9:10 pm 

    do not glamorise suicide….
    his loved ones do not deserve to inherit his troubles/problems.

  30. TREWQ on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 6:59 am 

    Referring to QWERT, you are way off. The key point here is the press, not SAF (although they sure have a part to answer). I am disgusted that your argument is side-tracking the main issue (much alike the press in this case) and dare calling the quality of thinking here poor. When the issue has become so blatant, serious and disgusting, there is no quality to argue about anymore. I am utterly disappointed with your quality of argument that i have to post. And we can see the reason in you why there is imperfection in our system – self-righteous, self-deceiving and ignorant without real-life experiences (…unless you are on their side of course).

    Worse when we are constantly being told that we have a perfect system when we are constantly being misled, and in actual fact doors to recourse shut.

  31. newspapers… « Filled To Be Emptied on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 1:33 pm 

    [...] Death of Dr Allan Ooi Death of NTU Student David Widjaja [...]

  32. Oh Tham Eng on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 1:56 pm 

    {”mon” wrote on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 12:33 pm: “Of course, Dr Ooi’s death was a tragedy which the authorities should look into, and take actions to prevent it from being repeated.”
    They would not do it the usual way, we understand. They will select harder and threaten more}
    -

    CLARIFICATION FROM RADM TEO CHEE HEAN IS ON THE WAY

    He has just replied me some hours ago to thank me for my input, and desire for him to say something and clarify on this matter. Because yesterday, I wrote to him an open letter/email entitled: “PLEASE FO NOT LET DR ALLAN OOI DIE IN VAIN!”

    Just now, I had also forwarded this email to WYC Chief Editor Eugene Yeo for his “Daily Musings”. I leave it to Eugene to decide whether to publish it or not under his “Daily Musing”.

    So let’s be patient. RADM Teo’s response and clarifcation/answers to our many questios will certainly be forthcoming.
    -

    {”Saywatyou`vegot” wrote on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 9:14 am: SAF Bond:
    Precisely ALL the questions the public is asking! Arbitrary is and has always been the word of calling. Do they seriously think this works even in such a small imaginary almost non-existent system? You might be spot-on- the question is whether we might even get an honest non-censored response based on FACTS. It goes without saying that censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime!}

  33. bravo bravo « bears are yummy on Wed, 18th Mar 2009 10:14 am 

    [...] his farewell letter published in the papers [...]

  34. Ex SAF on Sat, 21st Mar 2009 1:16 am 

    Well, this remind me of the death of SAF guardsman who died after dunked in water by commando trainers few years back. Commando spirit so strong that all mouth were shut when investigated even the commando trainees saw the whole torture. So what will be the out come of this? Another round of tight mouthed.

  35. Anonymous on Wed, 1st Apr 2009 10:24 pm 

    How come no one dares to vote against the garmnen? If I’ve chance to vote, I tell u, I’ll exercise my full right! I can’t tolerate a garmen that rules like a dictator.

  36. unanwered questions on Thu, 2nd Apr 2009 11:40 am 

    is it true that he killed himsled because of a failed homosexual relationship – got dumped by “girlfriend/boyfriend”?

  37. Anonymous on Thu, 2nd Apr 2009 9:15 pm 

    Aiyah he dead liao just forgive la…

    I also get bully by colleague, what can i do? end my life meh?

  38. MomInvolved on Fri, 3rd Apr 2009 8:11 am 

    QWERT
    You stated the facts. Whether anyone wants to agree or disagree thats his prerogative. You can hate it, you can love it..but it remains as the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
    TREWQ
    If you do not like the facts, then you are no different from the very organisations you dislike.
    PENELOPE
    Would you consider Dr Allan Ooi’s suicide a sacrifice? How is it a sacrifice? His parents who are in pain right now is sacrificing, his friends who cherish him is sacrificing. They are, as we speak……..sacrificing.
    When someone you have had an argument with walks out on you, do you think he is sacrificing or do you want to chase him and ask him to finish this so that you can get to the bottom of it.

    Fact is, SAF certainly need to tweak many of its policies. And to their credit, they have been trying… albeit at a slow pace. I have had sons going in the army and compared to the olden days, they certainly have tweaked/improved many things. So SAF, instead of “defending” yourselves, what you should do is to show sympathy to Allan’s family. And say, as humans we have our shortcomings and we will certainly look into how we can improve our policies. Its not an admission of guilt, and the public will certainly emphathise because every one…..individuals or organisations make mistakes.

    Fact is, ALL newspapers in the world have lost credibility. Read them, but read between the lines too. Listen to the ground. Counter check. And not everything you read on blogs and the internet is the ultimate truth either.

    Fact, cost of education is expensive especially the study of medicine. Shouldn’t something be done about this too. If Germany and Sweden can give their citizens free tertiary education, maybe we can look into that too. Then we might not have all this bond problems.
    Hearsay, We hear many stories of students who get the same A-level results, yet, its usually the well off students who get the scholarships. Coincidence? Ask around.

    Last but not least, I feel so sorry for Allan’s family and friends. I feel sorry that some student out there who is more resilient lost the opportunity to study medicine because it was given to Allan. This might seem cold, but being a struggling single mother putting her children to school,its painful. So Allan and all out there who are reading this, there is always the other side of the coin. Do take the time to see the other side too…………

  39. Sickaporean on Tue, 14th Apr 2009 12:11 pm 

    It’s pretty obvious that the SPH is being pressurised and manipulated by the Military to publish some fake reports hoping to put under cover some scandals the Military has done.
    I don’t blame the SPH as they are all like everyone of us. They all need to earn a living, they all need to feed their hungry mouths at home!
    What makes me sick is the Military who is forever thinking that they are the Almighty who has the power to do anything and everything! Those of us who have gone thru NS know how fxxked-up the Military is and there is no questions about it!
    It’s really sick to live in a country where the government is digging our own graves and say that ”it’s all for the sake of National Defence!” There will come one fine day they realise their so-called ‘National Defence’ does not work!
    That will be the day when that little with the word “Singapore” beside it becomes history…..Sigh!

  40. sg_kiss on Thu, 21st May 2009 10:04 am 

    god damn it … I wasn’t following this incident untill now reading about the published letter on wayang party. what can i say … I have long known about the dirty stuff SPH and its media publications (ST, CNA, mediacorp) do all along to cover up any politic-sensitive issue. But did not realize that they even sell themself so fuk cheap to insult a dead person.

    come to think of it, SPH chairman is Tony Tan, who is a good friend of LKY, and who was supposed to be the 2nd PM after LKY. So it is not surprised that SPH will do everything to cover up the facts to mislead singaporean about the poor Dr misfortune. Shame on you SPH & Tony Tan,