Siew Kum Hong: What I took away from 2 May
May 6th, 2009 | 
Author: Ripped from Siew Kum Hong’s blog
A lot has been said and written about the AWARE EGM last Saturday. And by now, I’m sure everyone has seen videos of the key moments on YouTube. So I’m not going to get into the familiar details of what happened that day.
Instead, I’m just going to post a few thoughts from the EGM, and also talk about some aspects that I have not seen mentioned.
Affirmation of values
First and foremost, I walked away from the EGM proud to be Singaporean. I saw the result as an affirmation of the values that we hold dear (openness, transparency, inclusiveness, diversity and secularism) and a rejection of those that, well, we should not (dishonesty, non-transparency, exclusiveness, intolerance, divisiveness and oppression/bullying).
While I do not see the EGM as a watershed or a pivotal moment signalling any sort of significant change in Singapore politics (as at least one journalist has tried to posit to me), it does stand as a milestone marking some sort of progress towards a more active and passionate civil society. The willingness of all these people to stand up and be counted, to invest all that time and effort for a cause that they believed in, gave me hope that Singaporeans are not as passive or apathetic as we are often said to be, and that it really takes the right cause to spark us into action.
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3 Responses to “Siew Kum Hong: What I took away from 2 May”
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Siew Kum Hong has to say what he has to say, as he has already invested so much of his reputation into supporting the old guard in aware. So he has painted himself into one tight corner with no U turns.
My view is his one track strategy brought absolutely nothing of value to the whole process except maybe preforcing the divide further.
Had Mr Siew taken a role of stewarding the process as what the brotherhood suggested when their issued out their stricture on the old guard.
Instead of lose/win, we could have all ended up with maybe a low to moderate win/win. As it is, we have one group of people who are cheering and another who are simply very glum and seething for a way to get even. How might that condition of enmity even serve the whole idea of marking a milestone in civil groups?
He is definitely kidding all of us!
A smart politician is one that does things that make him popular. Whereas a courageous politician is one that does things that he believes in. In my opninion, there are just too many smart ones.
Mr Siew is a true blue NMP. Someone who claim moral rights to raise issues and offer no credible solution and then go away with a ‘Not My Problem’ (NMP) attitude.
Why cowardly deny now that you have provided legal advice, when you so proudly accepted and acknowledge the honour at the EGM, but not refuting or clarifying it. Are you Man enough to admit or is it too much to expect?
Singapore do not need backdoor MPs.