Over the weekend, PM Lee Hsien Loong took to the airwaves to talk about what’s coming in the future as restrictions on pretty much everything are relaxed. In his message to the nation, he also talked about how Singapore’s social cohesion (also known as our racial harmony) can’t be taken for granted.
Not a surprise with all the racial stuff that’s flying fast and furious.
Netizens however, think that PM Lee is being tone deaf and not really addressing the other social issues that are plaguing Singapore.
One of the main ones? Vaccine discrimination.
Despite it being the accepted default the world over, anti-vaxxers here in Singapore are claiming foul. Like their compadres overseas, the points they make are incredibly familiar; it’s discrimination against those who don’t want to get jabbed.
These people say that while PM Lee is promoting social cohesion, he’s also driving a wedge into the community by segregating those who have been vaccinated and those who can’t or don’t want to be vaccinated.
It’s nothing new. Read any news site from any country in the world and you’ll hear similarly construed arguments. While the concerns these people have are valid, the fact of the matter is that this is perhaps for the greatest good. It might not be the best solution, but it’s definitely not the worst.
Of course, vaccination concerns aren’t the only thing Netizens are bringing up.
Some want a return to the good old days of Singapore walling itself off from the rest of the world.
I’ll admit, there is some (teeny weeny) part of me that agrees with them but that’s no longer feasible now. Like it or not, the world has to go on spinning and living like a hermit (or North Korea), isn’t feasible in the long run for an island nation like Singapore.
Speaking of walling ourselves off, can you guess what the other main topic Netizens bring up?
If you guessed they’re bringing up foreigners again, you deserve a cookie. Go ahead, take two! You deserve it.
CECA of course gets its spot (again) in the limelight, as do the recent revelation that some KTV hostesses come into the group on fake pretenses.
Most on this topic however like to paint a broader stroke with their brush and target every single foreigner. Similarly to the complaints about the KTV and CECA, these Netizens don’t want any type of foreign feet touching down and working on our glorious Singaporean soil.
Now, if they stayed on topic and perhaps voiced their concerns that foreigners might be bringing in the virus I might be (a little) sympathetic to their issues. Nobody wants more cases of Covid-19 that’s imported raging out in the community.
However, these guys and gals are instead politicizing the issue and making it about the ruling party instead. It’s completely off-topic from what the message from PM Lee is about.
At least these guys denounce PM Lee’s message in clear, non-political tones.
It’s most refreshing to see non-political hate sometimes. It’s like everything has to be an issue about something. These guys take it back to the basics! The classic ‘I hate you’. So pure, so clean.
Unfortunately, where there is dissent and argument, there will be trolls. In this case, it’s this bugger.
You know it’s a troll account when there’s no real picture and their profile looks like this.
I honestly cracked up at this tryhard.
5 measly posts, all of them political and critical of the PAP. Come on bro! At least, try to keep up appearances of a real account instead of a coward too afraid to reveal him/herself to the world.
Say what you want about the foreigner-haters or anti-vaxxers, at the very least you know most of them are real people. I’d know…I actually looked into their profiles to see if they were legit.
This Sing Hon Low must be damn new to the trolling game. Just take a look at his replies. They’re in chronological order. You can actually see him getting triggered more and more as time goes on when NOBODY takes his bait.
It must be sad to try this hard to be a troll (which is pretty easy honestly) and then still screw it up.
Thankfully Singaporeans are getting smarter and just ignoring assholes like this who just want to stir crap up for their own agenda.
In fact, Singaporeans seem to really care about PM Lee despite most of us having never even meeting (or seeing him) personally.
It’s rather touching to see that some of us actually see PM Lee as a human instead of just a figurehead.
Perhaps there’s hope for us all after all.