Bjorno.licio.us

I should get a lawyer friend one day to write a legal disclaimer some day and post it on this site, so no agenda-driven fool try to sue me for my comments. I refer to the War on Blogging recently waged by my home country, borne out of the government’s concern on racial sensitivities rupturing the social fabric of Singapore.

The intention is good, no doubt, but in view of the fact that Singapore’s culture has been — that of a general public been mollycoddled by a patriarchical, top-down ruling class whose word has historically been interpreted as law, the recent clampdown on online race-sensitive blogs does not bode well for Singaporean bloggers. One perspective is that civil liberties and free speech have taken a direct hit after the public put-down by the Prime Minister, that the government desires to exert influence over the New Media on the blogosphere as well. I agree to a certain extent with that. It is culturally difficult for Singaporeans to defy the word of their patriarchical government, there is a mental block that limits the distance Singaporeans will go in criticizing the policies of their government.

The Singapore government may have recognized the importance in liberalizing the views of the public and incorporating their opinions into policy-making in recent years, especially through their main vehicle — the “Remaking Singapore” initiative. This initiative was hailed, by many quarters, as the end of “Nuclear Winter” of free speech in Singapore, as a new government sought to co-operate together with their people to draft a national blueprint for the small nation in the new era of globalization and technology. Sadly, globalized Singapore may be, technology-friendly we are not if the “Race-Blog” issue becomes a festering thorn in the government’s policy towards free speech on the Internet. I am not against the decision to condemn racially-insensitive elements of hatred, but the draconian laws and punishment meted out to the culprits reek of unfairness and extremism considering the young ages of the offenders (one was 17 years). If we censure politically incorrectness on the Internet so flagrantly and harshly, we send a very negative message out to the outside world - one of intolerance.

On a separate note, its amazing how my boss, Sia, dishes out gems of wisdom even when he is down with flu.

The role of management is to manage people.

The role of employees is to manage the business.

Do not micro-manage. Give people the infrastructure and let them loose with the resources to manage within their personal scope of abilities.