I was listening to a moving speech by a certain Lee (Mr Miyagi lah, it was his wedding) when someone informed me via sms that I was mentioned in another speech by PM Lee.
Here is my response:
1. I stand by what I wrote in my Humour column. While it was written in a non-serious way, I was expressing what many Singaporeans feel about the rising cost of living here in Singapore.
2. I believe the Government has every right to respond to my Humour column. I may disagree with what they say but it is their right to respond.
3. I also believe in responding in turn to what the Government said in their letter, but my Humour column was suspended immediately after their letter was printed. Perhaps Mediacorp/TODAY did not stand by what they published?
4. I did not say too much about it during that time because emotions were running high and I did not want to aggravate matters. I felt I should wait till a more appropriate time to speak up, and I believe now is that time.
5. I understand that many people did respond on the matter by writing in to the mainstream press, but none of their letters were published by mainstream media. Not a single one. Some people who wrote to TODAY about the column's suspension received a templated response to write to MICA instead, even though TODAY were the ones who suspended the column. Strange.
6. I agree too with PM that www.talkingcock.com is very funny (by the way, check out their reaction to being mentioned in the National Day Rally)
7. I don't have a seventh point but I think seven is a lucky number.
I have included an excerpt from PM Lee's speech because the Channel NewsAsia servers seem to be overloaded at the moment. PM mentions me at around the 22nd minute of this clip. You can listen to the whole National Day Rally by downloading the rest of the audio at the CNA site.
Link to Digital Age part of PM Lee's podcast (MP3, Filesize: 8.7mb, Time: 00:25:05).
