When Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong suddenly felt ill during the National Day Rally speech 2016, many Singaporeans rallied around their leader to support him and pray for him.
However, there were a few *ahem* nasty nasty remarks left by some netizens, which rankled the average Singaporean.
Nasty #1: Brainstorm by Kenneth Jeyaretnam
Reform Party’s Kenneth Jeyaretnam tweeted “Did LHL have a brainstorm”, deleted it and promptly went to war with Singapore twitterers on his remarks.
He even has his own Reddit thread on his “brainstorm” tweet with classic comebacks from redditors such as:
“I guess the Economist was right. After JBJ, we really have no effective opposition politicians left. This just confirms it.”
Here’s the rest of Kenneth’s tweet strategy to win back the 70%.
And more below.
Nasty #2: Chee Soon Juan’s neurological editing skills
The good doctor first posted on Facebook on PM Lee suffering from what “seemed to be a neurological problem”,which was auto-posted on Twitter.
Dr Chee Soon Juan has since edited his original Facebook post quite a few times, but the original tweet still remains.
#damnautopublish
Nasty #3: dictatorial wishes by States Times Review
States Times Review, a famously anti-anything-not-opposition website cum Facebook page, rejoiced over PM Lee’s “collapse” and wished “the worst for the dictator”.
Even in a Facebook update, PM Lee is referred to as the “dictator”.
Well if this isn’t #freedomofspeech, I don’t know what is.
Nasty #4: Ashxmathers accuses PM Lee of stealing from citizens
In a tweet that has since been deleted, this twitterer takes a cheap shot at PM Lee’s “collapse”.
If you’d like to make friends with such a “positive” guy, here’s his profile picture below.
I find it very interesting the concept of revering political leaders and other ‘strong men’. It would be interesting to understand its origins and whether Singapore is an outlier as a society in this respect.
Such mean-spirited, ill-intentioned comments bespeak something seriously wrong with those who make them. For goodness’ sake, can’t the politics be set aside for a few moments, just to sympathise with another fellow human being at a time like that? Where is all this rage coming from, and what earthly purpose does it serve?