We can only hope that those who have the ability to influence will act responsibly – Mr Hri Kumar (MP Seng Han Thong Saga)

 

https://www.facebook.com/HriKumarNair?sk=wall

 

The TOC has responded to my post by referring to their latest editorial attacking Cherian George. The editorial says a lot of things, but it does NOT deal with the blatant inaccuracy in TOC’s original post, which failed to state that Seng Han Thong was responding to what (he believed) SMRT had said. It now wants to sweep the matter under the carpet by calling its error “academic”.

Han Thong has today issued a letter to transport workers to clarify what he said and what his intentions were. He had set out wanting to defend transport workers, but made an error. He clearly had to apologise, and has done so.

But there is a larger, more troubling aspect to this incident.

 

The reality is that many will not read themselves what happened, and will rely on what others tell them.

 

And there will be some who will only be too happy to distort to advance their political agendas.

 

However, matters of race provoke emotional responses. The greater the distortion, the more inflammatory the account, the faster it will spread and gain traction.

 

These matters are not “academic”, it is already happening. It is for this reason that we have always been very careful when making public statements on race issues.

 

We can only hope that those who have the ability to influence will act responsibly.

 

There will be no winner if they do not – all Singaporeans will lose.

***************************************************************************************