Who is Drumming to spread fear?
In my previous blog post, I had asked if our overly sensitive Government had declared “war” on alternative online news sites and on Singaporean bloggers who criticise them. I had used the word war as a metaphor to describe their stepped up attacks and controls on the Internet. Then lo and behold, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen spoke to the press yesterday and referred to the online world as a threat to the security of Singapore! And he (presumably with the blessings of the cabinet) and the Mindef team even came up with the acronym DRUMS to describe this online monster threat. DRUMS stand for (cue drum roll)…”Distortions, Rumours, Untruths, Misinformation and Smears”! (Ok I just gotta ask, so is Drums caused by Drummers?)
Dr Ng warned (cue drumroll again) that DRUMS is a new threat on the horizon that could hamper Singapore’s Total Defence efforts and he said such distortions could spread far and wide and even cause confusion and chaos, weakening the country’s resolve and causing disunity. Sounds too incredulous to be believed? Click on this link and read the news report if you need proof he actually said this. http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/spore-must-be-guard-against-online-threats
Seriously, should we be scared when the DEFENCE Minister says online comments should be viewed as a national threat? His words sound ominous – for the netizens and bloggers I mean , not about netizens being a national threat. We had better pay attention when the defence minister refers to something as a threat right? After all, he is the one controlling all the big guns and fire power in the country.
On his comment about DRUMS being a threat to national security, I really have to ask what universe is our government leaders living in. Do they not understand that chatter online reflects how chatter is done offline in the “real” world too? We gossip in the office, in the loo and in the kopitiam. Are we threats when we do that? No right? Think of Facebook as the online version of a global kopitiam ( or giant loo) How is such online chatter dangerous and a threat to the nation?
The government should spend more time learning how the Internet works and how to ensure accurate news is communicated by the various ministries instead of spending so much time on coining childish acronyms and trying to discredit the online world. And they really should stop spreading fear and misinformation through scaremongering.
Speaking of drums, I wrote this ode to our dear Minister sung to the tune of the “Little Drummer Boy”….
Come they told me, pa-rum pum pum pum
Our nation’s at seige, pa-rum pum pum pum
Our safety is threatened, pa-rum pum pum pum
Let’s condemn “Drummers”, pa-rum pum pum pum
Rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum
So to honour Ng , pa-rum pum pum pum
When we sing.
-The End –
Jentrified Citizen 
I think he should pay more attention to offline chatter since the message does get distorted with dissemination (obviously never played the game Pass The Message). With online chatter, it’s all there in black and white (or whatever colour you like). There’s a technology called a screen grab or capture. If they really want to monitor everything, they are going to need a lot of people monitoring offline conversations. But shouldn’t they be focussing on doing a better job cos there will always be chatters. Maybe when they have done a better job, the chatter will be a lot more positive.
They have started their 2016 GE campaign in the usual way using the MSM as their advance troops. Recall the Zuraidah Ibrahim piece the other day, saying that the party faithfuls want more aggreesive action. They see the internet as their bugbear – causing them the lose Aljunied and the two by-eections. The call for a code of conduct by Yacob met with howls of derision and he quickly retreated. He was not the best man for the job.(Was he good at anything?) Like many citizens I tend to be suspicious of new blogs which claim to be ‘responsible, intelligent,and robust’, to qoute one, the existence of which was largely unknown until the MDA gave it some publicity. MDA’ demands that they register as a politcal website and refuse foreign funding was immediately acquiesced to. You wonder why the demnds were made in the first place since they were part of their clared aims. I suspect that this website will be used as the ‘golden standard’ when dealing with people like you in the future. Remember the refrain – if you do nothing wrong and have nothing to hide why complain when they impose these conditions on you, just like this new website.
if the defence minister is so worrid bout DRUMs…then he should let the newsmedia do their job the way the journalists see it…then who need to spread rumours….
torkin bout rumours….
the kovan father/son was not killed by a polisman..right?
ng’s right re ”such distortions could spread far and wide and even cause confusion and chaos, weakening the country’s resolve and causing disunity”.
what ng is wrong about is that this is a Recent devt. it isn’t. its been going on for DECADES. and no, it’s not due to the internet.
hey, the plan for 6.9million — even while 5.5million (5.3million is so yesterday) is gobsmacked and writhing in agony from the addition of 2.3million in 20 years — has nothing to do with the internet. and yep, it’s fer sure causing confusion and chaos etc etc.
a bunch of pple we all know well have been beating these errr drums for yonks. hence, the state and situation now…. and the need for more drumming by ng. and for Bigger, Louder drums, and even more Vigorous drumming.
a commenter at mr brown’s site summed up what’s currently happening. he described it as a cohesive response action plan. by no coincidence at all, the acronym for that is CRAP….
Talking about shooting their own foots, credit to MIW Ng for finding the appropriate words to describe PAP exactly, which is DRUMS (Distortions, Rumours, Untruths, Misinformation and Smears). Exactly fits the PAP characters. anyone call recall the last election when PAP DRUMS the WP party ? Now the DRUMS has been the new verb for PAP.
By the way, the monkey beating the DRUMS is wearing the wrong uniform. It should not be yellow colour (least people mistaken it as RP party DRUMmerS), it should be all WHITE in colour. Please fix the photo LOL.