Tuesday 25 January 2011

Why I decided to join TOC

Yesterday afternoon, The Online Citizen sent a letter to the Prime Minister's Office naming four people who will be responsible for the preparation and accuracy of TOC's donation reports under the Political Donations Act. I am one of the four, together with Joshua Chiang, Leong Sze Hian and Ravi Philemon.

Apart from a poll that I helped TOC to conduct in 2008, I've never had any formal affiliation with TOC. But I know some of the TOC folks and have immense respect for all that they have done.

So when Ravi sent me an email on Thursday 20 Jan, asking if I was willing to have my name put down as one of the persons responsible for the preparation and accuracy of TOC's donation reports, I had to think hard. I eventually agreed to do so, because I firmly believe in what TOC is trying to do, and also because I wanted to demonstrate support for TOC through this challenging period.

As of today, apart from the responsibilities around the donation reports, and also perhaps responsibilities around TOC's with MDA as a political website, we've not discussed what other role I might have in/with TOC. For all we know, there may be nothing else. We'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward to the ride.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

all the best to you sir

john said...

I am touched by what u do for Singaporeans, thank you so much!

Chee Wai Lee said...

Bravo! Take care and good luck!

Unknown said...

Best of luck. I appreciate what you are doing and look forward to a better future. :)

fuzzoo said...

Thank you very much for your selflessness.

Secret Political Blog said...

Thanks for rising to the challenge :)

DK said...

Thank you. :)

May Rulers of the World Be Righteous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
May Rulers of the World Be Righteous said...

You are a brave son of Singapore. I have always refer you to young educated Singaporeans as a role model to serve the nation and not to fall for the easy way out, that of catching the fast train of power and money offered by the ruling MIW elite.

Nicholas said...

hi mr siew

i understand you are a proponent of free speech/debate, so i would like to draw your attention to the censorship being done by Yahoo Singapore in their Fit To Post (FTP) articles.

what happens is any anti-govt comments posted in the FTP articles are flagged, censored, then deleted...that doesnt seem right

i read somewhere before that you work at Yahoo...can you pls do something about this/explain this policy pls?

i didn't realise Yahoo is so pro-PAP and pro-censorship...not cool at all...giving themselves a bad name...esp among young ppl!

thanks mr siew

TPG-iTec said...

@Nicholas: Apologies for not spotting your comment earlier. I do work at Yahoo!, however I am almost religious in maintaining the division between my work and what I do outside of work. I am also a firm believer in editorial independence (analogous to the separation between church and state). So if you feel that comments are being inappropriately deleted, I would encourage you to send that feedback for the FTP editorial team directly. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Mr Siew,you should join a political party to be more effective.