Sensitive?

in response to comment by Anonymous: "Just because issues are sensative does not mean that they should be brushed under the carpet. "

i believe that there are times when one should sweep such issues under the rug and pretend, for a while, that the problem does not exist.

for example, there is this story of this guy (pardon the lack of exact details, just trust me that i read it and it most probably is true...) whose parents were told by the doctor that he would had a medical condition which would render him unable to walk. the parents never believed it and did not tell the boy nor betray any notion of that knowledge to the boy. so the boy grew up not knowing that he has any medical condition. and so he walked. and went on to run and went on to win gold medals in sprint competitions. if he had known that he had the medical condition, he most probably would not have walked.

another case in point, one could predict the onset of Huntington's disease pretty accurately via some medical test. a doctor found out that this particular woman, whose family has a history of the disease, indeed does have Huntington's disease. but he did not tell her that she has. just as well, cos her friend later told the doctor that if he had told the lady that she had the disease, the lady would have committed suicide.

and cases of war. when even if you, as a commander, think you might lose, you do not tell your men that. you always create the illusion of victory in the vain hope that regardless of how dire the situation, there is a glimmer of hope for victory.

another example. if i overheard a racist remark. do i want to broadcast the racist remark to the whole Singapore? or do i just deal with the person who made that racist remark?

in Singapore's context, therefore, i believe that there are situations where certain groups of people do not need to (and indeed should not to) know about certain things.

final points:

1. press/media "freedom" should be a consequence, not a cause of a more critical Mob.
2. press/media "freedom" can, after the Mob has become more critical in thought, further the process of 'educating' the Mob.
3. it is thus a matter of sequencing. prime first then gradually open up.
4. no matter how enlightened the Mob is, there are certain issues, as it stands now, which should be swept under the rug for the time being and be seen/heard/dealt with by a few people.
5. it is thus a matter of degree of 'freedom'.

in conclusion, in principle, more can be done. of course. but the devil is always in the details. and that requires an in-dpeth study of Singapore society, being completely immersed in every single level, every single strata, straddling the various divides before we can come up with a solution. and perhaps, in this case, i would err on the side of caution.