Was official response needed?

You can’t please everyone… and certainly when it is about being “free”, free to express and think for yourself, and to decide on your own…

-----

AWARE SAGA

Letter from Gavin Lee

I WAS very disappointed with Today’s decision to feature a four-page answer to the Aware saga from Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng.

I believe civil society has shown unprecedented maturity over the past few weeks. First, the media caught wind of the unsavoury takeover of a women’s advocacy group and reported on it. Second, Singaporeans were alarmed by the religious slant in a civil rights group. Then, Singaporean women voted out the new Exco who had orchestrated a coup to oust several longtime, well-respected figures.

All this has shown that civil society is capable of regulating itself. It is clear that the majority of both Christian and non-Christian Singaporeans wish for a clear separation between civil and religious space. And they took action to ensure that this separation is preserved.

Why is it that in this scenario, Today felt the need for an official conclusion, and Mr Wong still felt the need to step in?

Undoubtedly, the issue of homosexuality did a lot to obfuscate the bigger issues at hand. But if Singaporeans have already shown that they are mature enough to handle the prickly topic of religious versus civil space, why can’t we be trusted to handle issues like sexuality?

I bet many students are memorising Mr Wong’s responses for use in their General Paper works. Bear in mind that these are Singapore’s future leaders.

I, for one, don’t see any point in blaming the youth on being apathetic if society is bent on spoon-feeding them. Let society find its own outlets for handling these tricky issues.

From TODAY, Voices – Monday, 18-May-2009