11/21/2007

Mr Tan or Mr Kow?

Gloria Arroyo Puts question mark on Charter Unless Suu Kyi is freed, it'd be diffiult to get Philippine Congress ratify it. The Australian. Nov 21, 2007 By Mark Dodd Singapore - PHILIPPINES President Gloria Arroyo has threatened to derail a landmark ASEAN charter promoting human rights and democracy throughout Southeast Asia less than 24 hours after its signing, by demanding Burma releases opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.... " The ASEAN leaders had a full and open discussion on the Myanmar issue at our informal working dinner," said Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. " Prime Minister Thein Sein of Myanmar made clear that the situation was a domestic Myanmar affair and that Myanmar is fully capable of handling the situation by itself. " He (Sein) emphasised that Professor Gambari should report only to the UN Security Council and not to ASEAN or the East Asia Summit." Mr Loong said ASEAN leaders agreed to respect the Burmese request but, as ASEAN chair, Singapore would facilitate Mr Gambari's meeting with "interested parties". I copied the above from littlespeck.com. I always feel very disgusted when professional western journalists, and sometimes Singaporean journalists, addressed Chinese Singaporeans the wrong way round. Who is Mr Loong anyway? I expect professional journalists to display some professionalism and respect when quoting the names of political leaders. It is expected of them to be correct in at least the simple courtesy of addressing another person correctly. Or is it another form of cultural superiority or cultural sabotaged? It looks deliberate to me. This journalist cannot be living in the outback and did not hear of a Mr Lee or two Mr Lees in Singapore. He is no crocodile Dundee. He is a journalist.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Come to think of it, why is it that Ah Loong is a Lee while his kids are Lis?

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

there are certain format that each people write their names. and we should respect that.

i was guilty of addressing abdullah badawi as badawi instead of abdullah. in my own convenient way, abdullah is too common a name and i thought using badawi will be more distinctive. and i think some malaysian media also do so.

but a mr lee is a mr lee and not a mr loong. the westerners must respect how we address ourselves.

hsien loong's kids are li's because of the transition to mandarin from dialect. this has caused problems and some unhappiness to the dialect diehards. many do not have their surnames written in the same way in english and is a kind of awkward.

it is a one time misery. the future generations will not have this problem.