Seah Kian Peng – Lighting a small fire

Seah Kian Peng’s criticism of Thum Ping Tjin for inviting Mahathir to bring democracy to Singapore and the remark ‘it appears quite clear to me that PJ Thum does not wish Singapore well’ is like lighting a small fire that threatens to burn down a forest. This comment is read by Thum as calling him a traitor is ‘ridiculous and unfounded’. No decent person would be comfortable to be on the receiving end of being called a traitor to his country.
 
The accusation has fired up two opposing camps, with those supporting the group that met Mahathir calling it baseless and a more dangerous development for the group that supported or believed in Seah Kian Peng’s finger pointing. The result as reported in thenewpaper is “‘a torrent of accusations of treason’ and death threats against the group”. Hopefully this is just wild reactions from the hotheaded and nothing more and nothing untowards happened to the threatened group of people.
 
Seah Kian Peng might have noticed the ginny out of the bottle and is calling for some calm and decorum and ‘not get personal or abusive’ about the matter. It is just a matter of ‘different viewpoints and we can agree or disagree and be civil about it’. It is good that Seah Kian Peng saw the severity of the accusation and reactions from the ground and wanted to lower the temperature. And since it is just a matter of viewpoints, hopefully there will be no follow up threats of calling Sue or police investigation on the group and Thum in particular. He added, “It is regretful that I see all kinds of abusive remarks that are made by many different individuals (and trolls) against each other. I do not support such types of comments, regardless of what views of positions they take.”
 
The master has spoken. Would the trolls or doggies stop barking and stop biting? It must be quite frightening to Thum and his group to be branded traitors in the media and by a MP of the ruling party. OK, Seah Kian Peng did not use the word traitor on them, but it is how they felt and perceived and how the trolls and public read and reacted to it.
 
I hope the general public would be mature enough to see the nuances and the real stuff and not be misled by any silly comments. Can I say let’s move on? Or would there be more sinister things brooding?
 
PS. Napoleon has unleashed his attack dogs to bite.