The real Chua Mui Hoong

Opinion editor of ST, Chua Mui Hoong, has for many years been on the receiving ends of brickbats defending the PAP in her opinion pieces in the ST. Many unkind words were used against her and her tribes in the organization with scant reservation.
 
Han Fook Kwang too was not spared though in the last few years he has taken a bolder front in criticizing and sharing contrarian views against govt policies and positions. In his retiring years, the restraints placed on him when he was the chief editor have seemed to be loosening and it is time to say what he really wanted to say for so long.
 
Chua Mui Hoong, though much younger and still far away from retiring, has finally taken a stand and stood up in defence of Alfian Sa’at, our local poet when the latter was attacked by Ong Ye Kung. This was what Chua Mui Hoong wrote in the Sunday Times, ‘I was disturbed by the way Education Minister Ong Ye Kung cited a few lines from Alfian Sa’at’s poetry to pain him as someone who might be disloyal to Singapore.’ She went on further to say this, ‘the 4G is a chip off the old block. Inheriting the same political DNA as the first three generations of PAP leaders, it is now merely showing its true colours. Online, some commenters drew this conclusion, citing the use of tactics of name-calling, character assassination and adhominem attacks to label critics negatively. The 4G in this view is just new wine in old bottles, and Singapore’s political development is as stymied as today as in the 1980s and 1990s.’
 
This is about the strongest statement someone from the establishment could say in print against a minister. This is the true Chua Mui Hoong, sharing the same feeling as Han Fook Kwang, Leslie Fong etc etc, that after so many years of being bottled up, it is time to let it go, establishment or not establishment.
 
The use of character assassination has been very effective in the past and many opposition candidates fell and suffered lifelong stigma with their life totally destroyed. Chee Soon Juan is one of the victims and till today, many unthinking still harboured this anti Chee Soon Juan trait and attacking him, hating him is second nature. The young of today and the bottled up old of yesterday could not and would not stomach such personal attacks any more.
 
New wine in old bottle is still new wine and those who have seen the history of Singapore’s politics, grew up with such abuses, have very little tolerance and deference to new wine to do the same. Time has changed and the personalities have changed. To be stymied and trying to live and behave like in the 1980s and 1990s by young upstart is very uncomfortable and difficult to bear.
 
A young shoot of revolution is sprouting not in the young but in the not so young, that the old, harsh and uncivil ways to deal with political opponents, all Singaporeans, all wanting to do good for Singapore, to smear them and call them names, is not only out of fashion but also out of context, out of time and character. For an opinion Editor like Chua Mui Hoong, still very young in life, to openly saying it out in defiance of the old ways is very telling. The revolt is coming from within. The new wine does not have the same hold on the old stalwarts of the establishment and the seniors at large. They don’t hold them in awe and in fear. They just don’t have it to be acting and behaving like the old guards, with nothing achieved and no authority to swagger around like untouchables.
 
There is a silent revolution in the making, led by the old wise of yesteryears that do not see much in the 4G that have nothing to show but acting as if they have arrived just by being put up there. Remember the tortoise sitting on top of a 20 foot pole? How did it got up there?
 
Would there be more Chua Mui Hoongs, more Tommy Kohs to rattle the status quo?