• About Us
    • Fact Checking Policy
    • Ownership & funding information
    • Volunteer
  • Subscribe
  • Letter submission
    • Submissions Policy
  • Contact Us
The Online Citizen Asia
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Politics
    • Civil Society
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Politics
    • Civil Society
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
No Result
View All Result
The Online Citizen Asia
No Result
View All Result

Ms Lee Bee Wah: A new broom sweeps indiscriminately

by onlinecitizen
25/08/2008
in Current Affairs
Reading Time: 5 mins read
0

TOC Op-Ed

Choo Zheng Xi / Editor in Chief

Mr Ng Ser Miang, Singapore’s only representative on the International Olympic Committee, highlighted the arrogance of Member of Parliament (Nee Soon South, Ang Mo Kio GRC) Ms Lee Bee Wah’s decision to fire Singapore table-tennis team manager Antony Lee succinctly: “I’m quite puzzled as to how a decision like that can be made by the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) president, who has been in office for just over a month.”

That Ms Lee, who took over as STTA president only last month, feels that she has personal ownership over the table-tennis team is undoubted. Using the personal pronoun in her interview with the Straits Times, she said: “I have a new team and will have a new CEO and technical director”.

Ms Lee’s transposition of the authoritarian instincts of the People’s Action Party (PAP) into the sporting arena highlights the ugliest characteristics of the party. She has in one fell swoop turned the mood over Singapore’s first Olympic silver sour, putting personal pique over national interest, running roughshod over people far more qualified than herself to impose a unilateral decision that very obviously lacks the support of those with a deep stake in Singapore’s sporting success.

Ms Lee was right to ask for accountability in the fiasco that left Singapore’s top men’s player Gao Ning on courtside alone, without a coach, during his match with unfancied Croatian Tan Ruiwu. Gao lost the match 0-4. It is unfortunate that Ms Lee has chosen to overreact and create a larger fiasco by making a public example of Antony Lee without consulting table tennis officials.

Integrity, accountability

More damningly, this incident speaks poorly of her integrity. She did not have the courage to admit that the Gao Ning fiasco was the reason she fired Mr Lee. Asked by the Straits Times if this was the reason she fired Mr Lee, she said it was not and added that “she just wanted to ‘let the matter rest’.”

If we take Ms Lee for her word, she has to explain to the country why she fired the Singaporean manager of our only team to win an Olympic silver – and this after a 48-year drought. The only other conclusion to draw is that she is cravenly trying to damage control the fallout of her rash action.

Mr Ng’s criticisms of Ms Lee’s rash actions carry great weight. Unlike Ms Lee, Mr Ng has devoted much of his life to the development of Singaporean sport. He was a former national sailor, and is currently the patron of the Singapore Sailing Federation. As the vice-president of the Singapore National Olympic Council, he was a key player in securing Singapore’s bid to host the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010.

Highhandedness

Having been the president of the STTA for only a month, Ms Lee can have minimal understanding of the team’s dynamic at best. More realistically, she is completely ignorant of the efforts put in by Mr Lee, and the rapport he has built with the team. To add insult to injury, she chose to fire Mr Lee without telling him to his face. Mr Lee had to find out about his dismissal from a “third party”, as he himself described it. “I’m surprised she did not tell me directly. That would be the courteous thing to do. I have to hear this from third parties. After doing so much for Singapore,” Mr Lee told the Straits Times, “I deserve a little respect.”

Ms Lee, however, said that “Antony is welcome to apply for the position when we ask for applications”. (Straits Times). It is ironic that in her “bold” public act, what has been foregrounded is her personal cowardice and highhandedness.

Perhaps Ms Lee did not want to follow the example of how her PAP colleague, Minister for Home Affairs Mr Wong Kan Seng, bungled the Mas Selamat fallout with a half-baked apology.

It is sad that she did not perceive the real lesson behind the public’s low estimation of Mr Wong’s insincerity. Mr Wong chose to exonerate the head of the Internal Security Department (ISD) without subjecting him to a disciplinary inquiry. Ms Lee has fallen on the other extreme of the same fundamental problem. By not subjecting the team manager’s oversight to a disciplinary inquiry of sporting officials with a clearer understanding of the sporting arena, she has shown a similar disdain for due process.

The lesson for our political leaders is this: due process in ascertaining guilt or exoneration matters more than well-publicised fist thumping. In Ms Lee’s case, that fist thumping is all the more galling for her inexperience and arrogance.

———-

For just US$7.50 a month, sign up as a subscriber on The Online Citizen Asia (and enjoy ads-free experience on our site) to support our mission to transform TOC into an alternative mainstream press.

Related Posts

2024 Olympic torch relay to start in Marseille
AFP

2024 Olympic torch relay to start in Marseille

03/02/2023
India’s Adani shares plunge again after stock sale cancelled
AFP

India’s Adani denies rise due to Modi as shares fall again

03/02/2023
TotalEnergies says Adani exposure ‘limited’ at US$3.1 bn
AFP

TotalEnergies says Adani exposure ‘limited’ at US$3.1 bn

03/02/2023
India’s finance minister says markets ‘well regulated’ after Adani storm
AFP

India’s finance minister says markets ‘well regulated’ after Adani storm

03/02/2023
A man can be sentenced to death by a testimony of another, but CPIB finds it hard to prosecute with mountain of evidence and self-confession?
Opinion

A man can be sentenced to death by a testimony of another, but CPIB finds it hard to prosecute with mountain of evidence and self-confession?

03/02/2023
AFP

Myanmar junta imposes tough new measures on resistance strongholds

03/02/2023
Subscribe
Connect withD
Login
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
Notify of
Connect withD
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Latest posts

2024 Olympic torch relay to start in Marseille

2024 Olympic torch relay to start in Marseille

03/02/2023
India’s Adani shares plunge again after stock sale cancelled

India’s Adani denies rise due to Modi as shares fall again

03/02/2023
TotalEnergies says Adani exposure ‘limited’ at US$3.1 bn

TotalEnergies says Adani exposure ‘limited’ at US$3.1 bn

03/02/2023
India’s finance minister says markets ‘well regulated’ after Adani storm

India’s finance minister says markets ‘well regulated’ after Adani storm

03/02/2023
A man can be sentenced to death by a testimony of another, but CPIB finds it hard to prosecute with mountain of evidence and self-confession?

A man can be sentenced to death by a testimony of another, but CPIB finds it hard to prosecute with mountain of evidence and self-confession?

03/02/2023

Myanmar junta imposes tough new measures on resistance strongholds

03/02/2023
Malaysia High Court dismissed DPM Zahid’s application to get passport returned permanently

Malaysia High Court dismissed DPM Zahid’s application to get passport returned permanently

03/02/2023
Why is Gautam Adani’s Indian empire in turmoil?

Adani turmoil a key test for Modi’s India Inc

03/02/2023

Trending posts

Former Singaporean shares change of life in Australia with annual pay of S$80,000 as a plumber

Former Singaporean shares change of life in Australia with annual pay of S$80,000 as a plumber

by Yee Loon
30/01/2023
25

...

Earning only S$400 a month, delivery-rider turned hawker threw in the towel after two years of running a rojak stall

Earning only S$400 a month, delivery-rider turned hawker threw in the towel after two years of running a rojak stall

by Yee Loon
26/01/2023
24

...

They have done a fine job of confusing us about the jobs situation

They have done a fine job of confusing us about the jobs situation

by Augustine Low
01/02/2023
36

...

Two Indian nationals paid about S$330 and S$730 respectively for forged certificates submitted in their S-Pass application

MOM found issuing EPs meant for foreign PMETs to PRC waitress and general worker

by Correspondent
26/01/2023
41

...

Singapore warns slower economic growth in 2023

Less than 1 in 10 jobs created in first three quarters of 2022 went to Singaporeans?

by Leong Szehian
28/01/2023
69

...

Excessively charging for an essential need, and calling it affordable because people still can pay for it?

by Terry Xu
31/01/2023
40

...

August 2008
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Jul   Sep »

The Online Citizen is a regional online publication based in Taiwan and formerly Singapore’s longest-running independent online media platform.

Navigation

  • Editorial
  • Commentaries
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Community

Support

  • Contact Us
  • Letter submission
  • Membership subscription

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Fact Checking Policy
  • Privacy Policy

© 2022 - 2023 The Online Citizen Asia

No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Civil Society
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
  • Politics
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
  • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Subscribers login

© 2022 - 2023 The Online Citizen Asia

wpDiscuz