As regards mr brown

On July 7, 2006 · 101 Comments · In People

There is a con­spic­u­ous void in your friendly TODAY news­pa­per this morning.

I was asked sev­eral times this week what I feel about mr brown’s TODAY col­umn being sus­pended, and what I feel about MICA’s let­ter to TODAY.

While I’ve declined almost all inter­view requests, I think it’s only fair that I say some­thing here.

When I first heard about the mat­ter on Sun­day night, I was shocked, scared and then when I went to work on Mon­day morn­ing, puz­zled as to why any­one in the gov­ern­ment would react so strongly to his col­umn last Fri­day, which I found to be pretty-run-of-the-mill as far as his writ­ing was concerned.

Later in the week, we received news that Kin Mun’s col­umn would be sus­pended indef­i­nitely. There was no rea­son given, but I kinda expected that by this time.

I was heart­ened by the del­uge of com­ments on Kin Mun’s blog, and dis­ap­pointed by the lack of response in the newspaper’s Voices sec­tion, where columns and let­ters from the pub­lic are usu­ally published.

How­ever, there was work to keep us busy still, (and for those who aren’t in the know yet, Kin Mun and I are col­leagues in our lit­tle busi­ness ven­ture), and our “I am Sin­ga­porean” pod­cast series meme to do for the lead-up to National Day.

But I was a lit­tle scared, that our frag­ile lit­tle busi­ness might be affected by the fall­out from this issue, and that spon­sors might pull out from our show, which is just begin­ning to chug along at a nice lit­tle pace.

I’ve often said that we’re in the busi­ness of enter­tain­ment — pod­cast­ing and writ­ing to enter­tain. But it wouldn’t be true to pro­fess that we don’t have an opin­ion on seri­ous mat­ters. We do, and some­times, we let our opin­ions be heard. And If our opin­ions are skewed one angle or another, that’s just because they are opinions.

At first, I felt for Kin Mun, that he had been labeled a par­ti­san player. Then I asked him, ‘Nabeh, how come play par­ti­san never call me?’.

We dis­cussed this fur­ther, over lunch and din­ner, and I con­vinced him that MICA and the pow­ers that be were really after me, see­ing as I am often mis­taken for mr brown.

So he, and our other busi­ness part­ners decided that it’d be a good thing if I car­ried on writ­ing for TODAY for as long as our edi­tors deemed my con­tri­bu­tions good enough for their read­ers to enjoy.

That way, if MICA were to send another let­ter addressed to TODAY, refer­ring to the anony­mous mr brown, then we’d really know that the pow­ers that be were really after me right from the beginning.

Besides, we need the money now more than ever.

Tech­no­rati Tags: , , , ,

Tagged with:
 
Facebook Twitter StumbleUpon
← Older Comments
Newer Comments →
  • Impressed

    mr miyagi..altho you dont get thou­sands of com­ments here but i still wanna say the same thing i did in mb’s blog…that both have been so true to your­self all these while and shar­ing with us buck­et­ful of joy and cheer in all the pod­casts, blog­gings and sim­ply every­thing. keep the faith. we’re behind you all the way. we really cant please the whole world and i salute you both for even hav­ing opin­ions over issues and stick­ing by them and not being afraid to share them out.
    Believe this will make you both stronger and bet­ter.
    3 cheers to mr brown and my miyagi’s deep and true friendship.

  • Impressed

    mr miyagi..altho you dont get thou­sands of com­ments here but i still wanna say the same thing i did in mb’s blog…that both have been so true to your­self all these while and shar­ing with us buck­et­ful of joy and cheer in all the pod­casts, blog­gings and sim­ply every­thing. keep the faith. we’re behind you all the way. we really cant please the whole world and i salute you both for even hav­ing opin­ions over issues and stick­ing by them and not being afraid to share them out.
    Believe this will make you both stronger and bet­ter.
    3 cheers to mr brown and my miyagi’s deep and true friendship.

  • jing

    do not be dis­heart­ened mr miyagi.

    what­ever deci­sions you and mrbrown have made or are going to make, you still have AHEM loyal read­ers like yours truly here who will be in full sup­port of you guys. (just like how you and brown have been so sup­port­ive of each other) oh, and for every 1 annoy­ing com­ment, do know that you have 5 nice ones, and at least 4 who are usu­ally too shy to leave a message (:

    you guys never fail to amaze & impress me with all your work. con­tinue to inspire (:
    chin up!

    psst! i’ll buy your tur kwa shirt when it is out.

  • jing

    do not be dis­heart­ened mr miyagi.

    what­ever deci­sions you and mrbrown have made or are going to make, you still have AHEM loyal read­ers like yours truly here who will be in full sup­port of you guys. (just like how you and brown have been so sup­port­ive of each other) oh, and for every 1 annoy­ing com­ment, do know that you have 5 nice ones, and at least 4 who are usu­ally too shy to leave a message (:

    you guys never fail to amaze & impress me with all your work. con­tinue to inspire (:
    chin up!

    psst! i’ll buy your tur kwa shirt when it is out.

  • startears

    As long as you con­tinue to write, I will con­tinue to read.

    In actual fact, I think pulling out of Today’s col­umn will be a stu­pid thing to do. There are some things you ought to do to stand by your friend, but pulling out of Today is not the way.

    Jia you! p(^_^)q

  • startears

    As long as you con­tinue to write, I will con­tinue to read.

    In actual fact, I think pulling out of Today’s col­umn will be a stu­pid thing to do. There are some things you ought to do to stand by your friend, but pulling out of Today is not the way.

    Jia you! p(^_^)q

  • hol­lis­brown

    I won­der how long it will take Sin­ga­po­rans to real­ize that you all live in a dic­ta­tor­ship. You all think that because you have a rea­son­ably good stan­dard of liv­ing that you are bet­ter off than places like North Korea or Burma or Iran. You are all sheep afraid of your own shad­ows. When are you going to wake up and over­throw your dictators?

  • hol­lis­brown

    I won­der how long it will take Sin­ga­po­rans to real­ize that you all live in a dic­ta­tor­ship. You all think that because you have a rea­son­ably good stan­dard of liv­ing that you are bet­ter off than places like North Korea or Burma or Iran. You are all sheep afraid of your own shad­ows. When are you going to wake up and over­throw your dictators?

  • Franky

    I’m amused by the rant­ing lil per­son going on about the broth­er­hood. Sounds like a case of try­ing to be big­ger than his boots. Or per­haps he can com­ment on the ‘issues’ calmly and bravely when his liveli­hood, his family’s wel­fare and his pas­sion has been cur­tailed by the pow­ers that be. It’s easy to talk when the guil­lo­tine isn’t over your neck.

    As for Mr brown and Mr Miyagi. They have loved ones, fam­ily and peo­ple they are respon­si­ble to. They are act­ing in a man­ner that is befit­ting peo­ple that have alot to protect.

    I am part of the flail­ing masses that choose to voice my opin­ions. Yes I am affected deeply by the irre­spon­si­bilty of the gah­ment to take away the liveli­hood of some­one because of a ‘humour’ column.

    Chin up Mr Miyagi.

  • Franky

    I’m amused by the rant­ing lil per­son going on about the broth­er­hood. Sounds like a case of try­ing to be big­ger than his boots. Or per­haps he can com­ment on the ‘issues’ calmly and bravely when his liveli­hood, his family’s wel­fare and his pas­sion has been cur­tailed by the pow­ers that be. It’s easy to talk when the guil­lo­tine isn’t over your neck.

    As for Mr brown and Mr Miyagi. They have loved ones, fam­ily and peo­ple they are respon­si­ble to. They are act­ing in a man­ner that is befit­ting peo­ple that have alot to protect.

    I am part of the flail­ing masses that choose to voice my opin­ions. Yes I am affected deeply by the irre­spon­si­bilty of the gah­ment to take away the liveli­hood of some­one because of a ‘humour’ column.

    Chin up Mr Miyagi.

  • Mr White

    No offence, but I don’t find your writ­ing enter­tain­ing at all.

  • Mr White

    No offence, but I don’t find your writ­ing enter­tain­ing at all.

  • mys­tery Tan lines

    Mr White– you refer­ring to the writ­ing for miyagi’s TODAY col­umn or to the scripts for the MRBROWNSHOW PODCASTS or both? just curious.

  • mys­tery Tan lines

    Mr White– you refer­ring to the writ­ing for miyagi’s TODAY col­umn or to the scripts for the MRBROWNSHOW PODCASTS or both? just curious.

  • jas

    As much as I don’t like the polit­i­cal blah­blahs from you and/or mrbrown, I’d have to say that I admire you for stand­ing by your friend. Cheers.

  • jas

    As much as I don’t like the polit­i­cal blah­blahs from you and/or mrbrown, I’d have to say that I admire you for stand­ing by your friend. Cheers.

  • Craneinafor­est

    as some­one else must have men­tioned by now, Do keep your chin up and con­tinue writ­ing. I don’t think it can be con­sid­ered that you’re a sell-out if you con­tinue writ­ing for Today, indeed, many i know read today pre­cisely because of said columns. Asides from the fact that we are sin­ga­pore­ans and it is free of course. =)

    how­ever, i do find it objec­tion­able some­times with cer­tain opin­ions in rela­tion to Sin­ga­porean Liv­ing. Espe­cially after vis­it­ing Thai­land as part of OCIP (over­seas com­mu­nity involve­ment projects) and going to Sri lanka post-tsunami, again for CIP pur­poses. I find that while there are things that we can and should fight for, empha­sis should also be given to what we already have. ie. while I agree that the “gah­ment” is fairly high-handed with regards to what they did to the oppo­si­tion and their cer­tain poli­cies are non­sen­si­cal, I am at the same time thank­ful that we have a infight­ing gov­ern­ment like said Malaysia cur­rently, or per­pet­ual chaos like in Tai­wan. It is enter­tain­ing no doubt, but would you rather be enter­tained under those circumstances?

    but at the end of the day, that is but my opin­ion and as my teachers/people-higher-than-me-in-status often can’t but inform me, my opin­ion is not required, my com­pli­ance is. Haha espe­cially in rela­tion to my homework.

    cheers

    (ps. would be inter­est­ing to get a tur kwa T.)

  • Craneinafor­est

    as some­one else must have men­tioned by now, Do keep your chin up and con­tinue writ­ing. I don’t think it can be con­sid­ered that you’re a sell-out if you con­tinue writ­ing for Today, indeed, many i know read today pre­cisely because of said columns. Asides from the fact that we are sin­ga­pore­ans and it is free of course. =)

    how­ever, i do find it objec­tion­able some­times with cer­tain opin­ions in rela­tion to Sin­ga­porean Liv­ing. Espe­cially after vis­it­ing Thai­land as part of OCIP (over­seas com­mu­nity involve­ment projects) and going to Sri lanka post-tsunami, again for CIP pur­poses. I find that while there are things that we can and should fight for, empha­sis should also be given to what we already have. ie. while I agree that the “gah­ment” is fairly high-handed with regards to what they did to the oppo­si­tion and their cer­tain poli­cies are non­sen­si­cal, I am at the same time thank­ful that we have a infight­ing gov­ern­ment like said Malaysia cur­rently, or per­pet­ual chaos like in Tai­wan. It is enter­tain­ing no doubt, but would you rather be enter­tained under those circumstances?

    but at the end of the day, that is but my opin­ion and as my teachers/people-higher-than-me-in-status often can’t but inform me, my opin­ion is not required, my com­pli­ance is. Haha espe­cially in rela­tion to my homework.

    cheers

    (ps. would be inter­est­ing to get a tur kwa T.)

  • Craneinafor­est

    “…at the same time thank­ful we DON’T have a infight­ing.….” sorry about that haha heck of a lot of difference.

  • Craneinafor­est

    “…at the same time thank­ful we DON’T have a infight­ing.….” sorry about that haha heck of a lot of difference.

  • http://duanherself.blogspot.com MissD

    when is da tur kwa shirt com­ing out? i want one!

  • http://duanherself.blogspot.com MissD

    when is da tur kwa shirt com­ing out? i want one!

  • http://miketan.blogspot.com Michael Tan

    I am respond­ing to this: (U think only you have server ah miyagi — this is what they retrieved from the last post — by the way the broth­er­hood is not happy the way you treated Michael Tan and IRTCP. You must know by now they are sim­ply fol­low­ing orders from the coun­cil of the wise to restore bal­ance and har­mony to blogshpere)

    I do not know who tom­a­hawk is. I deny any rela­tion­ship with any ‘coun­cil of the wise’. I do not fol­low any orders, I merely stated a fact which I have noticed.

    Michael Tan
    michaeltanyk@gmail.com

  • http://miketan.blogspot.com Michael Tan

    I am respond­ing to this: (U think only you have server ah miyagi — this is what they retrieved from the last post — by the way the broth­er­hood is not happy the way you treated Michael Tan and IRTCP. You must know by now they are sim­ply fol­low­ing orders from the coun­cil of the wise to restore bal­ance and har­mony to blogshpere)

    I do not know who tom­a­hawk is. I deny any rela­tion­ship with any ‘coun­cil of the wise’. I do not fol­low any orders, I merely stated a fact which I have noticed.

    Michael Tan
    michaeltanyk@gmail.com

  • Har Chiong Kai

    What is this garbage about “the broth­er­hood” and “coun­cil of the wise” crap. What’s your prob­lem any­way. Shoo! Get lost.

  • Har Chiong Kai

    What is this garbage about “the broth­er­hood” and “coun­cil of the wise” crap. What’s your prob­lem any­way. Shoo! Get lost.

  • http://chinglishchick.blogspot.com Eh-choo mui mui

    Hang in there, Senor Miyagi. What they did to Brown smacks of Com­mu­nist China ghulag-gag maneu­vers. You *have* to con­tinue writ­ing for TODAY, you *have* to tell them what you think…I hope you had a talk with your spon­sors about the issue, and whether they con­tinue to sup­port you all the way.

    Hang in there.

  • http://chinglishchick.blogspot.com Eh-choo mui mui

    Hang in there, Senor Miyagi. What they did to Brown smacks of Com­mu­nist China ghulag-gag maneu­vers. You *have* to con­tinue writ­ing for TODAY, you *have* to tell them what you think…I hope you had a talk with your spon­sors about the issue, and whether they con­tinue to sup­port you all the way.

    Hang in there.

  • barffie

    Both of them cer­tainly don’t need the sup­port of some lame­ass mon­key and dun­nowhatchil­dren thing.

  • barffie

    Both of them cer­tainly don’t need the sup­port of some lame­ass mon­key and dun­nowhatchil­dren thing.

  • Mar­tin

    Hi Mr Miyagi,

    May you and MrBrown have courage to press on all the way! Both of you are true Singaporean.

    Regards
    Martin

  • Mar­tin

    Hi Mr Miyagi,

    May you and MrBrown have courage to press on all the way! Both of you are true Singaporean.

    Regards
    Martin

  • Har Chiong Kai

    It’s easy to tell other peo­ple they must speak up, press all the way etc when it’s not your ass on the line. We talk only. They are in the front line.

    I think what you and KM are doing is right…stand down and lay low for awhile. You know the gahmen’s style…don’t pray pray.

    It’s sad. It’s the truth. It’s dis­heart­en­ing. We live in an atmos­phere of fear. I would leave if I could but it would break my heart cos this is my home.

  • Har Chiong Kai

    It’s easy to tell other peo­ple they must speak up, press all the way etc when it’s not your ass on the line. We talk only. They are in the front line.

    I think what you and KM are doing is right…stand down and lay low for awhile. You know the gahmen’s style…don’t pray pray.

    It’s sad. It’s the truth. It’s dis­heart­en­ing. We live in an atmos­phere of fear. I would leave if I could but it would break my heart cos this is my home.

  • slay­er­gurl

    I was also sur­prised that Mr Brown’s col­umn was sus­pended and also why MICA would be respond­ing to his col­umn. How­ever, I think the lack of com­ments about this issue in the TODAY Voices may be due to TODAY not will­ing to pub­lish some of the com­ments as seen from what some of the peo­ple com­mented in Mr Brown’s blog.

    I hope that despite the hap­pen­ings you guys would stay strong and not give up for what you guys believe in. Every­thing will be fine after a few months. Mean­while, hang on and I think you guys’ read­ers and sup­port­ers would stand by and respect you guys’ choices. (=

  • slay­er­gurl

    I was also sur­prised that Mr Brown’s col­umn was sus­pended and also why MICA would be respond­ing to his col­umn. How­ever, I think the lack of com­ments about this issue in the TODAY Voices may be due to TODAY not will­ing to pub­lish some of the com­ments as seen from what some of the peo­ple com­mented in Mr Brown’s blog.

    I hope that despite the hap­pen­ings you guys would stay strong and not give up for what you guys believe in. Every­thing will be fine after a few months. Mean­while, hang on and I think you guys’ read­ers and sup­port­ers would stand by and respect you guys’ choices. (=

  • tar­mack

    miyagi,

    there’s this one troll, very irri­tat­ing, keep mak­ing dis­gust­ing com­ments at MB’s web­site, claim­ing to be us some more.. so i just want to ask for your help, pass the mes­sage to MB to hang in there. i believe many of us really behind him.

    thanks :)

  • tar­mack

    miyagi,

    there’s this one troll, very irri­tat­ing, keep mak­ing dis­gust­ing com­ments at MB’s web­site, claim­ing to be us some more.. so i just want to ask for your help, pass the mes­sage to MB to hang in there. i believe many of us really behind him.

    thanks :)

  • Ping

    hon­estly, what­ever they do, they sure have their “pathetic” reasons.

    You guys did not point a gun at us and FORCE us to read and lis­ten to mrBrown show..

    wrong edu­ca­tion deliv­ered?
    i don’t think so…

    =)

  • Ping

    hon­estly, what­ever they do, they sure have their “pathetic” reasons.

    You guys did not point a gun at us and FORCE us to read and lis­ten to mrBrown show..

    wrong edu­ca­tion deliv­ered?
    i don’t think so…

    =)

  • Ping

    hon­estly, what­ever they do, they sure have their “pathetic” reasons.

    You guys did not point a gun at us and FORCE us to read and lis­ten to mrBrown show..

    wrong edu­ca­tion deliv­ered?
    i don’t think so…

    =)

  • Ping

    hon­estly, what­ever they do, they sure have their “pathetic” reasons.

    You guys did not point a gun at us and FORCE us to read and lis­ten to mrBrown show..

    wrong edu­ca­tion deliv­ered?
    i don’t think so…

    =)

  • St.Jimmy

    go miyagi! trea­sure your friend­ship wif mr brown. true friends don’t come often this days. =]

  • St.Jimmy

    go miyagi! trea­sure your friend­ship wif mr brown. true friends don’t come often this days. =]

  • Cooper

    Bhanavi should have ended his reply with… “this is your lau-pei talking”

  • Cooper

    Bhanavi should have ended his reply with… “this is your lau-pei talking”

  • Cooper

    Must be because of the tur-kwa pod­cast you guys made lah… the gah­man very angry you did not fea­ture them as the mee-pok seller.

  • Cooper

    Must be because of the tur-kwa pod­cast you guys made lah… the gah­man very angry you did not fea­ture them as the mee-pok seller.

  • ck

    noth­ing to fear! you have my SUPPORT!!! *stamp chest*

    Have a fab day ahead! :-)

  • ck

    noth­ing to fear! you have my SUPPORT!!! *stamp chest*

    Have a fab day ahead! :-)

← Older Comments
Newer Comments →
Set your Twitter account name in your settings to use the TwitterBar Section.

Switch to our mobile site