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作者:游黎26/03/2010 李光耀爱派送虚伪称赞( back-handed compliments )。盖虚假称赞既无需本钱，又可伪装海量，何乐不为？ 用来按摩历史，虚赞更得混淆历史之效。最近李光耀对已故前汶莱苏丹的虚赞，又是一例。竟然有人牛粪当鲜花，将它“搽”在大衣翻领，除了自己嗅外，还唯恐世人也跟他们一样不懂辨认，四处宣扬，真令看官啼笑皆非。 先说李光耀最为人知的虚赞，莫过于独立前夕赴英谈判时，在英国佬面前称代表团员之一的林清祥 (Lim Chin Siong) 为“新加坡未来的总理”。林清祥听了怎么感受，无从得知，但那阵牛粪气味远隔重洋的新加坡民众都嗅到了。显然那还是争取独立的早期，李氏和左翼仍沉醉在同床异梦密月期，许多人都心照不宣。 李光耀爱耍弄的华校生，自然也是他派送虚赞礼的对象。在李回忆录上册第14章<华校生的世界>，201页有这么一段：“．．．我对华校生的世界认识却刚刚开始。这是个生机蓬勃的世界：有那么多活跃分子，个个生龙活虎；有那么多理想主义者，他们不自私，准备为更美好的社会牺牲自己的一切。看来他们完全献身于革命，下定决心，一心只想推翻殖民地政府，建立一个平等和公正的新世界。这给我留下了深刻的印象。” 回忆录多处可见诸如此类的虚赞，但接下的往往是贬化嘲讥的真正李式评价。如同书283页提到1955 林有福政府逮捕学运领袖，造成的风雨欲来的局势时，有这么一段华校生和英校生的对照的：“可是，我经过附近马来亚大学的学生宿舍时，却看到有些受英文教育的学生兴高采烈地大吹足球裁判员的笛子，兴奋地等着看一场好玩的游戏快要开始。眼看他们这种极端愚蠢的行为，无知和天真，我不禁要咒骂他们一顿。。。如果 躲在华校生背后不露脸的人得胜，这些大学生将最先被送去洗脑，并成为又一批失去一切的人。” 可见李光耀心目中的华校生虽是不自私的理想主义者，却也是自无己见，被共产党牵着鼻子走的幼稚年轻人。 到了80、90年代，李光耀在外国媒体面前把从商成功的华校生赞为“社会主义资本家”。赞许之余，不忘加插行动党政府对工商有利的英明政策的限定词。与此同时发表的”南大精神”谈，也一时听得南大人飘飘然。 再说回对前汶莱苏丹的虚赞。稍懂新马历史的人都知道当年李光耀要加入马来西亚计划的急切。参加大马新联合邦是行动党唯一能跟左翼的社阵竟争后英国政权的掌权途径。最近解禁的英政府档案显示，李光耀深恐东姑阿都拉曼临时冷脚，放弃大马计划。东姑原本对新马合并不感兴趣，是英国抛出北婆三邦---砂劳越、汶莱、 英属北婆(现沙巴)这三块大肥肉，买一送三，才逐使他在外国记者俱乐部宣布成立大马计划。急切着要“弄帮”北婆三邦舢舨的李光耀，怎会赞赏汶莱苏丹的退 出？ 李光耀不仅欢迎北婆三邦作陪葬品，英国更送上“1962汶莱政变”这份礼物。李光耀藉汶莱政变，“说服”马新英共管的内安部，展开<冷藏行动>，把社阵反对党人一网打尽，为加入大马铺路。 马来亚各州苏丹皇族对大马计划的热诚比东姑巫统更低，坚持汶莱苏丹没有轮流当全国“阿贡”的份。人口少石油多的汶莱，聪明的谢绝入伙合计。这点汶莱倒是比李光耀有远见之明。李光耀满以为他可以替代马华，做第一个马来西亚华籍首相 (毕竟宪法没有首相必需是马来人的规定)，导至两年后给踢出马来西亚的狼狈相。45年后李光耀对汶莱前苏丹的虚假称赞，不过用来 justified 热切参加大马后又被狼狈赶出的经历，也同时炫示他和苏丹的“英雄所见略同”。 如果当年不幸汶莱加入马来西亚，你能想象李光耀今天会发言表示同情吗？沙巴笔者不敢说，俺家乡砂劳越就有不少人会欢迎这份同情表示。李先生还等什么呢？ 当年把砂劳越、沙巴当陪祭品，热烈向北婆三邦吹销大马计划，一旦新加坡幸运退出，李光耀有跟砂、沙说个对不起，再见吗？ 竟然有人把李光耀的牛粪当鲜花，混淆耳目，啧啧。 来源：大马论坛  Read More →

By Amanda Lian Is Twitter more for Girls? Recently, I got a few comments from friends and colleagues alike that Twitter is more for girls. Why, you may ask. The demographic is more akin to the feminine gender. Although it is very hard to find out the exact user numbers according to gender, we can only list out why the people around me think so and why I beg to differ. Before you think that everything does not make sense, read on. If you are a girl, think back to the days when you were young. Have you actually used a diary? Or places to note down all your secret memories and thoughts? This medium is definitely not foreign to you. On another hand, although I do not pinpoint that boys do not do the same, I can safely say that girls are more inclined to jazz up the diary entry. No? Reading the journals of male friends, gives me a feeling that they are more technical – cold hard facts, while the ones of girls are lively and more emphasized on the asestically beautiful, resulting in a vivid, brilliant imagery etched in your thoughts for some time. Unless you do not agree with me that reading a diary entry written by a girl is more apt and on topics you can expand on? Have you noticed that if you had added or “followed” in the Twitter sense, Bill Gates for example, his Twitter posts are mostly technical notes of some sort and only a handful of pictures and visuals along the way? If not, males usually retweet (RT) news which is more practical in a way. In my friend’s corporate circle, there is a pattern which you all out there may find newsworthy. The most obvious thing that they put forward to my attention is that women tweets about what happened today, some insights to their personal life, quotes that are not too serious, and not too political. Twitter started out because it covers the need of a certain niche of people, people who wanted to blog but only in bite-sized snubs. The 140 character limit calls for short, simple but to the point expressions and thoughts. Facebook is for the people who wanted to connect more than just following while Twitter is to actually follow what an individual post up for the whole day. And you all know what? This seems so much like the journalist syndrome. The need to be accurate, to the point, short and sweet, yet engaging! Given all of the above, which gender would you think fills your mind of the perfect match for Twitter? Females, of course, you might say. Also, I do want to add that in fact, most of my journalist friends are guys! Is there a huge problem now? Given that most of my friends are in the technology sector, I may be bias towards the media industry when analysing this issue. However, the basic concept of social media is skewed towards females. If you found a male who is very friendly and have tonnes of female friends, I am sure you would say that he is either, odd or there must be something about him that can click with the females. Alright, not to stereotype, but do you agree with me? Men are more tight-lipped; women more out-going, research have shown, leading all the way back to the ancient times. So maybe the developers should have looked into this phenomenon when they were designing Web 2.0 right? The guys who you like to follow on Twitter, somewhat have the girls’ trait of being more open with their personal life and is generally more outspoken. Disagree? How about the famous writer of New York Times, Thomas Friedman as an example or many other famous comedians? They all have a strong following which further exerts my friend’s point. And to them, these guys are considered “lower-ranked” women. In my view, however, I believe that Twitter works for guys as well. I hold different views from the people around me just because I do see that guys are also quite outspoken when it comes to technology, gadgets or pictures. Guy designers will also tweet about fashion, relationships and beyond (take note that they are straight). So whether Twitter is for guys or girls, take your pick. Leave your comments and we will know in time to come. Or is the Twitter platform just a marketing tool for businesses? Tweet, tweet!   About the Author: Amanda Lian graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English Language, Creative writing and Child Psychology from the University of Western Australia. She worked as a staff writer for Hardwarezone and is currently an editorial executive at Cre8 Singapore Pte Ltd.  Read More →

作者:冀居·谢 我们常把“不耐烦”三个字连起来说，很少去思考“耐烦”的意义。其实“耐烦”是一种民主的素养，要管理这么多人，民主政府如果不耐烦，其实也实行不了“民主”制。 李显龙以什么来定义“有人滥用互联网来影响政府决策”呢？哦，原来是“互联网让一些个人或团体有机会利用虚构的身份来制造‘人工草皮’（astroturf）现象，掀起讨论的热潮。”—— 可是用匿名或虚拟的身份来发表意见，这本来就是互联网附带的方便，要不然为什么实名制这么多年来都没人鸟呢？同时，用同样内容的信件不断地投向政府部门或者领导人，以示舆论的铺天盖地，这在邮寄信件的时代已经十分盛行，政府应该重视的，是有许多人同意/认同这样的看法。 此外，政府接受民意是应该重视内容——“这些电邮的论点具说服力，来邮者显然相当熟悉房地产市场的运作”为依据，而不应该去计较发言者的身份，或者官方必须掌握发言者的身份才开始考虑是否“纳谏”？因为在先秦（公元前200年以上）的时代，齐王在接受批评方面，已经明确下令：“能面刺寡人之过者，受上赏；上书谏寡人者，受中赏；能谤讥于市朝，闻寡人之耳者，受下赏。”（《邹忌讽齐王纳谏》）——电邮或者网上论坛是介于“上书谏寡人者”和“能谤讥于市朝”之间，理应受中下赏的。 至于“谏”这种文体，并不是人人能够写就的，学养都要很够，中国历史上出名的谏文，就秦朝李斯的《谏逐客书》和唐朝魏征的《谏太宗十思疏》这两篇而已。能够写到让人感动、认同，并且皇上还要捺着性子笑纳，的确不容易。李显龙苛求批评文章每篇文采都要不一样，实在比古代的皇帝老爷要求还高。 要是这些谏文感动了大多数人，京城人手传阅，而主政者要是咬定“这些电邮的论点相同，风格也一致。加上在结尾的部分会要求政府快速并大幅度地降低房地产价格，否则下次大选他们将不再支持人民行动党政府，并会呼吁朋友们也这么做。……不知道是谁主使的，但它显然不是要为政府提供反馈或交流，可能是为了私利，以匿名的方式尝试向政府施压。”——是要挟皇上的惊天大阴谋，全部捉起来正法算了，那这两篇“反文”就不会被《古文观止》当宝似的收录在里面了。 唉！这样的傻话讲出来有失身份，都不怕笑死人！ 来源：大马论坛  Read More →