No Censorship, but please do Self-Censorship! Discern with Care!

This post is specially dedicated to issues pertaining to the blog post on "Dog that barks doesnt neccessary make a good dog." by tanyanshan.blogspot.com. I have to warn anyone who is reading this post to discern with care what is going to be discussed. In addition, I am declaring that I have nothing against both parties and I am not taking sides! Moreover, I will NOT assess the credibility of the claims. Discern it yourself! Just comments.

Excerpt:

"Being the principal, I thought you should be the most amiable,respectable and admired but hell no. Instead of gaining all the respect he should gain, he lost it all. It can be argued that whatever he did were for the welfare of this college,yes i may agree to a certain extent but even so, he should do it in a manner which makes look like a human and not a barbarian. In my secondary school days, my principal, Mr Lau Yan Boon, did almost everything the same as that guy in my college e,g. catching unacceptable length and style of hair etc etc. However in doing so he still gained the utmost respect from many of the students.What a contrast!It lies in the way he should carry out things and punishments. In my post, i will state the things he did which make many of us full of anger.I will be serious this time cause its serious bitch.

Last Friday, i went to school as usual,using the toilet as usual,went for morning assembly as usual. Seeing the principal up there as though he is an idiot. After the pledge, Koh Yong Chiah, principal of Jurong Junior College served us his perspective on our Indian students that left many of us students,ashamed.

Quoting(95% of the content are very true,the remaining 5% are true but i could not remember the exact details) from Koh Yong Chiah: 'I dont like the indians in our school residing in one corner of the school and i dont like them leaving moustache, they seem to be forming gang in our school.I dont want the Indians to be together anymore. ' What do u mean by GANG?I provide some of the meaning from dictionary.com.

Gang
-noun

1. a group or band: A gang of boys gathered around the winning pitcher.
2. a group of youngsters or adolescents who associate closely, often exclusively, for social reasons, esp. such a group engaging in delinquent behavior.
3. a group of people with compatible tastes or mutual interests who gather together for social reasons: I'm throwing a party for the gang I bowl with.
4. a group of persons working together; squad; shift: a gang of laborers.
5. a group of persons associated for some criminal or other antisocial purpose: a gang of thieves.

He certainly did not mean the first,third and forth meaning mentioned above.That leaves us with the second and fifth meaning.Both are really negative,both mean that the Indians in our school are being labeled as GANGSTERS by him.In JJC,it is true that the Indian students always gather around one corner of the school.What about the Chinese students in the college.We make the largest population in the school and we too,are always in our own CLIQUE.Does that mean we Chinese are forming GANG too in JJC?If goes by the definition of GANG by him, we Chinese in JJC should be categorised as GANGS too.But why doesnt him mention about the Chinese and the Malays and why did he only mention about the Indians in the college?Racist?Maybe.Prejudice?Maybe.Plain stupidity?Damn right.

I have been in this college for around 4 months and the Indians i know and the fellow Indians residing in one corner certainly mean aint NO harm.They are friendly,they are students who constitute part of the college.Why should they be arrowed by the stupidity of our principal?They dont deserve it at all,not a single bit.They deserve better, much more better.From what i see,the Indians are just plainly gathering in their own CLIQUE like many of us do everyday.I hang around with my friends every single morning before morning assembly.I found joy in talking among my clique whom i am familiar with,friends whom i can click with.This should apply to the Indians in our school too,they do can stay with their own band of brothers,their own group of friends.They are doing nothing wrong like the other races in the college and all of us are living in harmony.But one guy just stir this homogeneous harmony up without knowing it.What will the Indians feel when he said that?Put yourself in their shoe please.Give them back the liberty to make the friends they want to make and stop making decisions that no ones will obey and stay abide to.

The Indian dance in my school won a SYF GOLD WITH HONOURS medal, something which should make any principal proud of.But wait,did that guy mention anything about the Indian dance troupe winning the prestigious award?NO.He just let life goes on like the Indian Dance Troupe had not won anything great for the college.I saw their dance,its awesome,something i have not seen in one hell of a long time.They deserve the recognition by the school,or at least the principal of the school but they aint no getting any of them.It left me wondering what must the dancer achieve before that guy decides to glorify their achievements infront of the whole school.I think if the 'Indian GANG' did something like fighting outside the school,that guy will most probably announce to the whole world.Now,they done the school proud but why your gap in your face is not opening yet?"

... and he goes on and on...

"So Mr Koh by calling a student terrorist,do you really want us to be terrorist?I certainly felt insulted if i am called a terrorist.He can be charged under the penal code(Singapore)

Chapter XXI: Defamation

Second,recently there is one china student who refused to give in his ezlink card to that guy.He agured with that guy and guess what?THAT IDIOT smacked the guy.I am not quite sure of where did the principal hit the china student but whatever it is,hitting is not right.C'mon,it is now the 21st century,its not about hitting student with Chinese kung-fu,its not about old-school teaching method,its not about building your regime in school.?For that incident alone,the chinese student is at fault in the first place but the principal of JJC is at a bigger fault.He can be charged under Singapore penal code

Chapter XVI: Offences affecting the human body.

See the seriousness?

I blog about this post is to expose the torment we students have to suffer both physically and mentally in JJC.I have the urge to call up TNP to do a review on our principal,however,I must gather more evidence and SUPPORT from the student body.I certainly hope JJCians will stand up to be counted.We call for the respect we deserve."

-End of Excerpt-

While I learnt that Tan Yan Shan is a current Jurong Junior College student, I should say that it's quite admirable for showing so much courage to go against a principal like that. But then again, I have to say that it's very tactless of him to have voiced out such resentments with utterly blunt words like "dogs that bark" and, probably, falsely assumed that the meaning of "gang". If what was mentioned had been true, it'll be highly calamitous. Accuracy of the claims aside, just the tactless tone of this post itself makes it very unsightly for reading pleasures. And it would be better for him do some proper citation for the legal terminologies. So I should suggest that to Yan Shan to take responsibility of what he wants to publish on his blog by using a more subtle tone to "minimise the damage" to his blog. You loathe the tactlessness of the principal words, so don't do it yourself. As simple as "自所不欲﹐勿施于人", i.e "Don't do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you." And by the way, for some reason, the blog has been shut down. Which explains why I had to use such a long excerpt.

Two sides to a coin. Here's it.

I feel that it takes a lot for a student to be write something so bad about a principal and publish it online for the public. Something may be very wrong, maybe not so? (As mentioned, I will not judge upon the accuracy, do it yourself).

In any case, my experience with the principal hadn't been anymore pleasant or unpleasant. I think we should give credits for his efforts in improving the school's environment by air-conditioning the hall for better comfort during examinations, renovating the canteen for a better look, etc. But being a good leader doesn't stop there. I feel that it involves good handling of inter-personal relationship which will in turn requires tactfulness of speech. Intention aside, but being careless with words will give you a lot of trouble and creates much misunderstanding even if you don't mean it.

My personal experience for example. I probably had been in the wrong for being late for a GP test. And the definition of "being late" is failing to arrive half-an-hour before time to study for the paper. Strange as it may sound but it's a rule passed down all the way from the top. Fair enough that it has been make clear everyone that what "late" means. So fair enough that I've been classified as a late comer. By the way, I arrived before the paper had commenced.

Maybe it's justified enough for a punishment. True enough, everyone who was late was recalled to a LT for a 1 1/2 hours long "telling off session" by the principal. While that might still sound fair, the principal said that we've been 不仁﹐不義﹐不忠﹐不孝. Which translate loosely (note that translations might not be rigorous) to merciless, lack of integrity, disloyal and unfilial. That to me sounded like we've been the lowest lifeforms on Earth with the cheapest characters. And that is for being late. Sheesh!

It has been 3 years or more since that day. I put my trustworthiness at stake to be sharing this incident, and hence I will not lie. It left a huge impact on me as epitomized by the fact that I still have a clear idea of his choice of words. Fortunate enough, I haven't been too affected by those words in a sense that my confidence wasn't really damped. But still I find those words too harsh. He probably didn't mean it, but still it's very unpleasant.

Times have changed and it will keep changing. Old school way of running the school should not be relevant anymore. Probably, the principal might have taken too much of his experience of his time as a student and put them into use today(Note the choice of word probably). I know that teachers and principals were highly respected figures back in the past. But I feel that the contemporary education defines respect to be a mutual thing. Earn it by giving it to the other party.

I repect the freedom of speech for Yan Shan to be conveying this experience to the public. But be warned to do it with due responsiblity. As for the public, be warned to dicern it with due care. I may make a poor leader if I were to be a leader, but above is what I feel as a follower that the leader should be.

I have left the College long enough to be so concerned about this issue. But I truly wish that students voices can be heard and authority would respect them after assessing the credibility of it.

I think the length of this entry has very far exceed a comfortable length. Let's just stop here.