The fine art of cherry picking

August 12, 2009 by admin
Filed under: Current Affairs 

Written by Ng E-Jay
12 Aug 2009

If there is one thing about how issues are debated in Singapore that irks me, it is the tendency of pundits to miss the forest for the trees, spend an inordinate amount of time and energy dwelling on the periphery rather than the main issues, and engage in the fine art of cherry picking.

A couple of years ago, someone uploaded a video on Youtube showing a teacher reprimanding a student openly in class. After a lengthy and humiliating tirade in which the teacher scolded the student for lacking punctuality in handing up assignments and for writing about anti-establishment views, she unceremoniously tore up the student’s homework and threw it back at him. This sensational scene attracted thousands of views on Youtube as well as a wide variety of comments.

Some people felt that the teacher was wrong to have openly humiliated the student and trampled on his dignity. Others felt that youngsters nowadays are so arrogant that they deserve to be taught a fine lesson from time to time. Yet others laughed off the incident as commonplace, if a little bit humourous.

But soon into the discussion, the focus turned to the person (most likely a student) who filmed the tirade and uploaded it onto the Internet. The entire debate eventually revolved around whether the student who uploaded the video should be disciplined for his or her actions, and whether there had been any breach of privacy.

The larger issues like whether teachers ought to be counseled not to go overboard with their punishments or whether the dignity and feelings of students should be respected were forgotten. The debate largely centered around whether it was right to take videos of happenings in the classroom and upload them without permission from the school authorities.

Dwelling on the periphery issues and forgetting about the big picture causes us to lose sight of our objectives and makes unnecessary conflicts more likely. It also enables the authorities to get away without being held fully accountable for their actions, because people forget to ask the hard questions and demand the answers that they really need.

Unfortunately, the habit of cherry picking is a hard one to break, even if many of us can agree that it should be avoided.

Worse still, when it comes to politics, the mainstream press often loves to use the technique of cherry picking to distract readers from the main issues and focus their minds on the nitty gritty details that paint the opposition in a bad light.

Thus to this day, Mr Tan Lead Shake is known as “slipper man”, the guy who was seen wearing slippers while campaigning for votes.

And to this day, many people only remember Dr Chee Soon Juan for using a loudhailer to “heckle” Mr Goh Chok Tong during a walkabout in Jurong during the run-up to the 2001 General Elections. This is very unfortunate because the importance of Dr Chee’s question to Mr Goh was lost in the torrent of negative propaganda dished out by the mainstream media against Dr Chee.

And yes, to this day, the Government is not being held accountable for the manner in which our national reserves are managed and invested, and our CPF is a broken ship that can no longer support working class citizens in their retirement. It is high time for Singaporeans to stand up and ask the Government “where is our money“, and express it at the ballot box.

Lastly, to SDP’s critics who love to over-react to the petty stuff, and are fond of nit-picking on the little issues about Dr Chee to the neglect of the larger issues confronting Singaporeans, this “motivational” poster is dedicated specially to them:

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Comments

3 Comments on The fine art of cherry picking

  1. The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Daily SG: 12 Aug 2009 on Wed, 12th Aug 2009 11:12 am

    2. [...] Discourse – Sam’s thoughts: Taking on Teen Sex – Sgpolitics.net: The fine art of cherry picking – Tan Kin Lian’s Blog: Minimum wage [...]

  2. dc on Thu, 13th Aug 2009 1:47 pm

    3. well spoken, ejay. need a lot of discipline, effort n wisdom to stay focussed on what matters and to avoid things that do not matter. very important for people who are engaged in political discourse, debate and action……

  3. The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup: Week 33 on Mon, 17th Aug 2009 11:39 am

    4. [...] and start asking the hard questions – Sam’s thoughts: Taking on Teen Sex – Sgpolitics.net: The fine art of cherry picking – Tan Kin Lian’s Blog: Minimum wage jobs – the kent ridge common: Possibility of a speaker [...]

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