August 2006
Co-Opt Culture Working Full-On
A young doctor was jailed for possession of controlled substance after undercover narcotic agents posing as gay good-timers on the Internet chat-line lured him into have a drug-induced sex-orgy at a hotel. The day after the news broke, The Straits Times issued a report, saying -- “Lawyers say narcotic officers crossed the line in quest to nab offender, but any method of entrapment is legal here” (Jun 9, ‘06). Fabulous. Like I always say – the climate of fear in Singapore is very real, so let’s have more of entrapment-culture to prove me right. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, you should never have gay-sex with another Singaporean. You never know if he/she is an entrapment-officer! You forgot? Gay sex is still illegal (not to mention oral sex even between consenting heteros, unless it’s between married couples). We may be more tolerant of gays now but it’s just for economic reasons ONLY – the pink dollar! Questionable national ethics? We don’t care! I love it!
Notice that recently, the Government pumped $1 million into an event called POPagenda in June to foster the growth of S-pop – a niche it wishes to establish in relation to J-pop (Japanese pop) and T-pop (Thai pop). So why do you think such an effort is undertaken to generate Singapore-pop? Simple, Big Brother killed off the local music scene years ago, therefore in this age of the empowering Internet, it’s time to make amends. The same way He built a skate-park after He realized that trying to ban skateboarding was useless. If you can’t beat them, nourish them! So now, a hundred skate-parks in the heartlands to win over the young.
“Want to shoot your mouth off? Go down to Stomp” – was the big Straits Times two-page feature on Jun 17. Stomp, by the way, stands for Straits Times Online Mobile Print. The headline for the feature states that Stomp has received more than 120,000 hits since its launch three days before. It’s ST’s “groundbreaking portal to engage readers”. So, do our dodo Singaporeans bother to ask – engage for what purpose? Reason – we all know for what purpose, just that we can’t really mouth off on that issue, can we! Co-opt, meh?
We all know that with the powerful phenomenon named blogging, Big Brother has to co-opt it, the same way it co-opts everything else that’s come about autonomously from the public. From skateboarding to foam parties to Mohammed Sultan club-life (look, He has DXO and Clark Quay for you now! Poor dying Mohammed Sultan clubs) to… even me for its pre-Election Progress Package! I’d turned down the interview for the ST on the grounds that talking about what I’d do with my Package is tacky, But seriously, I would have loved to say – read my X’ Ho Files for what I have to say about the Package. But I jolly well know that the (happy hostage) press here is king to Big Brother’s dowager-Queen for me to be able to affect such a directive.
Coming back to Stomp… the ad for the UK percussion group with the same name says: “Ideal for kids”. For a start, I suggest that the kids start asking fundamental questions and don’t take any hackneyed explanation for whatever-peace as acceptable reasons; like economic peace, for one. Why are ALL forms of public media quasi or government-owned? Alas, the kids don’t know any pertinent questions or how to pursue them. That’s why we can afford to have Stomp. Methinks it means more like stomping out any doubts about the establishment. Cool. Keep it that way. Let’s get buried in sham. Think I’m being cynical and bitter? Against a win-win unquestionable system… surely it’s more like intelligent defence! If you can’t beat them, condescend to them.
On that same Saturday in Jun (17), there was a special seven-page report in the ST about youth subcultures in Singapore titled Closet Rebels. “They look as if they hail from freak city but these mavericks are no misfits,” the report stated. Oh yah? Like they just happened in 2006? These ‘tribes’ have been in Singapore for a long-long time, as far back as the 1970s when the No Punk Hairdos poster hung in the Mediacorp TV’s dressing room. Just that now Big Brother can no longer afford to alienate the young at a time when Internet culture exposes much and empowers many. And when He is in dire need to secure future leaders. So now, Big Brother is forced to relinquish his intolerance and make it look like He’s trying to convince you to be tolerant. You know what my siow friend calls these pulp features? Shite. But I have a much better motto to appease the intelligent mind: Don’t get vexed, preserve the infestation of sham, hypocrisy and ugliness. Let’s all spare the rod and spoil the child, the same way the system does. A kiasu and mercenary culture of self-righteous entrapment surely calls for such a reaction. In fact, you can never be too cynical here….
Take for instance the way sex sells local mags like Maxim and FHM here these days (mind you, most of them are owned and published by our nation’s own media arms Caldecott Publishing and Singapore Press Holdings). It wasn’t that long ago (before the Internet revolution) when models on the cover of mags sold here have to be decently covered up to preserve Asian and family values. These values were dogmatically upheld as the supreme virtue of a good, conservative society. So, now? Now that Internet came along, Asian and family values conveniently take a backseat, lor. Suddenly, no one’s complaining about those racy magazine covers, why hah? We all know the economic convenience behind the picture, don’t we! Help preserve the shhh… I love the hypocrisy too.
On Today newspaper suspending ‘maverick’-blogger Mr.Brown’s column that criticized the government’s notion of national progress, my siow friend said: Of course Big Brother wants to look like he’s censuring Mr. Brown, how else can He get the dodo public to continue following Mr. Brown’s vacuous blogs in Today! (The suspension must make Mr. Brown look really radical to secure a higher readership following if and when his column gets reinstated in Today). When it comes to ‘blogging’, the real deal died with BigO’s e-line Update a while ago, when it went off-line unexplained. Fact that no one bothered to ask any question about it or could. Just goes to show BigO’s divine relevance in contrast to the publicity given to Mr. Brown’s. Yes, Mr. Brown, we’re helping you build a better (contained) following! Better yet, consider him the new ‘Talking Cock’. Any better at the game, and sweet little Mr. Brown will be writing a regular column for the Sunday Times too! - X’ Ho
