Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Thoughts on George Yeo guest-blogging for local blogger

This is interesting. George Yeo publishes a post as a guest. Non-Singaporean readers might be wondering, "Who's George Yeo?"

He's better known as Brigadier-General (BG) George Yeo, currently Singapore's Foreign Minister.

Some people chose to comment directly at the blog post (there were 10 comments when I last checked). Some chose to comment elsewhere, or linked/ long-tailed via trackbacks. Some posted their own opinions in their own blogs, as I have done so here.

That's how people can be 'engaged' using blogs. Detractors may say it's an example of how blogs can be abused, but I say "freedom of responsible speech". We are accountable for our own words; anonymity could be a fallacy.

It's not unexpected for people to link his act of guest-blogging to recent news about Singapore Government & New Media (partly mentioned here; see also this and this post from Damien).

Here's the thing -- it's probably more accurate to say that "Mr. George Yeo" guest-blogged, rather than refer to him as "BG George Yeo" (the BG title is associated with his official position, I think) or "Singapore Foreign Minister".

My logic is that he posted in his personal capacity, so we have to acknowledge that. Of course in his case, he's such a well-known public figure that it's near impossible for most to see him blog without associating him with his official post.

Anyway, whether we see that post as from George Yeo (Singaporean) or George Yeo (Singapore Foreign Minister), I think it's all good. Afterall, as Minister for Information and The Arts (as MICA was called then), he commissioned the landmark Library 2000 report, which served as the blueprint for transforming the public libraries and the National Library (see also, "Planning the Library of the Future - The Singapore Experience", paragraph captioned "PLANNING FOR THE LIBRARY OF THE FUTURE").

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3 comments:

  1. You know, when I first read this in Bloglines, I thought it was Mr Wang's blog!

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  2. Nah, he didn't invite me to guest blog for him, LOL

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  3. I think George (like Loong) has dropped the use of BG. They have now RODed. So, it is Mr George Yeo (both as Foreign Minister and as a private citizen).

    While I think a good first step for George to get into blogging, I think until he does it regularly, he and the other comrades would not get it. Sometimes there is a flicker of hope and all too soon it gets snuffed out. Let's hope this time it is for real.

    Harish

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