The following is a long comment posted by our Techie, Andrew in an ongoing discussion with a fellow reader in a thread about Iris Koh, the founder of HTD, edited slightly for clarity.
Since it is mostly a true narrative of the path that TR Emeritus (TRE) took in its over a decade of existence, we think it is more appropriate to escalate it into an individual post for the information of all our reader.
The opinions expressed are entirely his own observation, but mostly concurred by the team.
*** Start ***
I have been in TRE long enough to know that If TRE had wanted to make a nice profit out of our website, there are plenty of options. Initially, TRE could raise US$20k in a day under a certain doctor. It was then, a no holds barred and anything goes website, reader support was overwhelming.
When the doctor owner was “taken care” off [sic] in 2011 because a certain editor couldn’t keep his dicky in the right place and got caught by a reporter from TODAY, those who were left decided against that mode of operation and we went down the responsible, not anyhow “cheong” path. That probably turns our readers off, being so “timid” as some would describe it.
But that did not stop us from keeping TRE alive to continue to provide a platform for fellow citizens to share, cry father cry mother. We prefer to think of the current TRE as an outlet for pent-up hot air, a platform for your voice, not some cowboy town and certainly not some anti-government website.
We are neutral, if you have an article praising You Con, we will print it, you have another praising the supposed mole Rashid, we will also print it, as long as it is not against our AUP and TOS. So it can be said that we are neither left, right or center, with everyone entitled to their opinions, no matter how childish or crazy it may seems. Everyone is encouraged to agree to disagree as mature adults.
From my observation, most Sinkies love martyrs, that can explain why it is so easy for Roy, Leong and even Terry to raise almost a $million combined. The more they are perceived to be “bullied” and “oppressed”, the more the easier, and the donation is not to really help them per se, its to send a message to the supposed bully, “the more you bully him/her, the more we will support”, so the ‘bully’ lan lan. It’s all human nature, it’s natural to love weaklings, can’t fault them for it.
After the doctor, TRE was never ‘bullied’ (probably because we went ‘timid’ and don’t anyhow cheong), so can explain why we never did managed to raise our intended target in ANY round of crowdfunding. We simply don’t appeal to the masses because most pay to want to watch a show, which we couldn’t stage, i.e. “cheonging”. We don’t get the intended funding because these donors (of course there are genuine ones, but limited supply) do not get to ‘slap’ the supposed bully, so to them, it would probably be a waste of time and money.
But no regrets, we believe in changes, we want changes and we do believe that there are some policies that can be improved upon to make life better for fellow citizens, but knowing the party that (don’t listen), we continued to provide a platform for feedback, it may be years or decades before the party starts listening and the daft wakes up, but we persisted and never gave up (until recently when the team felt that we are not achieving anything and financially, we could no longer support the platform).
Bottomline is, it is not our belief that “cheonging” is the best option to get things done, it will hurt a lot of people and ourselves. Look at ASS, TOC, etc etc etc. And now look at Iris of HTD. The team believes in “communication and respect” (refer to my comment on what happened to WP).
We all have families, if we are “taken care of”, then who provides for them? We are not martyrs (not afraid to admit) and never will we be. We can only do so much and seeing how divided the society is right now, even HTD that supposedly shares the same goal as TRE in the unvax JR thingy, went actively all out to hamper TRE’s crowdfunding efforts for the Judicial Review against discrimination of the unvax. Iris is running the HTD like a business, and probably she prefers to milk her cult members for herself (noticed how almost everything on HTD is paid?).
Anyway, we saw how WP refused to work with the other oppos because they think they “don’t share the same dream” so much so that when Rashid the supposed mole tried to sink the party, all the oppos kept quiet. The WP is/has been acting like the PAP Team B, most of us in TRE know that, since we have witnessed how the party “grew” since JBJ. That’s the situation as it is, in Sinkieland, IMHO.
Pathetic and ironic, right?
*** End ***
*Techie Andrew is the only ‘surviving’ member of the original team since the website was “Wayang Party”. He has been with TRE for over a decade, keeping the platform functioning and alive.
Since it is mostly a true narrative of the path that TR Emeritus (TRE) took in its over a decade of existence, we think it is more appropriate to escalate it into an individual post for the information of all our reader.
The opinions expressed are entirely his own observation, but mostly concurred by the team.
*** Start ***
I have been in TRE long enough to know that If TRE had wanted to make a nice profit out of our website, there are plenty of options. Initially, TRE could raise US$20k in a day under a certain doctor. It was then, a no holds barred and anything goes website, reader support was overwhelming.
When the doctor owner was “taken care” off [sic] in 2011 because a certain editor couldn’t keep his dicky in the right place and got caught by a reporter from TODAY, those who were left decided against that mode of operation and we went down the responsible, not anyhow “cheong” path. That probably turns our readers off, being so “timid” as some would describe it.
But that did not stop us from keeping TRE alive to continue to provide a platform for fellow citizens to share, cry father cry mother. We prefer to think of the current TRE as an outlet for pent-up hot air, a platform for your voice, not some cowboy town and certainly not some anti-government website.
We are neutral, if you have an article praising You Con, we will print it, you have another praising the supposed mole Rashid, we will also print it, as long as it is not against our AUP and TOS. So it can be said that we are neither left, right or center, with everyone entitled to their opinions, no matter how childish or crazy it may seems. Everyone is encouraged to agree to disagree as mature adults.
From my observation, most Sinkies love martyrs, that can explain why it is so easy for Roy, Leong and even Terry to raise almost a $million combined. The more they are perceived to be “bullied” and “oppressed”, the more the easier, and the donation is not to really help them per se, its to send a message to the supposed bully, “the more you bully him/her, the more we will support”, so the ‘bully’ lan lan. It’s all human nature, it’s natural to love weaklings, can’t fault them for it.
After the doctor, TRE was never ‘bullied’ (probably because we went ‘timid’ and don’t anyhow cheong), so can explain why we never did managed to raise our intended target in ANY round of crowdfunding. We simply don’t appeal to the masses because most pay to want to watch a show, which we couldn’t stage, i.e. “cheonging”. We don’t get the intended funding because these donors (of course there are genuine ones, but limited supply) do not get to ‘slap’ the supposed bully, so to them, it would probably be a waste of time and money.
But no regrets, we believe in changes, we want changes and we do believe that there are some policies that can be improved upon to make life better for fellow citizens, but knowing the party that (don’t listen), we continued to provide a platform for feedback, it may be years or decades before the party starts listening and the daft wakes up, but we persisted and never gave up (until recently when the team felt that we are not achieving anything and financially, we could no longer support the platform).
Bottomline is, it is not our belief that “cheonging” is the best option to get things done, it will hurt a lot of people and ourselves. Look at ASS, TOC, etc etc etc. And now look at Iris of HTD. The team believes in “communication and respect” (refer to my comment on what happened to WP).
We all have families, if we are “taken care of”, then who provides for them? We are not martyrs (not afraid to admit) and never will we be. We can only do so much and seeing how divided the society is right now, even HTD that supposedly shares the same goal as TRE in the unvax JR thingy, went actively all out to hamper TRE’s crowdfunding efforts for the Judicial Review against discrimination of the unvax. Iris is running the HTD like a business, and probably she prefers to milk her cult members for herself (noticed how almost everything on HTD is paid?).
Anyway, we saw how WP refused to work with the other oppos because they think they “don’t share the same dream” so much so that when Rashid the supposed mole tried to sink the party, all the oppos kept quiet. The WP is/has been acting like the PAP Team B, most of us in TRE know that, since we have witnessed how the party “grew” since JBJ. That’s the situation as it is, in Sinkieland, IMHO.
Pathetic and ironic, right?
*** End ***
*Techie Andrew is the only ‘surviving’ member of the original team since the website was “Wayang Party”. He has been with TRE for over a decade, keeping the platform functioning and alive.
