Xiaxue

Her face is not something new to Singaporean bloggers. More so are her posts in Xiaxue.Her name is Wendy Cheng a.k.a. Xiaxue. It looks like now she's gotten herself into more trouble. Previously, there was an uproar over her post on using the toilet cubicles for the disabled as they are more comfortable than the normal ones. Now, it is about some racist comments from her blog. There was one teen blogger who was sentenced to do community service because of the same thing. But will the same thing happen to her?

People are not taking it lightly as there's even an online petition to ban her from Orchard Road! I mean...banning someone from going to Orchard Road? Wow...that's sad man. It may sounds ridiculous (you can't ban someone from going to places they want to go) but it just goes to show how much these people dislike her racist comments (or maybe her). Well, here's the petition:

To: People of Singapore

This is a petition to ban Wendy Cheng, of www.xiaxue.blogspot.com, from public places such as Orchard Road and for the public media to stop publicising her site.

The racist remarks posted on the above mentioned site, is revolting and is detrimental to society harmony.

There have been instances in her articles where the dressing of Arab women have been mocked, Malaysians were condemned on her recent trip to K.L and lately, she openly used vulgarities prefixing foreign workers.

Under the pretense of proposing a ban for aerosol, she is diverting attention to her racists words of wanting to "ban the foreign workers from Orchard Road".

Her dim wits do not compliment the beautiful christmas lights either, and her blunt words on the blogsite makes reading painful.
Thus, we personally feel, banning her from Orchard Road is much more advantageous than her call to ban foreign workers.

We do not wish to see her get away with such mindless remarks, blatantly and arrogantly criticising other races, especially when her blogsite is hugely popular with 50,000 hits a day.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

How does it sound? Harsh? Crude? Well, I will leave that for you to decide. Personally, I don't really like her posts as they are vulgar and sounds "ah-lian". It's just not my kind of read. But that's not the main issue. The main issue from all of this is this:

"To what extent can a blogger express his/her views on the Net?"

You can argue that whatever is in Ms Wendy's blog are just her own personal views on certain things that happen around her and it's up to her to say (or in this case post) whatever she wants to. Human rights...freedom of speech...all these issues are being questioned as to whether they exist in modern society.

However, if you belong to the other side of the fence, you can say that it's only fair if freedom of speech is monitored by several "rules". Rules such as "Saying whatever you want to say as long as it doesn't hurt anyone" or "Be sensible and considerate in saying things that can be seen by people from all over the world". In other words, it's "controlled freedom of speech". Ironic huh?

I will leave the decision to you.

Then there's the issue of Ms Wendy "[removing] negative posted comments about herself."

"Comments" are there for people to leave their comments on the topic discussed. If you remove it, it will be a one-sided discussion, which defeats the purpose of having "comments" in the first place. Discussions aren't meant to be one-sided but rather, objective. Deleting bad comments about yourself. Will you do such a thing? For me I might, provided that the person has gone overboard, scolding vulgarities and hurling verbal abuses. But if the comments are sound criticisms and objective in their nature, then I won't mind keeping them.

How about you? Will you do the same thing?

Well, here's just my two-cents worth concerning this event in the Singapore blogosphere.

Tags: Blog, Happenings, Singapore