It was earlier reported that MLC council member and former NMP, Calvin Cheng, had seemingly threatened and insulted an NUS prof, Dr Ian Chong, on Facebook .
Calvin Cheng called Dr Chong a “second rate academic who had too much time on his hands” and threatened the professor, saying that unlike him, Dr Chong has a boss and can get fired for engaging in internet activities. He went on to suggest that MOE and the public should make ‘enquiries’ about this professor.
He taunted the prof, telling him that he is “concerned” for the prof and that the “economy is bad”. That is to say, if the prof gets fired by NUS, he would not be able to get another job that easily.
TISG then wrote to MLC Chairman, Professor Tan Cheng Han, to ask if he, as the head of the Council, has anything to say about the online conduct of his fellow MLC member Calvin Cheng.
Prof Tan chose not to comment on the matter. He told TISG (https://theindependent.sg.sg/mlc-
In other words, Prof Tan is more than happy to wash his hands off the matter since he is going to “ORD” from MLC soon.
What does Media Literacy Council (MLC) do?
MLC’s role is to advise the Government on research, trends and developments pertaining to the Internet and media, and appropriate policy responses. It also helps to develop public awareness and education programmes relating to media literacy and cyber wellness.
One of its aims is to discourage online behaviours that are anti-social, offensive, irresponsible or simply mean.
“While such behaviours are not unique to the online environment, people can be a lot more callous when communicating through digital technologies as there are no verbal and visual cues. More worryingly, the impact on victims is magnified because of the speed, permanence and openness of the social media environment,” MLC said on its website.
Yet, MLC member Calvin Cheng appears to be doing exactly what the MLC itself discourages.
Ridiculous for MLC Chairman to wash his hands off just because he is stepping down
The reason for a Chairman of an organization not to take responsibility just because he is stepping down soon is plain ridiculous.
Just imagine this. Say there was a disturbance in the neighbourhood and a resident approached an NSF police officer. The officer then told the resident, “It may be inappropriate for me to intervene because I’m going to ORD soon.”
How would you feel if you were the resident?
A netizen likened MLC Chairman’s non-intervention to not flushing the toilet bowl when exiting the toilet cubicle.
The netizen said, “He (Prof Tan) should, ethically speaking, flush the shit down before exiting the cubicle and not leave it there for the next person.”