Lea Salonga’s Meaningful Message To Filipinos: Unite Behind Duterte

Lea Salonga requests that Pinoys join behind the President if the nation needs to accomplish a Singapore-like order on her Facebook post.

Solidarity! Stop the bickerings! These are the general assumption resounded in the viral post of the international star on Facebook that reverberates among the netizens who read it.
In a Facebook post, Lea Salonga reviews the Michael Fay episode in Singapore in the 1990’s.

Ms. Salonga reviews the gigantic objection from Western nations censuring the primitive demonstration of the Singaporean government on national TV and print media, putting his photo that made him look defenseless, more like a youngster than somebody very nearly masculinity.

President Bill Clinton, the US president around then interceded for the benefit of the youthful American yet just figured out how to cut down the discipline from six lashings of a cane to four.

The popular Broadway performer reviewed how the Singaporeans rally behind their administration, maybe attacking Pinoys who bashed Duterte after the conciliatory indiscretion as opposed to arousing behind the President.

The performing artist says this is the sort of state of mind of Singaporeans that she has been longing for the nation.

She finished her post by urging Pinoys to join behind the President in light of the fact that, after all we are all in this together.

"For some strange reason I started thinking of an incident back in the 1990s that took place in Singapore.

An American teenage boy by the name of Michael Fay was found guilty of vandalizing cars and stealing government property, and was sentenced to 6 lashes of a cane. President Bill Clinton pleaded for clemency, hence the sentence was lessened to just 4, after which the young Mr. Fay was deported back to the United States.

I remember the protestations of the west against the cruelty of this kind of corporal punishment (although there were some folks that were totally in favor of it). Afternoon television programs featured it. People Magazine wrote an article on the young Mr. Fay. The photograph used made him look vulnerable, more like a child than someone on the verge of manhood.

However, in Singapore, after the sentence was pronounced, many people interviewed for the news were proud of their country, that they were this strict in meting out punishment for crimes against the state and its people. Plus, cars are extremely expensive, costing at least twice the amount it normally would in the US. So of course the anger over them getting keyed is high as well.

Moral of the story: obey the rules of the country you live in or visit. Render no destruction to property, public or private. All visitors are subject to the same laws as its residents.

It was this kind of strictness that I yearned for here in the Philippines all those years ago. And now my mind is thinking of the word “perhaps.”

Perhaps if government was more strict back then…
Perhaps if the war on drugs began much earlier…
Perhaps if everyone was less apathetic and more sympathetic and empathetic towards one another…
Perhaps… Perhaps… Perhaps…
So now here we are.

This is on all of us. We’re all in this together. It’s pointless to stand on one side and place all the blame on someone that isn’t us. WE all did this. All of us. So it’s going to take all of us to fix it".

by Diana Abne


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