Tag Archives: LU YEOW LIM

Mr Selvam added on Tuesday that there was "no evidence" of rioters wanting to kill somebody the night of the riot. COI member Andrew Chua also supported the chairman's argument, adding that since life was not an issue, the argument was whether more action should have been taken to prevent damage to property - which bore the brunt of violence that night.

In the end, despite the inappropriate comment made by Tee Tua Ba, “You made the problem worse!”, would you not agree that it was not a bad outcome. Zero lives lost. Sure, he may have improved on some things. He could have made himself more prominently as the chief commander on the ground. Or as the COI might have preferred, gone on a walkabout, fired some warning shots, charged at the “active” rioters – basically do everything differently.

Bravery is defined by using common sense, exercising self-restraint, doing the right thing and doing it right. In this instance, self-restraint was a sound decision. It is no different from digging in the foxhole while artillery drop shell after shell, but you hold, you don’t charge. More self-restraint is required to hold the ground and only strike when the timing is right. I don’t think it is easy for officers there to just fob back things hurled at them with no certainty when reinforcement will come. The commander on the ground made decisions on the fly based on what he saw, what he heard and what his gut feelings were.