An Orchid by Any Other Name

An Orchid by Any Other Name

I refer to the article ‘Thein Sein gets an orchid’ (TODAY, 19th March 2009)

When I first read from the TOC (The Online Citizen) that the visiting Myanmar PM will get a new orchid strain named after him, instantaneously I felt rather uncomfortable.

This is because I was trying to reconcile between two viewpoints: Firstly, Singapore should uphold diplomatic necessities in administering formal protocols to a head of state. Secondly, Singapore should not bestow such honour in the first place to a dictator whose military junta committed horrendous acts of oppression against its own people.

Originally, I thought it should be still 'alright', since it is merely to give an unknown orchid a name. BUT when I read from the TODAY’s article that previous foreign dignitaries with orchids named after them include former South African President Nelson Mandela. The implications behind such an honour bestowed upon Thein Sein simply caused my blood to boil.

Especially so when recipients bestowed upon such honours will be equated to a symbolic rung alongside Nelson Mandela. This is simply not right. Dictator Thein Sein characterizes the very oppression which Nelson Mandela spent decades in confinement cell resiliently opposing to.

Disappointedly, our MOFA itinerary team overseeing foreign dignitaries’ visits should have thought of this irony and not had given Thein Sein such honour in the first place.

I am of the view that, the said orchid ought to be given a re-name. This orchid by any other appropriate name should be so much more tasteful than its current one.

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