"The original purpose of the protestors that disrupted the Torch Rally of the Beijing Olympic Games in front of people all over the world were to march against the Chinese government, rather than, as a matter of fact, deeply hurting the feelings of the Chinese people." "Therefore, the Chinese people believe that the protestors have planed to humiliate China and the Chinese people more than humiliating the Chinese government." "…by disdaining China and everything concerning China, there is going to be consequences far beyond the category of Olympic Games in their lifetime."

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore made these acute observations while he was addressing on the forum sponsored by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), on the ongoing media conflict between the east and the west.

Just as Prime Minister Lee has pointed out, "the protesting groups are all aware of the fact that expressing their anger in public can't force China to alter its policies, for not a single government would be willing to compromise on any key issues under the pressure of public opinion carried out by the media." However, the people that disrupted the Olympic Torch Rally, together with other protestors, see this as the best opportunity to humiliate the Chinese government. They tried their best to cause trouble, one after another. What's worse, some major western media, including the ones like BBC and CNN which used to be trusted and even adored by many Chinese youngsters, are also dancing with the disruptors and protestors. They carried out obviously biased and false reports which triggered great fury from the Chinese people and drew fire against themselves.

Although most of the furious Chinese "netizens" use the Chinese language on the internet that are not understandable by the majority of the western world, the mighty rebound has formed a huge wave against the western media as well as exploded unhealthy nationalism emotions including loathing the western world. Therefore, we believe that the western society will feel this huge rebound soon enough and its immensity might shock a great number of people. The western world has tried hard to include China into "the world system" by using so called "soft power". But the actions which have humiliated the Chinese people might have pushed the course into the opposite direction. And the gap between the Chinese and western culture might even be expanded, which is a great pity.

We that the exiling Tibetans have their political agenda, that a lot of people are sympathetic about the Dalai Lama, and that the western world are determined to criticize China's human rights and freedom. But to express them by humiliating China and its people is absolutely a wrong way. To boycott the Olympic Games and using it as a measure of being against China is a total breach against the Olympic spirits. As Prime Minister Lee has said, "the consequences will reach a scale far beyond the Olympic Games." The younger generation of China might even change their view on the whole western world.

We believe that the most serious mistake made by the western media during this whole thing is its doctrinaire's ideology on human rights and free speech. This is just as wrong as the Dutch right wing parliament member making the anti-Muslim short movie, "Fitna". "Fitna" offended the Muslims all over the world and the democratic Netherlands paid a huge price pursuing "free speech" by provoking hatred between all Christians and Muslims. Major French newspaper such as "the Liberation" even referred the disruptions of Olympic Torch Rally in Paris to "a slap in China's face". This exposed the false pride and prejudice of these media and their "taking for granted". They totally ignored the serious consequences that their words and actions might lead to and blindly thought that they were on the side of justice and truth. They even forgot to implement the most basic duty of media: to examine and report nothing but the truth. That is something we couldn't agree with.

In today's world, any uncensored or processed information can spread all over the world and echo in split second, thanks to satellite TV and new internet media coverage. China wished to show the world its cultural progress and opening up by hosting the Beijing Olympic Games. The Torch Rally outside China is also called "the Trip of Harmony". However, the oppositions' action of taking it as the opportunity to demonstrate or even to humiliate China has already shadowed the Olympic Games. We hope that the Chinese government keep calm in any cases and perform a good Olympic Games. We also hope that the western media make reflections in time in order to avoid any vicious cycles caused by words and false report based on its value. Otherwise, it will not only draw fire against itself by arousing hatred in Chinese people, but also sabotage the success of the Olympic Games.

Quelle: <United Morning Post>, Singapore