Guest columnists || Hoa Nguyen, Raeden Richardson, Shanice Stanislaus
Photo Illustration by Pareen Chaudhari
Fellow schoolmates,
We want to bring your attention to a matter that deeply concerns us: the recent spate of personal attacks on the ‘Yale-NUS Confessions’ page on Facebook. Many of us do not belong to the page, neither are we vocal on social platforms with regards to school politics or personal disputes.
We do not speak on behalf of any groups or individuals that have been attacked, and most of us have escaped such unfortunate incidents. We are concerned for the individuals in our community whose emotional well-being and safety has been compromised due to the attacks on the page.
We are proponents of free speech and we strongly believe in the freedom of expression. We hope for a community where people practice their rights judiciously, and think twice before making a depredatory or discriminatory remark; at the same time, we know how idealistic that is, and our goal is not to penalize or condemn people for their views even if we find them unpleasant.
We instead want to underscore the importance of accountability.
An individual should be accountable for her words instead of hiding underneath the veil of anonymity. If one is capable of making a choice, he should be able to defend that choice if it is brought into question. This is the only way freedom of expression will lead to conducive conversations and meaningful debates. Using anonymity as an instrument to indiscriminately spread hateful views does nothing to promote the merits of such freedom, and only evokes distrust and insecurity, especially in such a small and closely-knit community as ours.
The Sophomore class encountered these same problems last year; given the recent events, the way we deal with this issue will speak loudest about the caliber of our community. We have the opportunity to collectively support the wellbeing of our cohort and become an active, responsive student body that makes informed decisions.
Thus, we call out to you, fellow Yale-NUS students, to cease support for the ‘Confessions’ Page.
If you are on the page, withdraw from it. The power that ‘Confessions’ has relies on the support of its followers – were it not for its audience, the page would not self-perpetuate.
If we continue to permit the complete anonymity of expression that ‘Confessions’ promotes, we will only be indirectly supporting a culture of irresponsible practices of citizenship, thus hurting our community in unimaginable ways. If we as a community, however, choose to become more responsible in our expressions, we will slowly, but surely, move towards deserving of the freedoms we so rightfully claim.
The Administration can make all the policies it wants, but the only person who can stop these viral, vitriolic sentiments and indiscriminating practices of power and privileges, is you. We call not for unfettered freedom of expression, but for a responsible freedom of expression. We have no desire to censor speech, nor do we intend to attach punitive consequences to any action. We strongly believe in individual rights – so long as such rights go hand in hand with ownership and accountability.
We hope that everyone understands that these attacks have emotionally affected and created a psychologically damaging experience to the affected individuals or groups. We advocate that each one of us takes ownership over our actions and choices, even if that means taking the active stance to leave the ‘Confessions’ page.
At the time of publication, 99 students have signed this Open Letter.
The list of names is as follows:
- Hoa Nguyen
- Shanice Nicole Stanislaus
- Subhas Nair
- Kei Franklin
- Raeden Richardson
- Priscilla Tay
- Denise Kristen Natalya Ng
- Rakesh Pk
- Li Ting Chan
- Xie Yihao
- Sean Saito
- Rocco Hu
- Evangeline N’estPas LePoisson
- Joshua Wong
- Aleithia Low
- John Reid
- Kaushik Swaminathan
- Clarissa Leong
- Lee Dai Ling Lynn
- Michelle Koh
- Annette Wu
- Sai Pogaru
- HengYeng Tan
- Rachel Johanna Lim
- Theodore Lai
- Benson Pang
- Hillary Loh
- Mariel Chee
- Eliz Heng
- Zach Mahon
- Hannah Yeo
- Carissa Lari Lim
- Mollie L Saltskog
- Joan Danielle Ongchoco
- Pareen Chaudhari
- Liam Rahmen
- Regina Hong
- Amanda Lee Zi Yi
- David Chia
- Michael Moore-Jones
- Anshuman Mohan
- Meghna Basu
- Timothy Goh
- Marcus Koe
- Reuben Su
- Elson Ong
- Tamara Burgos
- Rachel Quek Siew Yean
- Glen Kilian Koh
- Angela Ferguson
- Ling Xi Min
- Lim Se Ern
- Nik Carverhill
- Christian Go
- Christopher Khew
- Shermin Chan
- Kavya Gopal
- Meddley Bourdeau
- Andrea Noelle J
- Timothy Chua
- Maria Camila
- Tuyet Trang
- Min Lim
- Valerie Pang
- Adrian Stymne
- Tiffany Sin
- Anthea Tjoa
- Stacey Yuen
- Diamanta Vania Lavi
- Sarah Novak
- Lishani Ramanayake
- Wee Yang Soh
- Aaron Kurzak
- Ami Firdaus
- Sherice Ngaserin
- Cassidy Clark
- Sanjana Tadepalli
- Shelby Ellis Goh
- Toh Hui Ran
- Amelia Chew
- Kimberly Pah
- Dave Chappell
- Carmen Denia
- Daryl Tan
- Aishani Sen
- Anya Evtushenko
- Jevon Chandra
- Cephas Tan
- Tong Xueyin
- Aaron Ong Chong Shi
- Evan Ma
- Maggie Schumann
- Cameron Love
- Andy Chen
- Maria Ivanenko
- Nicolas Siew
- Amarbold Lkhagvasuren
- Charlotte Wang
- Koh Wei Jie