Put these mad dogs to sleep: DJ Glenn Ong
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Put these mad dogs to sleep: DJ Glenn Ong
She couldn't quite believe her ears when she was listening to the radio last Thursday.
During a segment of The Morning Show on Class 95FM, DJ Glenn Ong had related an encounter he had with a "crazy" woman who caused chaos in a restaurant..
The listener, a 33-year-old corporate trainer who wanted to be known only as Sabrina, said Ong went on to say that the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) should be responsible in making sure "these people" are not out in public.
His co-host, Vernetta Lopez, responded by saying: "To be fair, we wouldn't know what measures IMH has in place to safeguard this from happening."
Sabrina said she was shocked when Ong shot back: "If you have to put these mad dogs to sleep, then you should."
She felt it was extremely insulting to people with mental illness and their families.
"A lot of people I know were outraged," Sabrina said in an e-mail to The New Paper.
When TNP contacted Ong yesterday, he confirmed his experience at the restaurant.
When asked if he had used the sentence about "putting mad dogs to sleep" on air, he said: "Roughly."
But he clarified that he was reading an SMS response from a listener and that he had made clear at the start of the segment that he was reading views from listeners.
When TNP called Ong back later to clarify some details, he said that he did not remember making the "mad dogs" reference.
Nonetheless, he makes no apologies earlier for what happened.
During the first call, he said: "As broadcasters, people should be open to what we say.
"The Morning Show is a place where there is freedom of expression, if such expression benefits society.
"It's in your face and very much tongue-in-cheek...If I feel strongly about a particular issue, I'll say it out."
He said the "mad dogs" comment reflects neither his personal nor professional opinion.
"I'm sorry if any individual took offence, but public figures are always open to such abuse."
On mental illness, Ong said: "It's a subjective topic and open to discussion, yes. But if it (his comment) was truly controversial, more people would be raising this issue."
He feels that there is a serious issue of many mentally ill people here who are not being cared for properly.
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By this argument of putting all the mentally ill people to sleep, not many would be left in SG.
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thats what you'll get if everybody has freedom of speech.
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The world, Singapore are all over populated anyway. It would do the Earth good if we can trim the herd.
Want to eradicate HIV? then first eradicate all HIV carriers.