mrbrown

mrbrown

Lee Kin Mun (Chinese: 李健敏), aka mrbrown, is a Singaporean blogger well known for his social and political commentary amidst Singapore's tight media restrictions. Affectionately known by many as Singapore's "Blogfather", mrbrown is one of the more notable bloggers in the Singaporean blogosphere. His podcast attracts some 20,000 downloads per day.^[1] In 2007, mrbrown was the only Singaporean to make it to the World Business Magazine's annual list of Top 20 Asian Progressives. mrbrown was also educated in Hwa Chong Junior College (presently part of Hwa Chong Institution) and the Anglo-Chinese School.

the mrbrown show

Main article: the mrbrown show

Created in March 2005, the mrbrown show is a podcast produced by mrbrown. It was formerly co-produced by Mr Miyagi, another local blogger, who has since left the show to pursue other interests. The show showcases guests from various quarters of Singapore, and parodies a wide variety of subjects, ranging from VISA's advertising campaign starring Richard Gere, to political satire. Zhng My Car, a recurring series in the mrbrown show, is a spoof of MTV's Pimp My Ride, and has seen over 100,000 downloads.

The WTF! Show

Similarly produced and hosted by mrbrown, the WTF! (standing for "Wow, that's Fierce!" aka "what the fuck") Show is a vodcast that covers the latest in video games, gadgets and technology. Gadgets that have been covered range from mobile phones and headphones to Global Positioning System devices to even video games. A common feature of the WTF show includes guests paying a sneaky visit to mrbrown.

See What Show

See What Show is a weekly review podcast produced by mrbrown which reviews television programs, movies and DVDs. The podcast is billed as "The Movie, TV and DVD review podcast for regular people", and features candid comments about these entertainment mediums by mrbrown and his guests. The show occasionally makes use of sound clips obtained from distributors of the shows. Contests on the website also revolve around the movies and TV shows reviewed, with premiums sponsored by local film distributors as prizes. For example, participants in one contest had to match lines from various Nicolas Cage movies to the films themselves to win tickets to the Singapore premiere of Next, and in another had to come up with Singapore-flavoured pirate phrases in order to win a Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End gift pack. In December 2009, mrbrown travelled to Los Angeles to interview the cast and crew of 2012 (film), including Singaporean actor Chin Han. As of December 2009, there have been no new episodes of the podcast.

Singapore National Education

mrbrown wrote a series entitled Singapore National Education. As a form of satire, this series discussed local events, highlighting many ironies in government policies and poking fun at the behavior of Singaporeans.

The title appears to be a play on the Singapore government's National Education program, which has the stated aims of developing national cohesion, the instinct for survival and confidence in the future.^[2]

Singapore National Education was released in parts; the first part was published on 24 Sep 1997 on the newsgroup soc.culture.Singapore. They were later archived and published on mrbrown's website. The series has since petered out; the latest issue is part 108, dated 25 Jul 2005.

Censorship

See also: Censorship in Singapore and OB marker

On 30 June 2006, mrbrown wrote an article, titled "S'poreans are fed, up with progress!", for his weekly opinion column in Today newspaper concerning the rising costs of living in Singapore.^[3] Three days later, on 3 July, an official from the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) published a reply in the same newspaper calling mrbrown a "partisan player" whose views "distort the truth".^[4] On July 6, the newspaper suspended his column.^[5] Mr Miyagi subsequently resigned from his column.

Later, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong responded to the unhappiness that resulted from MICA's handling of the incident. He stated that "mrbrown had hit out wildly at the Government and in a very mocking tone", and that the government had to respond to such criticisms lest they be taken by the public as true. He also stated that national issues should not be debated in such a fashion (referring to mrbrown's article). PM Lee maintained that Singapore was an open society.^[6]

Notes

1. ^ Geert De Clercq (20 December 2006). "Politics is no laughing matter in Singapore". Reuters. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122000094.html. 
2. ^ Ministry of Education, National Education, accessed 26 Dec 2006.
3. ^ mr brown (June 30, 2006). "S'poreans are fed, up with progress!" (reprint). Today. http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2006/07/today_sporeans_.html. 
4. ^ "Letter from MICA: Distorting the truth, mr brown?" (reprint). Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts, Singapore. July 3, 2006. http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2006/07/letter_from_mic.html. 
5. ^ "Daily newspaper Today sacks blogger “mr brown” after government criticism" (Press release). Reporters Without Borders. 6 July 2006. http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18208. 
6. ^ Lynn Lee (21 August 2006). "Govt had to deal with mrbrown's criticisms: PM". The Straits Times. 

External links

• mrbrown: L'infantile terrible of Singapore
• the mrbrown show
• The WTF! Show

Persondata
Name	Mrbrown
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death