My fellow contributor here in The Void Deck said he was so moved when he heard the podcast. Ever the pop culture nerd, he felt he understood the dramatic nuances of "So Say We All" and the background music in the podcast. He explained that in the New Battlestar Galactica, a "reboot" of the classic series, the fugitives had to put aside their political differences and stop fighting among themselves so that they could all survive, and "So Say We All" was powerfully used as a rallying punctuation in speeches and prayers that reminded the fugitives to keep the faith, face their crisis and move ahead together.

The question is why did the government do it? Surely, hopefully, it cannot be simply because they know they childishly can. Anyway, Bhavani was merely the messenger, so it is unfair to shoot her, a civil servant doing her job. Let there be calm and reason among us in the Internet. The message she carried was from the PAP and she was merely the unfortunate bearer of bad news. But what did the PAP hope to achieve by their action? To send the message that they are back in power and that the OB markers are still there regardless if the blogger-journalist uses satire? But who is the message for?

The mainstream print and broadcast media journalists? Remember the MM Lee dialogue months ago where some of the journalists enjoyed taking on the first PM of Singapore? Perhaps the PAP feared that the media now is not what it was a few years ago and it is time to send a signal.

The new media and its aspiring citizen journalist bloggers? The flurry of exciting Internet activity during the GE, despite the intimidation of bloggers with the PEA, probably rudely shocked the PAP. They were jolted to understand that the public had a critical mind and a powerful voice of its own. Think Yawning Bread's seminal Hougang rally photo.

The emerging grey "mainstream new media" where bloggers are newspaper columnists (Brown, Miyagi) and where newspaper columnists are bloggers (at least one person in STOMP)? The PAP government probably fears this most as the new media bloggers can have access to the print and broadcast media and their criticisms become "mainstream" for all to hear, watch and read. Also, the mainstream media adopts the political adventurism of the bloggers to suit the discerning tastes of an increasingly politically mature and conscious public. For the PAP, it is a media and medium fusion that would undermine their authority.

The PAP government has always being right about the important nation-building role of the media. And that role is indisputable. The mainstream and now, new, media should lead the way in objectively questioning, reasonably criticising as well as ethically supporting issues and politics in Singapore, all for the good of Singaporeans, not for the sake of the PAP or any political party. They have Petir or The Hammer for that. Indeed, let the new and mainstream media embrace the important role of nation-building, without interference and intimidation from the current PAP government.

The Brown incident is now a hot divisive topic but there is still time for it to be resolved amicably. If the PAP government is keen to show that they are truly acting in the best interest of Singapore, they should make the reconciliatory gesture of allowing Mr Brown to continue as a Today columnist and present the whole incident as one of miscommunication and misunderstanding, and we the public should be gracious enough to see this not as a people/blogger-win and government-lose outcome, but as a win-win one where the government accepted the public's feedback.

After all, we are all Singaporeans with a common national destiny and looking out for Singapore's best interest. Listen to Mr Brown's podcast as it is the crux of government-people reconciliation and not necessarily the essence of defiance.

So say we all. Especially if the astute observer steps back and understands that the patriotic podcast was forged in the unfortunate incident of the government not tolerating any sincere criticism from the media, old or new. Theatrical maybe to some, but the essence of it is poignant. Even better than the ter gua podcast. It is the best Mr Brown podcast ever. If you have not heard this, please give it a shot.