Many Singaporeans do not think about the fiscal sustainability of the budget on a daily basis. And maybe a handful of us still subscribing to the Straits Times would have read a commentary about this issue last Saturday.

But our eyesbrows were raised when People's Action Party MP Liang Eng Hwa went apeshit over Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy academic Donald Low's Straits Times commentary.

Yes, because some parts of Liang's rebuttal sounded rather personal.

For example, Liang claimed that Low's FB posting was "intemperately worded" (which means Low showed a lack of emotion control).

Mr Low had earlier posted an intemperately worded version of his commentary on his Facebook page which asserted that "there is something inherently flawed with the concept of sustainability".

Then he called Low "radical".

Significantly, he omitted this radical claim from last Saturday's commentary in The Straits Times. But he has not retracted his earlier version, which was circulated widely online.

He then proceed to psychoanalyze Low from Low's Facebook comments that it is not the writer's sincerely held position.

Instead, he described it (on Facebook) as a "rant", and thanked a Straits Times journalist for turning his "rant against the sustainability prudes into an op-ed". How are we to read a commentary which represents, not the writer's sincerely held position, but a pose to gull us into believing that he holds reasonable views?

Rather than psychoanalyse Low and ask why his FB post is worded differently from his Straits Times commentary, three journalists sought to educate Liang that it's actually an editor's duty to edit an article:

Ex-Straits Times editor Bertha Henson

AFP Correspondent Bhavan Jaipragas

The Online Citizen editor Andrew Loh

Which was what Low said when he shared the article on his Facebook:

Before you proceed to pass judgement on Liang's comments, you can read the two versions of Donald Low's commentary first:

His Straits Times commentary

His Facebook version (with "intemperately worded" terms such as "MP posturing and pontificating", "hand-wringing").

Top photo from here.

If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest updates.