Yesterday (Wednesday, Aug. 23) saw a refreshing use of social media between some really public figures in the Singapore space.

PM Lee and Razer CEO Tan Min-Liang, for one, had a brief Twitter convo regarding the future of cashless payments in Singapore.

Here it is:

Sweet.

Around the same time, a less publicised conversation was starting as well between another Minister and Tan:

Yup, Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is also Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation initiative, jumped into the Twitter convo with Tan as well.

Cool.

But while this potential conversation was blooming, there were a few people trying to get his attention.

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Recap: The Abu Dhabi case

In case you haven't already heard, two Singaporeans were arrested on August 9 in Abu Dhabi, while having lunch at a shopping mall.

It was allegedly due to them wearing dresses.

They were charged with acting feminine as well as committing an indecent act in public, and sentenced to a year's imprisonment.

They were also given 14 days from August 20 to appeal their case — that's till September 3.

S'poreans respond

Well, there's been something of a Twitter outcry over what Singapore Twitter users perceive to be a lack of effort in getting the two of them out of jail, and back to Singapore.

One of the first tweets regarding this issue, and arguably the driving force behind a barrage of tweets to Vivian Balakrishnan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were from YouTubers Munah and Hirzi.

"Everyone retweet this until our Brother and Sister are free! @VivianBala @MFAsg your move now! Be the government you promised us you'd be!"

That promise they were referring to was apparently this exchange with the ruling party they had during the 2015 elections.

https://twitter.com/MunahAndHirzi/status/900338265462419457

In it, the PAP Twitter account had reiterated their belief that LGBT individuals were very much a part of Singapore.

This prompted more tweets questioning what the MFA was doing in regards to this case.

And around the same time all these tweets were coming in, MFA did indeed tweet something out.

A tennis pun.

Statement

To be fair to MFA, despite the social media lag, they have indeed given a statement to The Straits Times regarding the incident.

"We are also assisting the family get legal advice"

Minister Vivian also reportedly wrote an email to the family of the two men, which reads:

"I'm sorry to hear about this. Rest assured that our consular and mission colleagues will do their best to assist your brother. I understand that they are already in contact with you and your brother. Please let me know if you need further assistance."

Here's hoping everything goes well.