Alex Au : govt's refusal to read signals a sign of infighting, LHL losing grip?

[Confuseous]

At this point however, the bigger problem for the government may be still about refusing to read signals, wherever they come from. The instinct to shout down criticism, to deny that any problem exists, is still strong. Ng Eng Hen’s remarks, as noted above, is one example.

Another was the way Law Minister Shanmugam and People’s Action Party member of parliament Indranee Rajah responded to Workers’ Party member of parliament Pritam Singh when he called for a Freedom of Information Act. Instead of dealing substantively with the issue, the two bared their long incisors, challenging Pritam to say that mainstream media was”controlled by the government”. Singh had clearly not said that. Why make an issue of what he had not said?

The motive is obvious. It’s the old tactic of taking an opponent outside his carefully chosen words into a dark alley, there to beat him up on account of some other words. And the purpose of that? To avoid dealing with the issue raised by his carefully chosen words.

- http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/mainstream-journalists-and-ministerial-bulldogs/

 

[Trout]

When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.

 

[kingrant]

It is a chronic affliction - this habit of creating arguments using straw men, reductio ad absurdum, slippery slope, and ad hominem tactics. Put words into the other's mouth and attack away, or fear-mongering, or attacking the messenger. Such an affliction also is accompanied by poor hearing, not listening, or short attention spans, sometimes with tut-tuts of impatience. How to rule like that - heads in the clouds or in their assholes?

 

[elephanto]

Given Alex's very civil yet poignant observation - his incisiveness comes without the reflexive abuses so commonly expressed by PAP critics like us here - and his blog is full of his more-than-2-cent-worth analysis & commentary - given that, I will want Alex Au for my MP anyday .... I don't give a shit to his sexual inclination or sympathies.

Alex Au for Parliament !

 

[kingrant]

This was what they entrapped JBJ into doing. Push him into a corner by weaving a web of words that were not his, but when he reacted to the taunts, they implicated and incriminated him, then 'fix' him with a Parl Select committee to 'try' him.

LKY was maestro at this. Chiam refused to be taunted or he was slower, so it saved him.

The motive is obvious. It’s the old tactic of taking an opponent outside his carefully chosen words into a dark alley, there to beat him up on account of some other words. And the purpose of that? To avoid dealing with the issue raised by his carefully chosen words.

- http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/mainstream-journalists-and-ministerial-bulldogs/

 

[elephanto]

Chiam refused to be taunted or he was slower, so it saved him.

chiam was slower but hey! no crime in that, sincerity beats out the sharpest tool on the shelf any time !

chiam under LKY's challenge always put on his 'aggrieved','frustration' look (check out the Youtube clips).

I cannot resist his all time classic: well, if the PM say so (referring to LKY then on HDB subsidy), then it must be so ! (howls from pap dimwit MPs)

With that laconic though pathetic line, PAP forever have a soft spot for him - Chiam subsequently won suits against PAP MPs, survived strokes, involved in overseas parliamentary delegations etc etc.

Chiam may not be the brightest or the most brilliant. But in his own cloddish determined & unassuming ways, he made his mark in history.

Think 1976, Cairnhill vs Lim Kim San, Potong Pasir vs Howe Yoon Cheong, then victory over Maboh Tan, then victory over Kenneth Chen (?!) & until his missus (near miss)...

so different from present day the likes of you-know-whos....