Typical PAP style

[steffychun]

LKY asked back questions to Joan Sim:

She had a burning question for former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew last night. Given the big influx of immigrants here in a short time, and a dilution of the national identity, what can we do to create a sense of belonging and foster social cohesiveness, she asked.

“How old are you now?” he wanted to know.

“Twenty-seven,” she replied.

The queries came thick and fast: Are you married? (No) When will you finish your PhD? (In two years) So you’ll be 29 then. Do you have a boyfriend? (No)

That was when Mr Lee drew attention to the biological clock and a woman’s child-bearing years.

After 35 (years old), the dangers of having children with Down syndrome rises, he said.

“My advice, please don’t waste time. I hope you get your PhD and your boyfriend,” he added.

The audience laughed loudly. Miss Sim turned red.

And previously Jamie Han:

NUS history student Jamie Han had asked for the Internal Security Act and newspaper laws to be reviewed. This was when he made his comment on despots.

Furthermore, he said, channels to offer different views 'were either directly or indirectly controlled by the Government'.

Mr Lee first asked him if he had written to the newspapers, such as The Straits Times Forum page.

Yes, he replied. But only one letter was published.

Why not start a publication then, asked MM Lee.

The laws made it 'very difficult', the student said.

No, he could register it, said Mr Lee.

Mr Han was not persuaded.

To laughter, Mr Lee replied 'Well, you have the Internet - put up a website. You know how to put up a website? If you don't, I know a friend who can help you.'

He returned to the point about 'despots' only later, in reply to another question.

This time, another student asked about the coming General Election.

Mr Lee said the election did not have to be held until 2007 and between now and then, it was unlikely any group could form a team that can declare it will do better than the current Government. All it could offer was to be a 'different voice'.

He asked 'Those of you who really feel strongly that you got a better point of view, I say organise yourself - as I did. I took my life in my hands and said I stand for this.'

He recalled how when he met the Plen, or Fang Chuan Pi, in Beijing in 1992, the communist leader had told him that he had saved his life when he could have ordered him killed for taking on the communists in the 1950s.

Said Mr Lee 'I said 'Thank you'. He could have shot me. But I told him, 'You are not a fool and you knew that if you had assassinated me, your organisation would have been crushed because I was not unpopular.'

'Had I been unpopular, then you have got rid of despot... but I was no despot. That generation knew that I fought for them.'

At this point, Mr Lee asked the student who prompted the response How old was his father?

'50-plus,' said the student.

MM Lee said 'If he's 50 plus, then he will remember. You don't put your life at risk in calling me a despot. Well, in order to have your views heard, if you profoundly believe that you have that passion, I say stake your life, take on with your duties, come out, put your programme, sort it out.'

Verdict: Typical PAP style. Ask questions back to make you embarrassed. So TCH's method was no different. Along came Rueben Wang....

 

[dredd]

Not when the MIWs are grilled by the foreign press. The following is an exchange between Wooden Goh and Tim Sebastian from BBC hardtalk...

Mr Sebastian: "I come back to the point that you need to trust your people, don't you, if you expect them to trust you. Don't you need to trust them with more information about what is going on?"

Mr Goh: "Not a problem, not a problem. I agree with the point. You have to trust the people for them to trust you because trust has got to be mutual. So that's not a problem but if you're talking about…"

Mr Sebastian: "Who's the servant here, who's the servant and who's the master?"

Mr Goh: "We have no servants and have no masters, we work together."

Mr Sebastian: "No, no, in a democracy, the government is supposed to be the servant. This is public service you're in, isn't it? You don't own the country."

Mr Goh: "No, we work on the basis that we are equal. We don't own the country, I agree. I regard myself as a trustee of the people. So..."

Mr Sebastian: "So, you're the servant, then?"

 

[toolanliao]

There are others

http://www.singaporedemocrat.org/Vantage_Gandhi Ambalam3.html

The Minister Mentor has done it again. His victim this time? A cub reporter from Reuters by the name of Melanie Lee.

Ms Lee had asked the Minister how he expected the society to become cultivated given the restriction on civil liberties in Singapore.

Earlier at a conference at the Suntec Convention Centre, Mr Lee told the audience that Singapore could reach a level of cultural development comparable to Italy and Austria in 10 to 15 years. (An interesting choice of countries given that one was home to a fascist named Mussolini and the other the birthplace of Adolf Hitler).

Instead of getting a straightforward answer, however, the 23-year-old journalist was given an earful by the Mentor on how Singapore had made it without a free press.

This prompted Ms Lee to ask how it could be done when there is limited freedom of expression in Singapore, unlike the two European countries he had mentioned.

How dare she talk back to our Leader? According to one of the mentored ministers, Mr George Yeo, this was boh-tua-bo-suay which, according to my Chinese colleagues, was a reprimand that parents used on their children when they were disrespectful. Ms Lee didn't seem to know her place in society.

Appropriately goaded, the bull charged. "What school did you go to?"

"Why does that matter?" the Reuters reporter countered.

She did it again! The cheek! The audacity! The courage.

This was vintage Lee who, when faced with a gutsy youth refusing to just nod her head in cowardly agreement whenever the Leader launches into hyperbolic nonsense, gets personal and outright insulting.

Ken Kwek

This is not first time Mr Lee Kuan Yew has bullied local reporters who show some semblance of independent thinking. A few weeks before the general elections in 2006, another enthusiastic reporter, Mr Ken Kwek, was harangued by the Minister for saying that there is widespread fear among Singaporeans towards the authoritarian rule of the PAP.

Mr Kwek was one of a handful of carefully screened participants in a so-called televised discussion with Mr Lee as the guest on the forthcoming 2006 elections.

Refusing to answer the question, Mr Lee repeatedly asked the young Straits Times reporter to disclose the names of those in the newspaper survey who had said that "fear" was a major factor when it came to politics in Singapore.

Mr Kwek is, perhaps not surprisingly, no longer with the newspaper.

 

[god_zeus]

If I were to ask PAP LKY a question
I aa sure he will ask back a question

Gz: Mr Lee, when do you think the soonest possible time you would kick the bucket?
LKY: What do you think when it will be? (a question)
Gz: you told reporter that you wont live longer than your father, he lived to 92.

 

[Sir_Fcuk]

LKY asked back questions to Joan Sim:

Joan Sim: i don't have boyfriend, tomorrow go and find cannot issit?

LKY: Donch waste time, STFU and go to ku de ta and find one.

Joan Sim: Your Lee Wei Ling leh? Why you never tell her about her biological clock? In medical school she never learn issit?

***audience tries not to laugh, but some already buay ta han and laugh***

LKY: Yes, I have sacked her medical school lecturer

 

[steffychun]

Joan Sim naturally had no balls to ask back.

I admire the reporter Melanie Lee. Rush Limbaugh didnt bother with a school. Let's see Leee take on Rush.

 

[Confuseous]

Actually, sometimes there is nothing wrong with asking the students back with what their response would be. BUT having heard them out, it is the reponsiblity of the minister to express HIS own views and if they differ from that of the students', to explain why. If the school kids want to hear what the other kids are saying, why waste time inviting a minister who keeps throwing back the questions.

DPM Teo does not have the aura nor the style to carry himself as a statesman nor an intellectual. Mixing too much with Sir Fcuk.

 

[steffychun]

DPM Teo does not have the aura nor the style to carry himself as a statesman nor an intellectual. Mixing too much with Sir Fcuk.

It's more than just the question. The students widely know he earns millions so he must know more than them in order to gain that salary. By their logic, he should have answers.