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[h=2]Where did the Ang Pow money come from?[/h]
February 12th, 2013 |
Author: Editorial
PM Lee at TTSH (Photo ST).
PM Lee paid a visit to Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) with his wife Ho Ching on Sunday morning (10 Feb), the first day of the Chinese New Year (CNY) of the Snake.
800 TTSH employees were on duty that morning, including nurses, cleaners and security guards.
PM Lee met some 200 of them to thank them for working on the first day of CNY, and reportedly gave each of the 200 employees two Mandarin oranges and a $10 ang pow.
According to The New Paper (11 Feb):
Let us do some simple calculations: 200 x $10 = $2,000. Then there is the little matter of the mandarin oranges and beautiful paper bag. These cost money too so let us add another thousand dollars, thus making $3,000. Where did the $3,000 for these gifts come from?
There are, it seems to us, two possibilities. It either came from PM Lee’s own pocket or it came from the organizer’s pocket.
POSSIBILITY 1) PM LEE’S MONEY
What if it came from PM Lee’s own pocket? A man is allowed to do what he will with his own money, you might say, and that is that. At first sight, that seems right, but we shall take a closer look.
99.9% of Singaporeans who give $10 ang pows do so out of their own pocket. They give them to children (their own, the neighbours’, nephews, nieces, grandchildren), seniors (their relatives, neighbours, any old folk who could do with a bit of cash) and workers (maids, cleaners, etc). Some bosses give ang pows to their staff.
Speaking of bosses, there are bosses who eh hiao jo lang (Hokkien: literally, know how to act as a human being i.e. act in a humane way). They give out of their own pocket a small ang pow in the region of $10 to $20 to their employees for good luck on top of what the company has paid in bonuses.
On the other hand, there are cheapo bosses who buay hiao jo lang (Hokkien: literally, don’t know how to act like a human being i.e. act in an inhumane way). They give a small ang pow and no bonus and hope to pass off the ang pow as a bonus. The employees would take the ang pow with a smile in public, but in private they would seethe with anger.
As Prime Minister, Mr Lee is the leader of the Government of Singapore, and primus inter pares (Latin: first among equals) among his Cabinet colleagues. But for all that, he is not the boss of TTSH.
So, if he had paid for the gifts personally, he must have done so not as the boss of TTSH but in his private capacity as a sympathetic human being or in his professional capacity as Prime Minister. We prefer to discount the possibility that Mr Lee gave in his private capacity because generally in Singapore no one goes around doling out $10 ang pows to hundreds of people; if anyone did, he must be both very rich and an attention seeker.
There remains the possibility that Mr Lee gave as PM. Is he allowed to do so? Someone better versed with the law than we are at TR Emeritus will have to tell us if public servants are allowed to dole out thousands of dollars in ang pow money.
Perhaps it is legal and perhaps it is not, but whatever the case, there will be people questioning the sincerity of a person who gives away hundreds of ang pows in full public view with cameras clicking away.
POSSIBILITY 2) ORGANIZER’S MONEY
The organizer for PM Lee’s CNY meeting with the staff of TTSH – an annual tradition – is the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).
PM Lee wore an auspiciously red polo shirt. On the left breast was NTUC’s famous U logo. A blue arrow in the shape of a swoosh overlay the white U logo. Red, blue, white – these are coincidentally PAP’s colours.
There was a huge round table immaculately laid with a red tablecloth. There were giant chopsticks to loh (Cantonese: toss) the Prosperity Yu Sheng. No prizes for guessing who the guests-of-honour were, though you might wonder who footed the bill (presumably NTUC did).
If NTUC paid for the lavish CNY lunch, they presumably “arranged” for the ang pow and mandarin orange combo as well which the PM was not paiseh (Hokkien: shy) to dish out.
Does NTUC’s charter allow it to do so? It is a good question that needs answering.
Assuming NTUC is allowed to organize a CNY treat for TTSH employees, is PM Lee allowed to be the “bearer of gifts”? That is another good question that needs answering.
What does PM Lee have to do with NTUC? Nothing it would appear from this webpage: NTUC Central Committee 2011-2015.
The President of NTUC is one Diana Chia, PAP MP for East Coast GRC Lim Swee Say is Secretary-General and CEO, and PAP MP for Whampoa SMC Heng Chee How is Deputy Secretary-General. PM Lee Hsien Loong is nowhere mentioned.
There is a vague sentence: “Many other Members of Parliament, including Cabinet Ministers, serve as union advisors.” But that surely does not give PM Lee a blank cheque to distribute ang pows using NTUC’s money, if indeed NTUC’s money was used.
It is not known by what authority PM Lee gave away those cool ang pows. If NTUC’s money was involved and PM Lee had no business giving away NTUC’s money, he should apologize. If PM Lee was somehow authorized, we seek to be enlightened.
$3,000 may be peanuts to people who earn millions of dollars a year, but it is a big deal to many struggling Singaporeans.
The PM’s Office and NTUC should clarify the matter, lest detractors say it was simply a wayang and a photo op.
PM Lee paid a visit to Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) with his wife Ho Ching on Sunday morning (10 Feb), the first day of the Chinese New Year (CNY) of the Snake.
800 TTSH employees were on duty that morning, including nurses, cleaners and security guards.
PM Lee met some 200 of them to thank them for working on the first day of CNY, and reportedly gave each of the 200 employees two Mandarin oranges and a $10 ang pow.
According to The New Paper (11 Feb):
Mr Lee met some 200 employees from TTSH yesterday and they beamed when he handed each of them a paper bag with two mandarin oranges and a red packet with $10 inside.
Singaporeans have a right to ask, “Where did the money come from?”
Let us do some simple calculations: 200 x $10 = $2,000. Then there is the little matter of the mandarin oranges and beautiful paper bag. These cost money too so let us add another thousand dollars, thus making $3,000. Where did the $3,000 for these gifts come from?
There are, it seems to us, two possibilities. It either came from PM Lee’s own pocket or it came from the organizer’s pocket.
POSSIBILITY 1) PM LEE’S MONEY
What if it came from PM Lee’s own pocket? A man is allowed to do what he will with his own money, you might say, and that is that. At first sight, that seems right, but we shall take a closer look.
99.9% of Singaporeans who give $10 ang pows do so out of their own pocket. They give them to children (their own, the neighbours’, nephews, nieces, grandchildren), seniors (their relatives, neighbours, any old folk who could do with a bit of cash) and workers (maids, cleaners, etc). Some bosses give ang pows to their staff.
Speaking of bosses, there are bosses who eh hiao jo lang (Hokkien: literally, know how to act as a human being i.e. act in a humane way). They give out of their own pocket a small ang pow in the region of $10 to $20 to their employees for good luck on top of what the company has paid in bonuses.
On the other hand, there are cheapo bosses who buay hiao jo lang (Hokkien: literally, don’t know how to act like a human being i.e. act in an inhumane way). They give a small ang pow and no bonus and hope to pass off the ang pow as a bonus. The employees would take the ang pow with a smile in public, but in private they would seethe with anger.
As Prime Minister, Mr Lee is the leader of the Government of Singapore, and primus inter pares (Latin: first among equals) among his Cabinet colleagues. But for all that, he is not the boss of TTSH.
So, if he had paid for the gifts personally, he must have done so not as the boss of TTSH but in his private capacity as a sympathetic human being or in his professional capacity as Prime Minister. We prefer to discount the possibility that Mr Lee gave in his private capacity because generally in Singapore no one goes around doling out $10 ang pows to hundreds of people; if anyone did, he must be both very rich and an attention seeker.
There remains the possibility that Mr Lee gave as PM. Is he allowed to do so? Someone better versed with the law than we are at TR Emeritus will have to tell us if public servants are allowed to dole out thousands of dollars in ang pow money.
Perhaps it is legal and perhaps it is not, but whatever the case, there will be people questioning the sincerity of a person who gives away hundreds of ang pows in full public view with cameras clicking away.
POSSIBILITY 2) ORGANIZER’S MONEY
The organizer for PM Lee’s CNY meeting with the staff of TTSH – an annual tradition – is the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).
PM Lee wore an auspiciously red polo shirt. On the left breast was NTUC’s famous U logo. A blue arrow in the shape of a swoosh overlay the white U logo. Red, blue, white – these are coincidentally PAP’s colours.
There was a huge round table immaculately laid with a red tablecloth. There were giant chopsticks to loh (Cantonese: toss) the Prosperity Yu Sheng. No prizes for guessing who the guests-of-honour were, though you might wonder who footed the bill (presumably NTUC did).
If NTUC paid for the lavish CNY lunch, they presumably “arranged” for the ang pow and mandarin orange combo as well which the PM was not paiseh (Hokkien: shy) to dish out.
Does NTUC’s charter allow it to do so? It is a good question that needs answering.
Assuming NTUC is allowed to organize a CNY treat for TTSH employees, is PM Lee allowed to be the “bearer of gifts”? That is another good question that needs answering.
What does PM Lee have to do with NTUC? Nothing it would appear from this webpage: NTUC Central Committee 2011-2015.
The President of NTUC is one Diana Chia, PAP MP for East Coast GRC Lim Swee Say is Secretary-General and CEO, and PAP MP for Whampoa SMC Heng Chee How is Deputy Secretary-General. PM Lee Hsien Loong is nowhere mentioned.
There is a vague sentence: “Many other Members of Parliament, including Cabinet Ministers, serve as union advisors.” But that surely does not give PM Lee a blank cheque to distribute ang pows using NTUC’s money, if indeed NTUC’s money was used.
It is not known by what authority PM Lee gave away those cool ang pows. If NTUC’s money was involved and PM Lee had no business giving away NTUC’s money, he should apologize. If PM Lee was somehow authorized, we seek to be enlightened.
$3,000 may be peanuts to people who earn millions of dollars a year, but it is a big deal to many struggling Singaporeans.
The PM’s Office and NTUC should clarify the matter, lest detractors say it was simply a wayang and a photo op.
