~by: Siew Kum Hong~
I was away for most of December, so I missed the two big recent news stories, namely the SMRT fiasco and Seng Han Thong’s appearance on BlogTV. I’ve been in two minds about writing on the latter incident, but finally decided to do so thanks to the remarks by Law and Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam and the TNP article on Boxing Day. I was away at the time and so feel that I am quite distanced from this entire affair, even given my affiliation with TOC.
[disclaimer: I am a member of the core team behind The Online Citizen, but I do not have editorial duties and pretty much see my role as doing what it takes to let the editors get on with their jobs. I weigh in on articles only when asked, and primarily from a legal perspective, although I do tend to give my two cents worth when asked.]
Alex Au does a good job at a quick recap, so I won’t reinvent the wheel. A lot has already been said, so I will only make three points in this posting.
Firstly, nobody can dispute that whatever Seng said on TV, it was incredibly garbled. This is his transcript:
“I notice that the PR mention that, some of the staff, because they are Malay, they are Indian, they can’t converse in English good, well enough, so that also deters them, from but I think we accept broken English.”
As I said, I was away when it all happened, and so I had no idea what was going on when I started being copied on emails within the TOC core team about this incident. I must confess that when I finally read the TOC article that broke the story (which by then had the 2 updates and the editor’s note), I was quite confused.
Even when I read the transcript of Seng’s remarks (reproduced in the editor’s note), I couldn’t precisely figure out what he was trying to get at. I had to re-read Seng’s statement of apology (in update 1 in the article), which explained the point he was trying to make, before I stopped feeling like the ADSL guy in that StarHub ad.
So my first point is: putting aside all this stuff about whether or not the remarks were racist in nature, the sheer irony of a politician speaking in broken English on national TV about broken English was striking (and fodder for satire, as Mr Brown has shown us in his inimitable way).
My second point is about the failure in the article to attribute Seng’s comment about Malays and Indians to SMRT PR, which some seem to be trying to make hay from. Yes, the TOC article could’ve made that attribution, in which case I wouldn’t be writing this particular post.
But frankly, Seng’s words were so garbled, it’s not so easy to tell where the SMRT portion ended and where Seng’s own thoughts began. After Seng posted his explanations, we now know what he was trying to say and why he said what he did. But it was a little difficult before Seng explained. Hindsight is perfect, but there’s no hindsight when you break a story.
Having said that, my third point is that my second point is actually quite beside the point. That’s because even though Seng was quoting a SMRT spokesperson, he seemed to have adopted the SMRT spokesperson’s point (or rather, what he thought the point was); in any case, he did not contradict it. I personally think this is critical.
If you read Seng’s words carefully, you’ll see that he basically said:
- SMRT person said some staff, being Malay and Indian, can’t speak English well, and hence this deters them from … (I suppose Seng meant to say “making announcements” here, or maybe “making announcements without scripts”)
- We can accept broken English in announcements. (Presumably, Seng’s point was that staff with broken English should have made the necessary announcements anyway.)
Seng could only have gotten from (1) to (2), if he had agreed with and adopted (1). That’s because if there is no question of broken English, then there is no question of announcements in broken English. And Seng at no time indicated any disagreement or any hesitation about the reference to Malay and Indian drivers only, so (2) must surely only relate to them.
In other words, Seng must have, in his mind when he made the statements, been thinking only of Malay and Indian drivers who cannot speak English well. And he displayed no reluctance to make, or problems with making, those statements on that basis.
Minister Shanmugam did acknowledge that Seng did not contradict what he thought he heard the SMRT spokesperson say, but the Minister still seemed (based on news reports at least) to have focused his attention on the TOC article instead of the comments themselves. I would disagree with the Minister that the failure in the TOC article to mention the SMRT spokesperson made the article “false”, because it’s clear that Seng had adopted the SMRT spokesperson’s words (or what Seng thought those words were) for himself.
I do wish that the TOC article had mentioned the reference to “SMRT PR”, so that there wouldn’t be all this brouhaha. But that does not detract from the substance of the article. And I think the fact that other PAP MPs came out to criticize Seng, even after reading his explanations, speaks volumes about Seng’s comments. Kudos to the likes of Madam Halimah Yacob and Inderjit Singh.
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To me it’s quite obvious that SHT was trying to say to SMRT: don’t give me stupid excuse about your staff not being able to speak good English – you should have made them make the annoucements anyway given the situation.
Of course, it’s no surprise that TOC will try to put a different spin on his statement for their own agenda…
I really do not think SHT had any ‘racist’ intentions when he said what he said. His point was somehow ‘lost in translation’ & with sg’reans being so sensitive these days to comments perceived to be belittling our minority races.
SHT’s point was – its not a good excuse for the train drivers NOT to update trapped passengers regardless of how proficient they are or not, in English. That was his point.
when I 1st heard that train drivers were afraid to speak in English, I thought – oh, has SMRT started employing mainland chinese drivers as well? I know i’m not being racist here – my experience in Sg indicates that quite a number of mainland chinese who work in Sg are not comfortable speaking in English.
GoonDoo,
Nice to see someone who is rational regarding this incident.
I think it’s just sad that TOC first chose to misrepresent SHT, then refused to back down once it was pointed out that they were misrepresenting him, but celebrate how they have supporters…
Actually ah, SMRT statement is dam kok.
The staff may be mainly “Chinese, Indian and Malay”, but then so are the commuters, right? Shouldn’t they communicate in the official languages anyway?
English no good… then how? Must employ Englishmen as drivers and staff issit?
Why even mention race to begin with?
What he says just doesn’t make sense at all.
What if the driverless Circle Line or North-East Line broke down instead? Both are driverless.
I too do not believe Seng Han Thong is a racist. The issue, however, is his competence as an MP. Being a veteran MP, why is he so inarticulate or such a stammerer speaking in public, mind you, in a friendly controlled mainstream media environment? I think Singaporeans now expect much more of their representatives or leaders. If the PAP continues to choose such sub-standard candidates, it is going to be totally disconnected with the better educated voters in no time all.
The SMRT PR says “Chinese, Indian and Malay..” but SHT claimed he heard only “Indian, Malay..” He did not find anything wrong with what he may have “misheard” and went on to repeat what he remembered on a public discussion.
He probably carried some racial prejudice in his subconscious mind.
ummm , why is this article still focused on what SHT said or didn’t say, mean or didn’t mean , or whether racism matters here or not; from the headline i would think this article was going to talk about what i been saying for the past week – SMRT has a much bigger problem in its lousy maintenance record than whether SHT is racist or not
TOC never misrepresented SHT. He adopted the SMRT PR’s stand… Its actually The Mainstream Media and ultimately SHT himself who misrepresented SHT’s statement made in context that fateful day.
Folks including TOC – please let us stop flogging the dead horse about SHT.
“TOC never misrepresented SHT”
That’s patently untrue. TOC’s article was titled:
MP Seng Han Thong: SMRT’s unpreparedness also due to Malay and Indian staffs English language inefficiency
Now tell me how that is not misrepresentation.
Whatever it is , damage have been done. Now is the time for action by the Government of singapore if they are not governing by the break and rule ideology. They are just similar to Malaysia government , break and rule ideology.
Allo Mr SHiT , what are you thinking before you are talk(ing)….!!! If he stil living in the past decades , ( 60s – 70s ) I am able to accept his excuses but hey we are already in the 21st century lei…..still kun-ning(sleeping)…..!!! So what type of leaders and MPs do singapore have right now…????
Our children are all english educated and have 2nd language of our own mother tongue….!!!
How dare he mentioned malay and Indian drivers as the culprit…..did he still live in the past tenses of his life….did he view the youtube about PRC driving SBS and speaking no english…WHY doesn’t he highlight on THAT…!!!!
He is really a SHiT to the singapore Government…..just wasting of tax payer money and time…..bloody Inefficient MP you are…!!!!
Disappointed. As an overseas Singaporean, I do initially find TOC article to be a good source of news about the latest happenings in SG. I used to be a reader of Temasek Review reader for a couple of months but decided not to waste my time due to the overtly-biased reporting from that website.
This article resolved nothing. TOC has to admit and apologise that the quote by the MP was taken out of context and moved on from there. But instead, we get a very typical “yeah, we made a mistake.. BUT … not really, blahblah”. This media circus will only lower TOC’s credibility.
TOC has to improve the overall editorial quality if it wants to retain its readership.
The SMRT fiasco spawned two realities:
1) That PAP for all its high horse assertions about having the best & most qualified people do, and continue to make mistakes, sometimes very elementary ones.
2) That PAP still cling on to the believe that “attack is the best form of defence”, evidenced by the vicious attack on TOC.
“Attack is the best form of defence” belong in the Cold War era, in these modern age of the digital grapevine, it is better to express sincere repentance when in the wrong and move on. This way you win the respect of the people.
@ Godwin
“Why even mention race to begin with?”
So are you suggesting that SMRT is “rascist”?
Prove that if it is so.
including civil pay which is extremely high and pension
King 28 December 2011
Disappointed. As an overseas Singaporean, I do initially find TOC article to be a good source of news about the latest happenings in SG. I used to be a reader of Temasek Review reader for a couple of months but decided not to waste my time due to the overtly-biased reporting from that website.
This article resolved nothing. TOC has to admit and apologise that the quote by the MP was taken out of context and moved on from there. But instead, we get a very typical “yeah, we made a mistake.. BUT … not really, blahblah”. This media circus will only lower TOC’s credibility.
TOC has to improve the overall editorial quality if it wants to retain its readership.
————
at least toc not so biased, toc even worser by alot, lapdog of pappies
@ Godwin
” That’s patently untrue. TOC’s article was titled:
MP Seng Han Thong: SMRT’s unpreparedness also due to Malay and Indian staffs English language inefficiency
Now tell me how that is not misrepresentation.”
Show me where did TOC claims to be clairvoyant when all that ir reported is “as it is” of a matter-of-factly.
TOC takes no position stating a fact of acount. It is open and transparent. Even Cherian George, after vigorously dissenting, finally agreed that TOC was “considerate” ( of truth telling) in public airing and that word of his “considerate” is to me understatement.
The reference to race import was specific, identifying and exhaustively defining. No one else in public record of that media show ventured that far of indentification and precision.
SHT apologized, you are not entitled to presume that apology is hypocritical of truth and insincere. SHT is honest of that apology I believe.
Get real with the hard truths instead of spinning GIGO here.
King, I can certainly not agree to your point of view about this website’s standards. I too am a Singaporean based overseas like you and this particular website discusses quite a bit of varied topics at an intellectual (and yet not detached from emotions)level. I have certainly recommended them as a preferred reading material to my friends who think that Singapore is a lifeless and soulless city.
The fact there were PAP MPs who came out to criticize Seng, need to reflect on their personal and political agendas. Seng clearly wasn’t racist. It was propaganda, and then fanned out of proportion. You would have thought the FELLOW PAP MPs would investigate the context and origination of the speeches made by SMRT and then by Seng, to deduce the essence of what were said. And defend the poor man, yet at the same time, cautioning netizens that there are always risks of misinterpretation. What does this fiasco tell me? I think Seng is a sincere guy. (although I have never met him) and I think the few MPs who swiftly came out to criticize him …. are dangerous people.
As TRE intelligently pointed out correctly in their article – of race, politics and crisis management – “good” English is the last and insignificant factor of failed crisis management.
And I agree.
In crisis panicked situation, I am sure EXPLETIVES would have flown to high heaven. Who in those panic, frightening sequence of silence and darkness think of courtesy and Queen’s English?
Queen’s english and race thoughts would have been thrown into the rubbish bin even for the highly educated with excellent command of English.
Who could have gone astray so far and not even realising for one split second of past moment until the media exposure hit and netizens roared back in utter disbelief of how ridiculous the comedy of errors erupted?
so what exactly – racist or not – was guys like SHT saying?
that our MSRT staff like the indians and malays or maybe even our chinese ones cannto speak good english or proper ‘ENGLISH’?
so what,many sgporeans – the bulk of MSRT PASSENGERS – speak SINGLISH which is probably the SMRT staff are fluent with unless the MAJORITY OF THEIR STAFF are ‘FTs’?
if so,HOW COME smrt HR dept ALLOW FTs who cannot speak ENGLISH or even the more ‘common’ SINGLISH to be employed in the first place?
are we trying to so damn hard to ‘cut costs’ – if at all – just so to amke more profits at the expense of the convenience and SAFETY of sgporeans and some others?
Rather about racist remarks, more so it is speaking loosely off-the-cuff without due care, awareness, alertness or presence of mind that we still live in a multi-racial society still having old baggage around us.
I used to read TR. But I was shown conclusive evidence that its really a covert government website.
As for TOC. Under the new leadership of Ravi, I have seen less discrimation of gamers. I dont want to comment on Andrew Loh. But many are happy he is gone and hopefully will stay happy wherever he is.
As for Seng. We all heard what he said. If he is so garbled to come across as confused, how can this be our fault? Does the gahmen expect us all to read minds?
TR a covert government website? Damn I know that our government is dumb but it can’t possibly be that dumb.
It may be good for some forumers in TOC and elsewhere to understand how many in the gaming world see Seng’s comments about Indians and Malays not being able to speak good English.
http://dotseng.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/why-cant-pap-communicate-without-putting-a-shoe-in-their-gob/
Mr Seng Han Thong was indeed misrepresented. He is someone who puts the citizens interests before his own. He has obtained countless subsidies on housing, healthcare, medical, transport, utilities etc for his constituents, who revere him & treat him with the utmost respect. He is a role model that we should emulate.
If Mr Seng were in other countries, nobody would take issue with what he said since it is so trivial. It is only in Singapore where the anti-establishment have got nothing to do.
Hi Hades
Nice to see you again. That was what I thought as well when I first heard about it. It just didnt make one ounce of common sense. But then one day, I clicked on a holovision video and it was clear as day.
I mean, the truth and nothing but the truth.
In the first place, it is wrong to label the train disruptions as SMRT fiasco as it was such a trivial incident. In London & Paris, there are much worse incidences with trains derailing & workers going on strike. So there is nothing to distract from.
Traveller
You downplay the fiasco as a trivial incident?
You are comparing tiny sg with big first world city like Paris?
Why compare a room with a palace?
Paris Metro is so much bigger than sg mrt.
A few lines of mrt should br easier manage.
You are so desperate trying to downplay this frontpage headline fiasco of our governmt linked company .
Shame on you.
Racist still as I am not convinced and his statements stands regardles off Minister level spins done to say misquoted.What you feel and think in your heart & Head is what you will say out your mouth. SHT is not a school boy but a well paid, professional and Member of Parliament representing Singaporeans. To say what he said only on “Malay & Indian” workers being the reasons on SMRT comm problem (on Public Media-TV) highlights his biasness.So don’t try to save yourself claiming misquotation and alt news out to get you.Imagine if he said “F___K you” on live TV and claiming he misquoted as heard someone else.Will he dared to say as naive or will we be still having this conversation all. Wake up.
Traveller
2 hrs, 29 mins ago
In the first place, it is wrong to label the train disruptions as SMRT fiasco as it was such a trivial incident. In London & Paris, there are much worse incidences with trains derailing & workers going on strike. So there is nothing to distract from.
……..
what wrong for organisin a strikes? why do workers strikes? just for fun perhaps or for a fair wages?
and STRIKES got nothin to do with trains breakdown..in paris the metro only breakdown if it had a puncik tyres…
Traveller,
have you travelled much?
This IS not a fiasco. It is a BIG FAILURE by a GLC.
If your wife is pregnant and was inside the train, you tell me, how you feel? ‘Trivial’?
If you need to attend an important meeting and could be there 1 hour earlier even if you took the train and instead got stuck for 5 long hours, is that Trivial?
Why it took 5 long hours?
The UPS only lasts 2.5 hours.
Trivial?
What if you have heart problem or lung problem and got stuck there in the dark with little ventilation for 5 hours and the driver did not come to your help?
Trivial?
No one on earth except a biased mind would agree that it was a trivial matter.
If it broke down and got up within 30minutes, that is still trivial. But its 5 long hours and worse is the Operational readiness FAILED.
Is this Trivial?
They are a monopoly with themselves to play with.
Still like this?
So short lines of mrt compared to other cities and you say its trivial?
Paid so unimaginable amounts of money and you say its trivial?
I do not know are you saw or see saw.
No on is so stupid to believe what you fart lah.
hahaha!
@Lui Lui Yew
Train disruptions are part & parcel of life. They are trivial. Regardless of whether it is a pregnant woman, or man late for meeting, or someone with heart or lung problem, in other countries, nobody would even complain about it. They just get on with things, even when those cities public transport not as good as ours. SMRT has done a terrific job even as it faces higher cost pressures. Seems like you don’t travel much so you don’t realize our SMRT is the best in the world.
“the sheer irony of a politician speaking in broken English on national TV about broken English was striking”
This is really funny! lmao. Pardon me for lol.
Traveller I agree with Lui Lui, getting stuck for five hours is no trivial thing for a woman
lol….finally all you guys here got played into the hands of someone who succeeded in his plot to divert you guys from the much BIGGER PROBLEMS on SMART itself is causing. Thats what I like about politics, its a game of stragedy, conspiracy and confuse all to win when one do not see the whole picture of what’s been going on from below.
Office politics is nothing great . Anyone with a evil heart can play office politics. Many lose in office politics bcos they cannot bring themselves to be so mean.
The bigger a bastard, the better at office politics.
Nothing nobel abt office politicians.
i tot SHT was a newbie MP who was just minted last year, lol…
so people like me must be prepared for many more miscommunication, mis-representation, messeges being lost in translation?
den dun blame people for acting autonomously, cos life-&-death situation where got time to clarify a few times, wait for officials to roll out their confusing, hard to understand & maybe bureaucratic SOP, legal difinition of crisis to execute their SOP, technical mumbo-jumbo terms like “collector claws”…?
floating slab to me means mattress (fyi, mine absorb vibration well enough!)!
:D
i am surprised at his ‘ENGLISH’ remark;if good english is so important for our mrt train drivers – how about those driverless lines like N-E line – then it is even mor eimportant for thsoe who want to be MPs?
i think SENG HAN THong SHOULD NOT REMAIN AS MP as he only speaks ‘SENGlish’;AT least our malay and indian train drivers speak the more common singlish.
@Traveller
“Seems like you don’t travel much so you don’t realize our SMRT is the best in the world.”
———————————–
Wih just this one sentence we can conclude that you have:
1. Not covered enough countries in you travels; or,
2. You are part of the PAP’s internet brigade; or,
3. Both 1. and 2.
I strogly belive he has no heart being racist.
Tons of paptricks would derail themselves in the next watershed election or even lanslide victory by contenders. Those new citizens who converted 5 yrs ago are now in the same boat with the original citizens, consolidating distrust and resentment.
I’m appalled that the mp cannot communicate clearly in English. How does he take part in the legislative process then? Is he even fit to be in parliament? What has he been doing all this while? Nursing his burns?
SHT is not your ordinary Singaporean. He is an MP who get an allowance of $15K per month on top of a secure regular job with a government related organization. To claim that he misheard or misquoted the SMRT PR is sheer nonsense. You cannot go and trivialize away his grave mistake.
The grave mistake has caused grievous hurts more than the burns. Unbandagable.
@Godwin:
1)To me it’s quite obvious that SHT was trying to say to SMRT: don’t give me stupid excuse about your staff not being able to speak good English – you should have made them make the annoucements anyway given the situation.
2) Actually ah, SMRT statement is dam kok.
3) TOC’s article was titled:
“MP Seng Han Thong: SMRT’s unpreparedness also due to Malay and Indian staffs English language inefficiency”
Now tell me how that is not misrepresentation.
- – - – - – - – - – - – -
Godwin, you are damn confused lah.
Go watch the BlogTV again and you will see clearly that SHT IS ADOPTING the SMRT PR’s stand.
But he add in his own racist statement which is not in the original quote by the PR of SMRT.
So in this light, TOC’s title:
“MP Seng Han Thong: SMRT’s unpreparedness also due to Malay and Indian staffs English language inefficiency”
is not inappropirate because the racist comment is SHT’s very own and not from SMRT.
After SHT was exposed, he said he misheard the PR of SMRT over the radio, but that is another story. BTW, if he had misheard SMRT as he claimed, why did he still adopt it? Why didn’t it occured to him that it was racially biased?
So, it seemed that SHT first adopted SMRT stand, but when his racist inclusion was exposed, turn around and said he meant to disagree with SMRT which pin the blame on the driver’s language proficiency, and with the help of Shan and Today, citing Cherian to attack TOC and online journalism.
So I think TOC should engage SHT, Shan, Today directly and not let them getting away with twisting the facts on main stream media.
It is about the man, manner and place. He is a politician and he is providing views on a matter of public interest through the media, shouldn’t he be careful?
Why shift the blame to TOC when the actual recording was provided for all to verify?
The irony is that he is a former newspaper man. He should have known better. He has to learn it the hard way. I have heard many Singaporeans who speak bad broken English making fun of other races with zilch self-awareness. As gracious citizens we must know that careless speech spoils goodwill.
traveller
Seems like you don’t travel much so you don’t realize our SMRT is the best in the world.
……………….
why our smrt trains don’t used tyres perhaps?
by the way..why are the us metros and french metros hav more ARMED polis on patrol than smrt? when was the last time you seen armed polismen on board a movin mrt?
Hey, this is a First World country with First World communications, right?
So, why cannot SMRT central control take over all emergency broadcasts and be linked directly to the trains?
It is so simple to fix this fiasco in communcations plus it will mean accurate updates in all languages can be provided.