Tag: parliament

To laugh or to cry? (II) 之 不识字

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The following is the transcript of a conversation on an instant messenger between my friend and I some time last week. He recounted the events which transpired when his uncle tried to get some assistance from his MP during the weekly ‘Meet the People’ session.

And as usual you never get to really meet out ‘elite talents’ from the Tali-PAP in any of those sessions. Who his uncle met was just one of those people giving their time to ‘serve the people party’ .

Friend said: tell u update of my uncle’s meet mp story. after going to ask for aid on Monday, they post out a letter dated 22 Apr, ask him come for appt with long list of document on 24 Apr. 2 day! of coz miss then i call back yesterday, ask for postpone i told them he 不识字*, so wait till i visit him then see the letter she reply “but i got attached chinese version wat” now then i know … know chinese is also call 不识字

Me says (18:06): I just read the 2nd part of your uncle meet MP story this morning. KNN now I then know “know chinese” is NOT 不识字 lol

Friend says (18:06): ya lor.

Friend says (18:07): or the other way

Me says (18:07): Oh.. sorry.. I mean 不识字 = cannot read English only. LOL

Friend says (18:07): only know chinese is also 不识字

Me says (18:07): what was the whole story about your uncle again? I cannot remember leow.

Friend says (18:08): he out of job… so my mum bring him to go to his MP wish to get aid… so when he was there… the officer (where got really see MP?) ask: so? wat u wan me to do?

Friend says (18:09): my mother say “help us write to 福利部… then he ask “write wat” hahha

Me says (18:09): -.-“

Friend says (18:09): anyway they were then on 21st evening…

[— This Part Has Been Harmonized 此部分已被和谐 —]

Friend says (18:09): so they VERY efficient… they write to him on 22nd … tell him got appointment for interview on the 24th

[— This Part Has Been Harmonized 此部分已被和谐 —]

Friend says (18:10): then in the letter dated 22nd, the appointment is 24th 3pm… so efficient

Friend says (18:11): then the letter also indicate can call us in need at xxxxxxx, if u dun turn up means u dun nid the assistance liao. but i only got to read the letter on 26 mah. so i call up on 27 ask for change appt…

Friend says (18:12): i say he 不识字… then she reply “but got chinese version attachment mah
Me says (18:12): DIEW… fxxking idiots.

Friend says (18:13): then i say “also 不识 chinese 字 ” hahah

Me says (18:13): I will blog abt this u know? I just won’t mention which MP or which constituency and will NOT give the info to anyone else who asked.

Friend says (18:13): then she say “huh? got such thing hahaha

Me says (18:13): -.-“

Friend says (18:16): then anyway i request to change to this friday lor…

Me says (18:16): She doesn’t understand what is TOTALLY illiterate… sigh

Friend says (18:16): then she still “oh… so u still need? ok lor hahha damn buay tahan. y ai also never say dun understand english

* 不识字 – literal meaning: ‘do not understanding writing’. But generally means that one is illiterate. This is not exactly the same as 没读书, which literal meaning is ‘never read books’. Generally used to convey the meaning that one is not educated (没受过教育).


Yet another example which left me perplexed. I don’t know to laugh or cry when my friend recounted this on IM.

It is of no wonder to me why the Chinese standards in Singapore is generally dismal. I have always considered calling a Northern Chinese dialect (Mandarin) our mother tongue one of the main reasons why we find no attachment to the language. After all, I define mother tongue as this: the tongue in my mother’s mouth, and the language she teaches me to speak – in my case, Cantonese.

Now I know the other reason: the lowly opinion some people have of the Chinese language being a language spoken and read by the illiterate. (Though I was under the impression that been illiterate would mean a complete lack of education.)

Anyway, I have censored harmonized the portion where I asked which MP and which GRC this is. It is not the MPs fault, since the fellow also doesn’t know. But after all being said, all these MPs should look into the attitude and the standard of the people they use to stand in their place. After all, they are serving in the MPs capacity and the people elected MPs to serve them. But these people are apparently doing the exact opposite!

To laugh or to cry? (I)

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I was just scrolling through Workers’ Party @ Parliament blog when I read the following exchange between opposition MP Low Thia Khiang and one of the so called ‘elite talents’ (精英人才) of the Tali-PAP on 28 Feb 2008:

Mr Low Thia Khiang (Hougang SMC): First clarification, the member in his speech said why should we quarrel with the discrepancy in the estimates because we are in a happy situation where we have a huge surplus instead of a deficit.

Does he agree that he misses the point? The point is not so much whether we end up with a huge deficit or huge surplus, the question is: why is the Budget estimate so far off the mark?

Second clarification: He says that if our estimate is off the mark, Hong Kong is even worse than us because they are off the mark much more than Singapore’s estimates.

I’m afraid that if this is the attitude of the People’s Action Party, we are going down a slippery slope. We are not so good in estimates, he says, but never mind, there are people who are worse than us.

So in Mandarin, this is exactly what we call ‘Ah Q jing shen’ (mentality)*.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang GRC): In fact when I did my block visit last night, a resident asked me the same question: why does the Government have such a huge surplus? Did something go wrong in the estimate?

Looking at the papers this morning, when Hong Kong reported a huge surplus – four times above the estimate – the main reason given was it was an unprecedented year, property prices went up, they had huge transactions in the stock market. A similar phenomenon was seen in Singapore as well.

I told the resident: At the end of the day, I think the key question for this House is how do we look forward?

When the family breadwinner came back and said: ‘I’ve struck lottery”, you shouldn’t be asking, ‘Why did you strike lottery?’

You should be asking: how are we going to use the lottery money? So I think we should not miss the point. The real issue now is: What can we do now to make sure that there will be less and less need for all these social welfare programmes in the future. Look forward and not backward.

* Ah Q is a famous character in Chinese literature, known for his foolishness and optimism.

I was rolling the floor laughing my ass off when I read Lim’s reply. The fact that this guy actually holds a doctorate, makes it even more hilarious. This is the kind of replies I would have imagined Ah Beng and Ah Seng would have come up with.

Try and imagine this… Citizen Lim Dong Chiang told his wife that getting himself sterilised would have been a good idea because they can just continue to enjoy unprotected sex, save the money use for contraception, and not worry about having a baby.

One year later, Dong Chiang’s wife came home and told him she is pregnant. And when Dong Chiang goes looking for Dr Lim, I can almost imagine him giving this advice: ‘You don’t ask where the baby come from, Chiang. I think we should not miss the point. The real issue now is: What you can do now to make sure you have the money to raise the baby in the future. Look forward not backward.’

You know, if it was an opposition MP who said this he would have definitely have been ridiculed in Parliament, and by Singapore’s lapdog media until he has no place to hide. Remember what happened to Lim How Doong when he said, ” Don’t Talk Cock! ” in Parliament?

This is enough to make one weep but at the meantime, you don’t know whether you should be laughing or not!

Well done, Sembawang GRC. This is one of the clowns you gave 76.7% of the votes to. I suppose the Singapore Zoo probably could teach Ah Meng’s offsprings to be MPs better than they act… and they probably takes normal peanuts – not the TT Durai kind – for pay too.

Sembawang GRC, will you find the courage to fix this problem, the next time round? Or will you continue to keep them and spoilt them?