- Joined
- Jun 4, 2024
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You can call Leong Mun Wai of PSP persistent. Or say he is foolhardy. That he is tilting at windmills or too wilful to see the full picture. You can label him a xenophobe or describe him as the working man’s hero. Laugh at him. Or cry with him.
I would say he has plenty of stamina and a very thick skin when he has a bee in his bonnet. His bee is how labour statistics need to be extremely finely broken down into new jobs, old jobs, job type, foreigners, PR and citizens and I don’t know how many other ways you can cut it. His bonnet is his belief that labour statistics do not reflect the Singapore workers’ well-being accurately.
His particular bee-f in this instance concerned the G’s calculation of PMET jobs created going to Singaporeans and PRs (60 per cent) and foreign residents. To put it simply, he wants to know if the PRs included those who were recently non-PRs. But his facility with the English language cannot be compared with that of Manpower Minister Tan See Leng, as shown during the debate on the Manpower ministry’s budget.
The much-lauded veteran politician Low Thia Khiang was not known for being an English-language debater either. Rather his Teochew chops have been attributed as a reason for his win in the dialect-dominated Hougang constituency in the 1991. We might have laughed at him for some of his more infamous English quotes like “sue until pants drop’’ - but we definitely got what he meant. Heartlanders loved the folksy style. This is not to say he didn’t prove to be a good politician and MP, raising tough questions for the G to answer.
The only contender on the PAP side in recent times was Lee Bee Wah, especially her infamous Hokkien phrase about looking for a toilet only when there is an emergency. Former PM Goh Chok Tong, by the way, was also a mean Hokkien speaker.
Maybe Tan See Leng has taken her place. His Andy Lau-inspired Cantonese riposte summing up his bewilderment at Leong’s persistent questions in Parliament has gone viral. Not to be outdone, Leong has also gone on camera to respond in Cantonese that I have been told is as fluent as fluent can be.
Dialect use is still a draw, even among the English-speaking who require a translation. There are still many people in the two men’s generation who know dialects and appreciate their use as a tool of communication. And more young people are warming to the idea of learning dialects, which almost died under the Speak Mandarin campaign.
Dialect use as a rhetorical technique is a potent tool. It works better than references to Shakespeare or classical literature with the population. We can expect its increased use on the ground especially in the run-up to election. In fact, the dialect decibel will get higher, much to the disadvantage of MPs and candidates who can’t channel switch and whose grasp of the English language veers between Singlish and press-release English.
The more churlish ones would mock the parliamentary display as against the official narrative on language use. They may even say he is playing to the gallery. But in my view, Dr Tan’s use was a breath of fresh air in a Parliament filled with speeches full of sound and yawn-inducing sweetness. If anything, it makes politics, politicians and even Parliament, more interesting.
I would say he has plenty of stamina and a very thick skin when he has a bee in his bonnet. His bee is how labour statistics need to be extremely finely broken down into new jobs, old jobs, job type, foreigners, PR and citizens and I don’t know how many other ways you can cut it. His bonnet is his belief that labour statistics do not reflect the Singapore workers’ well-being accurately.
His particular bee-f in this instance concerned the G’s calculation of PMET jobs created going to Singaporeans and PRs (60 per cent) and foreign residents. To put it simply, he wants to know if the PRs included those who were recently non-PRs. But his facility with the English language cannot be compared with that of Manpower Minister Tan See Leng, as shown during the debate on the Manpower ministry’s budget.
The much-lauded veteran politician Low Thia Khiang was not known for being an English-language debater either. Rather his Teochew chops have been attributed as a reason for his win in the dialect-dominated Hougang constituency in the 1991. We might have laughed at him for some of his more infamous English quotes like “sue until pants drop’’ - but we definitely got what he meant. Heartlanders loved the folksy style. This is not to say he didn’t prove to be a good politician and MP, raising tough questions for the G to answer.
The only contender on the PAP side in recent times was Lee Bee Wah, especially her infamous Hokkien phrase about looking for a toilet only when there is an emergency. Former PM Goh Chok Tong, by the way, was also a mean Hokkien speaker.
Maybe Tan See Leng has taken her place. His Andy Lau-inspired Cantonese riposte summing up his bewilderment at Leong’s persistent questions in Parliament has gone viral. Not to be outdone, Leong has also gone on camera to respond in Cantonese that I have been told is as fluent as fluent can be.
Dialect use is still a draw, even among the English-speaking who require a translation. There are still many people in the two men’s generation who know dialects and appreciate their use as a tool of communication. And more young people are warming to the idea of learning dialects, which almost died under the Speak Mandarin campaign.
Dialect use as a rhetorical technique is a potent tool. It works better than references to Shakespeare or classical literature with the population. We can expect its increased use on the ground especially in the run-up to election. In fact, the dialect decibel will get higher, much to the disadvantage of MPs and candidates who can’t channel switch and whose grasp of the English language veers between Singlish and press-release English.
The more churlish ones would mock the parliamentary display as against the official narrative on language use. They may even say he is playing to the gallery. But in my view, Dr Tan’s use was a breath of fresh air in a Parliament filled with speeches full of sound and yawn-inducing sweetness. If anything, it makes politics, politicians and even Parliament, more interesting.
