Dr Seet Ai Mee clarified on 'fishmonger handshake' incident

[cooleo]

Dr Seet Ai Mee clarifies fishmonger incident of 1991

Source: Petir magazine July/August 2009 Issue http://www.pap.org.sg/petir_articlepage.php?id=46&articleid=5329&cid=84

Dr Seet Ai Mee talks to Suresh Nair about being
one of the first female MPs, and her darkest political moment

Q: Your fishmonger incident of 1991 has been sometimes linked to your defeat in that election.

A: It wasn’t a fishmonger, it was pork sellers. I washed my hands after shaking hands with the pork sellers in the market, simply because I thought that if I shake the hand of another person later who may be Muslim, it would be a religious offence.

Did the press ask me why I washed my hands? No. Did the then Prime Minister (Goh Chok Tong) ask me? No.

Had both asked for an explanation, I would’ve told them. I didn’t know about the issue until PM spoke about it at the General Election rally.

Had it been clarified, we could’ve explained and defused the incident. The opposite happened instead and I became political fodder.

 

[halsey02]

1991 till now...who the care if you, if she washes her hands or not....even she does, the people have voted against...you think they took offence with the hand washing thing...I wouldn't if her hands are dirty, nor many would...but it was something else the constituents wasn't happy about, that she got voted out...

What to do, it already happened!..let us move on, and this non-washing of hands is a once in 50 year thing...

 

[cheekenpie]

For someone who is called "ai mee".... she sure dont like bar chor mee.

 

[eatshitndie]

she did the right thing. never shake hands with strangers, but if you do it inadvertently, wash your hands immediately with strong soap. you never know if the stranger wipes his armpit, scratches his balls, or digs his arsehole with his middle finger.

 

[halsey02]

For someone who is called "ai mee".... she sure dont like bar chor mee.

but bar chor MEE, not popular with the pappienosauraus rattus, that was why, Wooden also not interested, but they prefer their MEE siam, without the hummm , cockles!

 

[kulgai]

she din noe it was an issue? tats strange considering tat it was widely reported in the one and only newspaper. I say, this is an after thought.

 

[po2wq]

y muz it take 18 yrs later 2 clarify? ... y wasnt it clarified on ze spot if it was so? ...

 

[KuanTi01]

Dr Seet should have rebutted and shut their gaps up the very moment the controversy reared its ugly head! No excuses for she was a politician! Even if she was caught unawares as claimed, her porlanpars would have surely brought it to her attention. Perhaps she was afraid of contradicting heavyweight Mr Goh. It's too late now to complain.

 

[jw5]

I wonder if she has been voting pap all these years...................

 

[KNNBCCB]

y muz it take 18 yrs later 2 clarify? ... y wasnt it clarified on ze spot if it was so? ...

PM : aiyoh... simple.. bcos when i shske hand with her just now the pork smell still intact... then ma clarify lor..

knnbccb...

 

[hairylee]

The handshake did not cause her downfall. There were many other causes out of her own doing.

 

[0939]

It was very unfortunate of her. If she had won, she would probably be the first woman Minister.

 

[jw5]

It was very unfortunate of her. If she had won, she would probably be the first woman Minister.

She was indeed the first woman ministar, I think she was a ministar when she lost the election.

 

[zuoom]

something from 19-12-2009, 05:09 AM.

<TABLE id=msgUN border=0 cellSpacing=3 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD id=msgUNsubj vAlign=top>

Coffeeshop Chit Chat - 18 yrs later, Seet Ai Mee still lying...</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>

Subscribe </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>CPL (kojakbt22) <NOBR>

</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>10:28 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 4) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>25977.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>Dec 18, 2009

BLASTS FROM THE PAST
Debunking a fishy tale, 18 years on

<!-- by line -->By Jeremy Au Yong
<!-- end by line -->
<!-- end left side bar -->

Dr Seet has clarified an erroneous story that she washed her hands after shaking a fishmonger's hand in 1991. -- ST FILE PHOTO

View more photos http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/image/20091218/a29-1.jpg

<!-- story content : start -->
DR SEET Ai Mee was once Singapore's highest-ranking female politician, holding the post of Acting Minister for Community Development.
That was until 1991, when she narrowly lost her Bukit Gombak seat in the General Election to then Singapore Democratic Party chairman Ling How Doong.
Many attributed the loss to an incident involving hand washing after a handshake, which allegedly took place in a wet market while she was on the campaign trail.
This year, some 18 years after that fateful day, Dr Seet finally gave her side of the story.
THE PAST
THE oft-told story goes like this:
Dr Seet was on a walkabout in a wet market when she came across a fishmonger who extended a wet and smelly hand. Right after shaking his hand, Dr Seet went to wash her hands.
The story quickly made the rounds and was viewed by some as a sign of People's Action Party (PAP) elitism.
Then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong also addressed the issue. At a rally on Aug 29, 1991, two days ahead of Polling Day, Mr Goh said that she was a strong woman of good character. But he acknowledged that Dr Seet, a pharmacist, had a habit of washing her hands often. He added that while it was a good habit, it could be a liability as a politician.
He said: 'I have told Seet Ai Mee, 'You are a politician now. Forget about your old habit. You are no more a pharmacist. Go shake hands and don't wash them.''
Dr Seet lost her Bukit Gombak seat by 654 votes, or 1.4 per cent.
THE BLAST
DR SEET finally shed light on the incident in August this year, in an interview with the PAP news magazine Petir.
The interview was to mark the 20th anniversary of the PAP Women's Wing, which she co-founded.
Dr Seet, 66, and now president of HCA Hospice Care, said that reports at the time were wrong.
It was not one fishmonger whose hand she had shaken, but the hands of several pork sellers. And she washed her hands out of respect for Muslims.
She explained: 'I washed my hands after shaking hands with the pork sellers in the market, simply because I thought that if I shake the hand of another person later who may be Muslim, it would be a religious offence.'
She said that she had not been asked to clarify the matter at that time: 'Had it been clarified, we could have explained and defused the incident. The opposite happened instead, and I became political fodder.'
She described the day of her loss as 'a very dark night'.
At any rate, she stressed that she did not lose her seat because of a one-off hand-washing incident. There were many issues the voters were unhappy about, including rising prices and the cancellations of bus routes.
The clarification, albeit delayed, finally puts to rest one of the more intriguing tales in Singapore's modern political history.
And Dr Seet is now certainly philosophical about the whole episode. She told Petir that losing and winning were part and parcel of the political life: 'What has happened, happened. One moves on. Life goes on, during and after politics.'



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