Lim Hng Kiang at the opening ceremony of biotech company Amgen in 2014. (Photo credit: Tuckys Photography)
By keeping a low profile, Minister Lim has also avoided the scrutiny of the public. Which is fortunate because Singaporeans love to remember and hate on the bad.
Many names in the current Cabinet are now associated with infamous quotable quotes like “
Hara kiri”, “Sex in small spaces”, “
Kee chiu”, among others. But not Lim Hng Kiang.
You have to go all the way back to 2003 to dig up a couple of his political blunders.
During the SARS crisis, Mr Lim, then as Health Minister, publicly identified a former flight attendant as a super spreader of the deadly virus. His tone-deaf statement
during the press conference, “Esther Mok infected the whole lot of us,” was not well-received.
Prior to that, he had also riled Singaporeans by telling a female MP that the health ministry would not subsidise the cost of breast cancer screenings. The reason: women could afford an examination if they “saved on one hairdo”.
Maybe he was inadequately media-trained then. Maybe he forgot that politicians need to think before they speak.
Since then, Mr Lim has been a man of few words, having largely stayed away from the limelight.
