When Defense Minister Mr Teo Chee Hean rapped top civil servant Mr Tan Yong Soon openly in Parliament on 19 January 2009 for his insensitive featured article published in the Straits Times about his extravagant cooking trip to France, he probably thought he had put the record on the matter and the controversy will soon be brought to a closure. (read report here)
Little did he expect that a fellow colleague and MP in his Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC would be stirring an even bigger furore with his remarks in a media interview the next day.
Speaking to journalists from a minor English daily TODAY, Mr Charles Chong defended Mr Tan’s holiday trip to France.
Agreeing that the rebuke in Parliament was “harsh”, MP Charles Chong noted that Mr Tan didn’t “brag” about how expensive the trip was in the article.
“Maybe it made lesser mortals envious and they thought maybe he was a little bit boastful,” he said. “Would people have taken offence if his wife (a senior investment counsellor at a bank) had paid for everything?” (read report here)
His comments immediately triggered off a cascade of discussion threads in Singapore’s major internet chatrooms. At least 20 threads on the topic was found on the Channel News Asia forum in the morning alone. (They were soon deleted by the administrator).
Read rest of article here:
http://wayangparty.com/2009/01/25/singapore-mps-lesser-mortal-remarks-stirred-a-storm-in-cyberspace/
Little did he expect that a fellow colleague and MP in his Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC would be stirring an even bigger furore with his remarks in a media interview the next day.
Speaking to journalists from a minor English daily TODAY, Mr Charles Chong defended Mr Tan’s holiday trip to France.
Agreeing that the rebuke in Parliament was “harsh”, MP Charles Chong noted that Mr Tan didn’t “brag” about how expensive the trip was in the article.
“Maybe it made lesser mortals envious and they thought maybe he was a little bit boastful,” he said. “Would people have taken offence if his wife (a senior investment counsellor at a bank) had paid for everything?” (read report here)
His comments immediately triggered off a cascade of discussion threads in Singapore’s major internet chatrooms. At least 20 threads on the topic was found on the Channel News Asia forum in the morning alone. (They were soon deleted by the administrator).
Read rest of article here:
http://wayangparty.com/2009/01/25/singapore-mps-lesser-mortal-remarks-stirred-a-storm-in-cyberspace/
