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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Seet: it's pork not fish</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
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13 Aug 09
Ex-minister speaks out, after 18 yrs
Seet Ai Mee throws light on hand-washing controversy raised ahead of 1991 election
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->EIGHTEEN years later, former acting minister Seet Ai Mee said she was wronged in reports of a prior hand-washing incident that many said contributed to her 1991 electoral defeat.
She said in the latest issue of Petir, the People's Action Party (PAP) news magazine, that she had washed her hands after shaking the hands of pork sellers in a market, not a fishmonger.
'I washed my hands...simply because I thought that if I shake the hand of another person later who may be Muslim, it would be a religious offence,' said Dr Seet, now aged 66, who is president of HCA Hospice Care.
However, she was not asked to clarify the matter then.
'Did the press ask me why I washed my hands? No. Did the then Prime Minister ask me? No. Had both asked for an explanation, I would've told them. I didn't know about the issue until the PM spoke about it at the General Election rally,' she said in an interview to mark the 20th anniversary of the PAP Women's Wing, which she co-founded.
Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong was then the Prime Minister. When contacted yesterday, he declined to comment.
Mr Goh had said at a rally on Aug 29, 1991, ahead of Polling Day on Aug 31, 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. That. he added, could be a liability as a politician.
Days after the election, a volunteer on her campaign team, wrote to The Straits Times Forum page, saying the fishmonger story was an old tale from the previous 1988 General Election. It resurfaced in the last two days of the 1991 campaign, wrote Ms Tan Bee Bee.
'I was there at the time and saw what happened. The fishmonger had rinsed his hand in a water container in front of him
'He grinned, embarrassed, and said his hand was wet. Dr Seet smiled, told him not to worry and immediately gave him a firm handshake.'
Later, 'after we met a butcher, she showed me an oily hand and mentioned that she needed to wash it in case she met a Muslim, as she could not in all conscience offer her hand when it was covered with pork grease,' Ms Tan wrote.
Dr Seet was elected as MP in 1988, one of four women MPs then. The others were Dr Aline Wong, Dr Dixie Tan and Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, who is now Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports.
Dr Seet went on to become the first woman acting minister, holding the community development portfolio, before her defeat by then Singapore Democratic Party chairman Ling How Doong. She lost her Bukit Gombak seat by 654 votes or by 1.4 per cent.
She told Petir her defeat was not because of the one washing-of-hands incident.
There were many issues the voters then were sore about, she added, citing rising prices and the cancellations of bus routes.
She also said that had the hand-washing issue been clarified, 'we could've explained and defused the incident'.
'The opposite happened instead and I became political fodder.'
However, looking back, Dr Seet said 'what has happened, happened. One moves on. Life goes on before, during and after politics'.
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13 Aug 09
Ex-minister speaks out, after 18 yrs
Seet Ai Mee throws light on hand-washing controversy raised ahead of 1991 election
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR></TR><TR></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR></TR><TR><TD><!-- show image if available --></TD></TR><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->EIGHTEEN years later, former acting minister Seet Ai Mee said she was wronged in reports of a prior hand-washing incident that many said contributed to her 1991 electoral defeat.
She said in the latest issue of Petir, the People's Action Party (PAP) news magazine, that she had washed her hands after shaking the hands of pork sellers in a market, not a fishmonger.
'I washed my hands...simply because I thought that if I shake the hand of another person later who may be Muslim, it would be a religious offence,' said Dr Seet, now aged 66, who is president of HCA Hospice Care.
However, she was not asked to clarify the matter then.
'Did the press ask me why I washed my hands? No. Did the then Prime Minister ask me? No. Had both asked for an explanation, I would've told them. I didn't know about the issue until the PM spoke about it at the General Election rally,' she said in an interview to mark the 20th anniversary of the PAP Women's Wing, which she co-founded.
Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong was then the Prime Minister. When contacted yesterday, he declined to comment.
Mr Goh had said at a rally on Aug 29, 1991, ahead of Polling Day on Aug 31, 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. That. he added, could be a liability as a politician.
Days after the election, a volunteer on her campaign team, wrote to The Straits Times Forum page, saying the fishmonger story was an old tale from the previous 1988 General Election. It resurfaced in the last two days of the 1991 campaign, wrote Ms Tan Bee Bee.
'I was there at the time and saw what happened. The fishmonger had rinsed his hand in a water container in front of him
'He grinned, embarrassed, and said his hand was wet. Dr Seet smiled, told him not to worry and immediately gave him a firm handshake.'
Later, 'after we met a butcher, she showed me an oily hand and mentioned that she needed to wash it in case she met a Muslim, as she could not in all conscience offer her hand when it was covered with pork grease,' Ms Tan wrote.
Dr Seet was elected as MP in 1988, one of four women MPs then. The others were Dr Aline Wong, Dr Dixie Tan and Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, who is now Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports.
Dr Seet went on to become the first woman acting minister, holding the community development portfolio, before her defeat by then Singapore Democratic Party chairman Ling How Doong. She lost her Bukit Gombak seat by 654 votes or by 1.4 per cent.
She told Petir her defeat was not because of the one washing-of-hands incident.
There were many issues the voters then were sore about, she added, citing rising prices and the cancellations of bus routes.
She also said that had the hand-washing issue been clarified, 'we could've explained and defused the incident'.
'The opposite happened instead and I became political fodder.'
However, looking back, Dr Seet said 'what has happened, happened. One moves on. Life goes on before, during and after politics'.
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