The Mandarin-speaking strategy

[Annoyed]

Dude, no offense meant, but with this kinda thinking, it's no wonder the ruling party can justify the continued existence of the Gee Ah-ruh See.

And it's 避嫌 lah.

Nothing beat speaking with the a community with the language they understood most. My take is CSM was trying to create a good first impression with his targeted audience and he does so brilliantly. The qns on the other hand is if it a good strategy to ignore this group because you want to 闭嫌 (avoid unwarranted accusation). I don't even care if the some members of the minority feel left out so long as it a net gain for WP.

In any case, the relevant of Faisal as a Malay opposition MP in the next 5 years will have a greater impact on Malay support then a 6 minute speech.

 

[3_M]

Nothing racist but pragmatic. Since we are discussing strategy, then the issue should be net gain or net lost. If it a net lost for WP, then csm should just stick to English.

I don't see how pap can play the race card over this. Firstly Csm isn't talking about standing up for Chinese right And those sort of rhetoric. Secondly Talk about pap capitalizing on the minority fear of 'sinofication', doesnt that comes back to their own ft policy? Lastly voters are better inform and more sophisticated as compare to yesteryear. It may turn out to be another james gomez saga where pap beat the hasty retreat.

 

[theDoors]

Nothing racist but pragmatic. Since we are discussing strategy, then the issue should be net gain or net lost. If it a net lost for WP, then csm should just stick to English.

I don't see how pap can play the race card over this. Firstly Csm isn't talking about standing up for Chinese right And those sort of rhetoric. Secondly Talk about pap capitalizing on the minority fear of 'sinofication', doesnt that comes back to their own ft policy? Lastly voters are better inform and more sophisticated as compare to yesteryear. It may turn out to be another james gomez saga where pap beat the hasty retreat.

Good to see a robust debate.

 

[HedgeTrader]

Debate what? Real Chinese education already totally destroyed LOL

 

[theDoors]

Debate what? Real Chinese education already totally destroyed LOL

You are right.

But MIWs seem to think they have a strong command of Mandarin.

 

[zhihau]

But MIWs seem to think they have a strong command of Mandarin.

bro, you kidding me?

 

[Liquigas]

You are right.

But MIWs seem to think they have a strong command of Mandarin.

To be fair, they do have good Mandarin speakers notably Yeo Guat Kwang, Sam Tan, Seng Han Thong and of course our dear PM lah...

 

[Forvendet]

To be fair, they do have good Mandarin speakers notably Yeo Guat Kwang, Sam Tan, Seng Han Thong and of course our dear PM lah...

YGK has one of the worst electoral records as a PAP MP, never scoring 60% or above, from Cheng San to Aljunied to even Marine Parade. SHT got punched and set on fire. Both were sure to lose cases in the last GE. Somehow they remained in favor with PAP, transferring YGK to Marine Parade and reintegrating YCK SMC into AMK GRC.

 

[Fook Seng]

I don't think there was any race-card to play when CSM delivered his speech first in Mandarin, then in English in Parliament. I think he was doing what he was good at. On the theme of working together (basically meaning "take what I say into consideration"), he dipped into ancient history and the one he knew best was Chinese because of his early upbringing in Taiwan and his later work assignments in China. When he spoke of investment in human capital and Adam Smith, he needed to do it in a language that best expounded these concepts. The fact that he could perform handsomely in both languages was a big credit to him. For many of the other politicians, very often they were confined to speak only in the language they were strong in and that was a big handicap.