In today’s society, talking smack about others isn’t exactly uncommon. Take, for instance, the following convos:
“Wa, her skirt’s damn ugly sia.”
“Eh, did you hear about his affair with some girl from overseas?”
Do they sound really relatable? And then there’s this particular type of convo.
“Wa piang eh, this pau sucks sia. Who make one?”
“Me..”
“Oh oops, sorry.”
You get the gist. Talking smack about others isn’t uncommon, but what do you do if you’re caught?
One Singapore minister was caught in this dilemma recently and he decided to apologise.
Caught Calling Opposition NMP ‘Illiterate’ in Parliament
So lest you’re unaware, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan had attracted controversy for certain condescending remarks he had made in parliament against opposition Non-Constituency MP (NCMP) Leong Mun Wai.
During a debate on 14 September 2021, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng and Mr Leong had a few exchanges after the former delivered his speech.
After Mr Leong’s turn, a voice could be heard saying: “He’s illiterate.”
Dr Tan and Mr Leong then shared another exchange, before an unknown microphone picked up someone else saying: “Seriously, how did he get into RI?”
This was followed by “Must have been a lousy school.”
These remarks were supposedly made by Dr Balakrishnan.
Dr Tan then replied: “I’m from Monk’s Hill.”
A snippet of the said portion swiftly went viral on multiple platforms, one of which was video-sharing site Tik Tok.
@southeastasiabizpost Were ministers Vivian B & Lawrence Wong bad mouthing PSP’s Leong Mun Wai? We leave it to you to decide? #singapore #sgtiktok #parliament #pap #psp
♬ original sound – South East Asia Business Post – South East Asia Business Post
Apology
Sometime in the evening yesterday (15 September 2021), the Foreign Minister issued an update on social media.
Apparently, he has since called Mr Leong to apologise for his comments.
He also added that Mr Leong has accepted his apology.
To date, the post has garnered over 5K reactions, as well as 983 shares.
Despite Dr Balakrishnan’s apology, however, netizens have not been appeased, with many calling him out for apologising only because he got caught.
“Vivian – Why apologise for expressing in an unguarded moment what you truly feel?” one wrote. “Contempt for the common man who’s not from an elite school.”
“Let’s face it – you’re sorry that you were caught, not that you hold those views.”
Some, however, called for leniency, stating that such long periods of stress would’ve naturally caused tension.
For the record, the debate had been a marathon rendition, with the affiliated clip being extracted during the 9:47:56 mark of the stream. The debate had lasted 13.5 hours in total.
Netizens have, however, denounced the whole stress reasoning.
“I believe most of us are stressed nowadays but that doesn’t give the person the right to make such comments against others,” one said.
“Will you accept it if your colleague make(sic) such comments against you in a meeting? Oh well…”
Accepted
On 15 September 2021, the Progress Singapore Party made reference to the incident on their Facebook page.
“Yes, our maiden Parliamentary motion may have been rejected by Parliament,” they wrote. “But we believe the public knows and understand why we had to table the motion and get this debate going.”
“Unlike some quarters who may find dissenting voices illiterate, we have confidence that our fellow Singaporeans are enlightened and educated, and will not miss the woods for the trees.”
But it was not until today that the Progress Singapore Party fully addressed the issue, confirming that Mr Leong has indeed received a call from Dr Balakrishnan, and had accepted the apology.
In the post, Mr Leong added that he was curious about the other individuals involved in the conversation, and wondered why they “held the institution that (he) attended in contempt.”
However, he stated that that wasn’t the priority here.
“Let’s put our time to better use for Singapore and Singaporeans,” he said.
“We must focus on the task at hand: improving the jobs and livelihoods of our people. This is what the people entrusted us to do.”
You can view the post in full down below:
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Feature Image: YouTube / Facebook (Progress Singapore Party)
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