If you read the ‘alternative media’ in Singapore, e.g. The Online Citizen, Temasek Review and so on, you’ll find that a whole heap of Singaporeans have quite a bit to say on the subject of ‘the elites’. I can’t even bring myself to capitalise the ‘e’…
These are essentially the so called ‘men in white’ - thus named for the preferred uniform of the PAP politicians. The elites is a grouping that covers these ‘men in white’ as well as others in the civil service who have the distinction of having been government scholars and/or are in charge of prominent bodies, government-linked companies or statutory boards.
These elites have been getting a fair bit of stick recently for their dismissive and self-congratulatory tone. Dismissive of the general populace that is.
All too often recently, however, quite a fair few have been making real boo-boos. The Minister of Education recently implied that the problem of many students’ stress in learning their mother tongue would be dealt with by a reduction in the weightage or importance of the language in the overall assessment. Now he says he didn’t imply that at all and that he was misunderstood. However, the telling point is that it took many days before he claimed that, and then only in conjunction with an official announcement that mother tongue would not be less important at all. Yeah, right, Mr Minister.
The one that really got my goat however was Philip Imbecile Yeo, the Chairman of Spring Singapore who, in an interview, basically called people who buy all sorts of apps on Apple’s App Store ‘dummies’. Look, I have an iPhone 3GS which I love dearly and for which I’ve downloaded more than a few apps. I’ve paid for some but also have many free apps. Needless to say, I take great umbrage at his remarks.
One of the apps which may seem frivolous and which cost me $0.99 is Talking Carl. This would clearly fall into the category of being a ‘dumb’ purchase but let me tell you something, Philip Idiot Yeo, not only did Talking Carl provide endless hours of amusement during the recent Chinese New Year (and I have the family videos to show that) it also did something much more amazing.
My mother suffers from Parkinson’s and Dementia. I have written about this previously. She has her good moments and her less good ones. She still laughs at things she finds amusing and I have rarely seen her laugh as much as when I passed her the iPhone and Talking Carl. She tickled the cute character (it laughs uproariously), she poked it (it goes ‘Ouch’, “Ooh’ or ‘Ow!’), and she spoke to it (it repeats what you said in a squeaky voice). She spent many happy minutes playing with it, smiling broadly. I have rarely seen her as engrossed as when she played with Talking Carl.
So, Philip Nincompoop Yeo, what do you think now, eh?
You want to know what I think? I think you’re too full of self-importance. You’ve been surrounded by sycophants for so long (and the reporter who conducted the interview clearly was one, judging by his laugh at your very unfunny comment) you’ve lost track of who normal people are. You think you can get away with your dismissive disdain.
Well, the sad thing is that you probably can. Despite how abhorrent you are, Philip Cretin Yeo, nothing will probably ever happen because somehow, despite all the boo-hooing and gnashing of teeth, ranting and raving online, we all kinda suspect that when it comes time to make a difference, most Singaporeans become sheep who tick the ‘white’ boxes at the ballot.
Perhaps Singaporeans really deserve the ‘dumb’ moniker after all.
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