04 May 2006

Minilee speech decoded

3rd May 06 - Lunchtime Election Rally

"Right now we have Low Thia Khiang, Chiam See Tong, Steve Chia. We can deal with them. Suppose you had 10, 15, 20 opposition members in Parliament. Instead of spending my time thinking what is the right policy for Singapore, I'm going to spend all my time thinking what's the right way to fix them, to buy my supporters votes, how can I solve this week's problem and forget about next year's challenges?"

--- Minilee


Get your decoding rings ready!

1. "I do not have the calibre to govern with an opposition party in Parliament"

Minilee should grow up and accept the challenge of governing a democratic country. If he's really unable to deal with an opposition that global leaders drawing lesser paycheques have to live with, he should either step down or work for peanuts.

2. "I want to fix the opposition"

To fix: to do something dishonest to make certain that a competition, race, or election is won/lost by a particular person

To fix: to punish someone

Minilee should be sued by Papalee and the entire cabinet for making defamatory remarks impugning the integrity and honesty of the Government.

3. "I'm going to spend all my time thinking what's the right way to buy my supporters votes"

Minilee admits that he is not beneath vote-buying. This is scandalous! Minilee should withdraw from Ang Mo Kio GRC for the insult to Singaporean voters he has made. The PAP should take clear, unambiguous steps to do the right thing, to sack Minilee from the party before he damages their credibility any further.

Otherwise... Impeach Minilee! Impeach him NOW!

4 comments:

Kuroi Tenshi said...

"Explaining Mr Lee's remark, his press secretary said Mr Lee had meant to say that if there were many more opposition MPs in Parliament, the government and opposition would spend all their time and energies countering each other, and Singapore would be worse off for it. "

So his solution is to "fix" the opposition, which implies getting them to go along with the PAP direction. So then, PAP decides all the rules.

Hey, he "used direct language to get this important point across", right? That's the most direct interpretation anyone can come up with.

Once again, MiniLee shows off his talent to put his feet in his mouth.

akikonomu said...

Dark angel, Minilee is a Oxbridge grad. He definitely knows the proper definitions of the words he uses, so I'm not convinced of his explanation.

Personally, though... I'm more concerned that his statement shows he is not interest in creating a healthy civil society where people who disagree with each other can sit down and discuss more issues, inform each other and wider society.

Goat Almighty said...

you have guts, man.

PM Lee totally shot himself in the foot there.

akikonomu said...

If a man shoots himself in the foot and there are no journalists to report it, did he really shoot himself in the foot?