PAP spin doctor Chua Mui Hoong tries to take the heat off her political masters by portraying them as “gentlemen”
March 5th, 2010 | 
Author: Written by Our Correspondent
Embarrassed by its own ineptitude, incompetence, and impotence during the last few years, PAP spin doctor Chua Mui Hoong has been called upon again to whitewash the disastrous performance of the PAP during the recent parliamentary”debates” on the Budget which is all “sound and fury”, but nothing of substance to show of.
In other democracies, the lawmakers will debate first before the Budget is finalized and put to a vote. In Singapore, it is the other way round – the Budget is announced and then the MPs pretend to “debate” on it. Isn’t this a “wayang”?
Even with literally no opposition to speak of in Parliament, the PAP ministers and MPs appear to be completely clueless and out of touch with public sentiments on the ground.
In a lengthy commentary titled “Gently, gently does it with political opponents” published in the Straits Times today, Chua Mui Hoong tried desperately to sugarcoat the PAP MPs’ juvenile mistakes by portraying them as “gentlemen” to take the heat off them. (Source)
If you haven’t realized, this is part of a well-thought, comprehensive strategy over the years to shift the style of political engagement in Singapore from a “confrontational” to a “constructive” one for the simple reason that the present PAP MPs cannot stand up to scrutiny and will be demolished flat by eloquent speakers like the late J.B. Jeyaretnam and Dr Chee Soon Juan in Parliament thereby piercing through their fake aura of invincibility forever in the eyes of the people.
Remember that one old man kept reminding Singaporeans that his ministers and MPs are the best talents in Singapore and therefore deserving of the highest pay in the world? How can they justify that when they can’t even deal with an opposition MP in Parliament?
Chua’s article is no more than PAP propaganda to paint a positive picture of them as “gentlemanly” politicians and to further reinforce the erroneous public impression that politics must be conducted in a civil manner minus the confrontation.
Take for example the following choice of words used by her:
1. Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam is a gentleman.
2. Instead, it was gently, gently does it when he sipped his water, walked to the lectern and began his speech at 1.52pm. When he sat down an hour later, the House applauded. Even MPs most critical of the policy – Mr Low and the PAP’s Inderjit Singh – were smiling.
3, Ministerial responses to the opposition have been remarkably benign this debate. Mr Lim Swee Say for example did not react to Mr Low’s obvious dig that the labour movement was squeezing workers to be ‘cheaper, better, faster’. Instead, he coolly explained the pressures caused by global competition…..
4. Less patronising, less heat, more light. Gentle rebuttals based on facts, without giving ground on fundamental values. Old wine in new bottles? But specially packaged to appeal to a young generation.
Ms Chua should cut that crap – she does not speak for the younger generation of Singaporeans who yearn for a genuine debate and not half-baked “wayangs” as such.
For the past five decades, the PAP has been using only repressive measures to destroy their political opponents such as the use of ISA to detain them without trial, use of ruinous defamation lawsuits to bankrupt them and laws to prevent them from reaching out to Singaporeans.
Let us recall some infamous quotes made by its paramount leader Lee Kuan Yew, courtesy of leewatch:
“Anybody who decides to take me on needs to put on knuckle-dusters. If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try. There is no way you can govern a Chinese society.”
- Lee Kuan Yew, The Man and His Ideas, 1997
“If we had considered them serious political figures, we would not have kept them politically alive for so long. We could have bankrupt them earlier.”
- Lee Kuan Yew referring to opposition MPs Chiam See Tong and Low Thia Kiang, Straits Times, Sept 14 2003
“I will make him crawl on his bended knees, and beg for mercy.”
- Lee Kuan Yew on J. B. Jeyaretnam, as reported by Devan Nair, 1981
And let us not forget the mother of all quotes by his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong:
“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?”
- Lee Hsien Loong during a pre-election speech, 2006
With due respect to the three opposition MPs in Parliament, they are hardly good orators or formidable political opponents to begin with and even then, the PAP ministers can still “gabra” and screw up big time like multi-millionaire Minister Lim Swee Say using a lame fable of a “frog” to counter Mr Low Thia Kiang’s criticisms of the labor movement:
“We never give up……. We are deaf to all these criticisms…..So instead of telling us that low-wage workers are having problems, why not be part of the solution?”
Does Ms Chua really consider this type of answer a “gentle rebuttal”? Mr Lim would have been crowned as the clown of the year had he made those remarks in the United States or United Kingdom.
Politics is all about passion, committment and confrontation. That is the way it is in the rest of the world. If the PAP MPs cannot take the heat, then they should get out of the kitchen!
The PAP ministers are the highest paid politicians in the world! Surely they should be able to articulate themselves well and hold their ground when challenged by the opposition?
Ms Chua should seriously go and watch the parliamentary debates of the U.K., Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Hong Kong on Youtube and see how the opposition lawmakers take the ruling party to task.
Watch how DAP MP Tony Pua grilled Malaysian PM Najib over his plan to introduce GST, the Hong Kong legislators heckling Chief Executive Donald Tsang for not helping the poor or Taiwanese President Ma Ying-Jeou being jeered and taunted by DPP MPs over his inept handling of the Typhoon Morakot disaster.
Only in Singapore do we see such gross ineptitude being labelled, repackaged and spun as “gentle rebuttals” by the Singapore media, described as a “trusted” source of information by Minister Lui Tuck Yew.
Posted in Opinion
50 Responses to “PAP spin doctor Chua Mui Hoong tries to take the heat off her political masters by portraying them as “gentlemen””
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They are not gentleman.
They are pigs pretending to be human.
In the end, they are still greedy pigs.
teo ho pin was scolding people for criticising him for losing town council monies.
remember that.
ong ah heng fired poor s’porean workers instead of talking to them after 1 family complaint.
very UN-gentlemanly.
Its like PAP MP trying to licking a badly infected wound again instead of giving a jab of antibiotic . They never look at the root of the problem so how to solve ?
WE CAN SEE THEY HAVE STARTED WAYANG WITHG PROMISES . THIS IS A GOOD INDICATION THAT THEY ARE CONFUSED , PANIC AND HAVE NO DIRECTION WHATSOEVER . THEY ARE LVIING BY THE DAY . TODAY’S POCLIY GONE TOMORROW TYPE OF ATTITUDE SUCH AS THE FT POLICY. SOMEONE FROM THE PARTY MUST STEP FORWARD TO ADMIT AND APOLOGISE TO THE LOCAL SINGAPOREANS .IT TAKES A GREAT LEADER TO DO IT BUT THEY ARE TOO PROUD AND ONLY CAN LICK THEIR MASTER
grace fu told s’poreans she doesn’t know what hdb will do over 3 weeks/month after demolishing rental flats in hougang in short notice.
very gentle?
Getting shitty times to write a nice report on them is simpler than doing the real work.
These pigs are fucking lazy.
What do we know by the term Gentleman?
1)Smell like it? 10% only
Japanese version, always smiling, speak quietly & politely and constant bowing 45 degree for sorry, 15 degree for greeting
2)Smell like it? 60% only
English version, born upper class, brought up by rich parents, attended selected elite school, with the right kind of maid, expensive hobby, good manner and (strong sense of fair play?)
3)Smell like it? 10% only
Chinese version, of zun-zi, (show lenience? show mercy?) (very decisive?) (take courage?) Be benevolent with no worry, be wise with no bepluzzlement, be courage with no fear
4)Smell like it? Local taste of gentleman (very steady want?)
Singaporean version of Gentleman~ steady po pi pi.
Which means you do the same things, I also steady does the same thing as a role model.
We demand soccer player to play for the country. Do your service to your country don’t talk about salary show your patriotism. Somehow this rule does not apply to the Upstair people with million dollars, fat cat
I don’t think they are those types that “steady-poon-pi-pi”
We ask for mimimum wages, they cow-peh-cow-bu
However, when they ask to be highest paid in the world, we must accept lor. Like they say its only peanuts, outside CEO are paid even higher
They can, but we cannot lor, just follow the law
Today minister khaw boon wan said he should not have delayed the construction of the Jurong Hospital as it had now lead to long waiting lists for hospital beds. Mah Bow Tan caught off guard by price rises, who is next to screw up?
The papist bloodsuckers will not last even a day in the Australian political scene.
What Lim Swee Say said will be ridiculed from one end of
Australia to the other over the printed media, tv and radio.
What LHL said about fixing the opponents and buying votes would have brought down the whole government. There will be an independent commission to investiage and most probably charged for criminal crimes.
The $million property discount LKY and LHL got would have definitely ended them in jail for corruption and all their property confiscated as proceeds from crimes.
In Singapore the papist monsters are above the law.
Com’on give the girl a break. I am sure she does not believe in what she is writing.
She needs to write that to keep her job. The subscription for Shit Times is falling and I think they need more fund injections from PAP.
BTW, the funds came from us. So even if you don’t buy ST, you still buy it. Get it??
Just another boot licker. But who knows, she maybe one of the new PAP candidates in the coming GE. Anyway, I won’t be surprised if she is indeed one of them.
The past few days were an eye opening for Singaporean. It just proves to us the PAPs have a whole bunch of rotten MPs that
do not how to carry themselves
do not know how to articlulate
do not know how to think
do not know how to listen
do not know how to debate
do not know how to deal with problems Singapreans are facing
do not know how to be respected politicians to look into the welfare of Singaporeans
PAPs are packed with a bunch of morons. We really need more oppositions to balance the power. Time to kick the PAPPies out.
i agree that Chua Mui Hoong’s article is quite sycophantic and lacks depth. very disappointing.
even the YP’s response to Reform Party’s response to the YP article criticising RP’s press release is much better. at least it offers some analysis:
http://www.youngpap.org.sg/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=145:yp-activists-from-the-north-singapore-respond-to-reform-party-secretary-general-kenneth-jeyaretnam&catid=24:political-discussions
Sugar-coated bullshit is still bullshit coming from this fork-tongue sycophant.
They are all deaf frogs that climb high walls. These pompous elitist simply ignore the net community and our frustration. We got to change strategy and be even more hard hitting to help the spinner over spin at the highest velocity in order to make them so giddy they drop dead.
“Anybody who decides to take me on needs to put on knuckle-dusters. If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try. There is no way you can govern a Chinese society.”
- Lee Kuan Yew, The Man and His Ideas, 1997
“古来善于按照规律办事的人，并不用它使百姓聪明，而是要用它使百姓变得憨愚。百姓难以治理，原因在于他们 的智慧太多。所以说用智慧治国，是国家的灾难；不用智慧治国，是国家的福气。”
“Those in ancient times who were good at enacting ways, did not use them to make subjects discerning; but bordered on making them obtuse.
The subjects are hard to put in order, comes from their abundant cleverness; hence to use cleverness to order a state is in fact weakening it. Not to use cleverness to order a state is to enrich it.”
- Laozi (Dao De Jing)
Ha ha ha!
If Laozi knew that internet will be invented, probably, he would be able to give LKY a piece of good advice.
ET,
To sum it up, they ‘do not grasp the gravity of the situation.’
Ha ha ha!
Bootlickers will not care because they are getting elite pay in their expensive condos or waterfront property.
That is why their tongue had acquired the taste for boots.
Get us singaporeans a new govt and transfer Chua Mui Hoong out from SPH to become a PAP kindergarten teacher, so she can continue conning the kids there.
Wassup Crc,
Hang in there, we are just sractching the surface
Q:What is Minimum Wage in legal term means?
A: The lowest wage that an employer is allowed to pay detemined by a contract or the law set by the Government legislation
You got it? right. Ihis is the legal term, now switch your mind into others fields like business mindset
Q: Why introduced minimum wage? What is “it design for”
A: Like a cigarette is “design to kill you” in the long. Minimum wage is a tools to help poor people to survive, which is an amount that a single person needs to earn to live on to support a family.
How did the Government formulate/calaculate a retired person how much money he need to survive, how much CPF support he must gets $800 a month.
Now you get the picture why they argued Minimum wage is only suitable for Construction Industry. (which is not entirely truth but that is another story)
Young PAP counter measure are Rising Productivity is the correct approached. Here come the “economical term” which I called it very techincal “textbook knowledge” if economic value of work is less than wages worth unemployment will occur as empolyers refuse to for workers who produce less.
This is “economic voodoo” which of course is another story for another day.
Taiwan is the most efficent, most productive workforce. Same goes with the Japanese. The British industries had been been hollow out. They are experts in Productivity.
Productivity cannot saved the day. Taiwan had given up most of their core industries and focus only on making LCD TV, Computors, chips.
Note: Winning arguement and making 5 days speech “don’t win votes” They need to have relationship with your voters. There is no subsititues for hard work and word of mouth.
***Teamwork, Mobilize, Organize and Execution
I was taking a plane back home last year, and got to read a copy of the Straits Times. I was puzzled by how the papers described Lim Hwee Hwa as confident when she was referring to the billions of dollars lost by GIC and Temasek. Then I read the Straits times article describing LKY as magnanimous with reference to how he treats his political detainees.
I want to puke.
Chua Mui Hoong! You seriously believe that politicians who have NO GUTS to engage in live televised public debates GENTLEMENs? Can you imagine Tharman on BBC’s Hard Talk? That will be a real test of how ‘gentlemenly’ he is.
@Helen: One stands up for what one says or write. Since she put her names to the article, she deserves to be criticized by people here. And there is an equal possibility that she MEANS what she is writing! C’mon, people CHOOSE to write for ST as conscious beings. It’s just like someone CHOOSING to JIA SAI, since the choice is made, swallow lor, like it or not.
Whatever PAP govt tried to camouflage and ST tried to spin, the verdict is clear on its performance, the entire political system must be change for the survival of the nation, because many people have lost confidence in this administration.
The scary part is that Chua Mui Hoong might just believe what she wrote…. very scary indeed.
the thing about being a one party rule is you can choose to write history to your liking, never mind the truth.
Or just like Lim swee say in the story, first the frog becomes king, then he can silence the other frogs.
Still cannot get through the fact that these ppl are paid to come up with non solutions and to ignore electorates. oh and idiotic stories.
where did Chua Mui Hoong came from ???
was she from Malaysia ???
does she have NS Men husband & sons ???
where is she going ???
is it to PAP ???
so what is her cognition ???
No image makeover can cover the fact that the results from MIW camp is simply horrendous!
Why doesn’t Ms Chua report on how the PAP MPs such as Ong Ah Heng perform in Parliament?
SPH has many official writers pretended as journalists like Chua Mui Hoong. They are everywhere in Zaobao, Wanbao, Shin Ming etc whose Chinese readers don’t read TR or other online material. Pap will still win if these majority remained misinformed.
Aiyoh! Since the day of independence, annual budget debate is just a “wayang” show to demonstrate to the gullible cum credulous main-street-men all “over the world” that Singapore is a democratic country and its members of parliament are representing their electorates to actively participate in the parliament debates to “justify” their hundred of thousands annual remunerations under the guise of fairness, equality, justice of meritocracy!
Never ever the parliament has altered any financial year budget proposed by the finance minister as the budget proposal will pass through the parliament without alternation. It is highly possible that prior to the budget debate by the mps the “father and son” team already “APPROVED” the budget as it has been formulated according to their intentions hence the budget debate is just a “wayang” show to waste the taxpayers’ money under the camouflage of rigorous parliament debate!
Merry go round and round, same lies after similar lies!
What a shameful lot of million-dollar ingrates?
can ms chua mui hoong stand for election ? then pap must be blind . first and foremost the lady need to be photogenic and pleasant. i cannot say much about her. that goes for the whole pap team. they need a facelift if they ever want to fight this GE.
We have not seem MPs so active in parliment before . Looks like they have wake up after sleeping for 4 years and realise the local singaporeans are all in trouble and angry and wanting to vote them out . Afraid and worried , they now try to wayang and promise all sort of things. This party is hopeless and must be voted out . Local singaporean ( 70% > ) will vote them out . freak election is coming .
DON’T CARE WHAT THEY PROMISE BECAUSE IF THEY REALLY REALLY CARE , THEY WILL NOT HAVE INFLUX MASSIVE FTs INTO SG .
What’s wrong with being labeled a gentleman in Singapore, well-groomed, perfumed and possibly manicured and made up? Isn’t that a sign of civilization?
Moreover I am surprised that members of Parliament dont wear wigs as they used to in England, especially for the older and balder Ministers. After all, Singapore used to be a British colony and Singapore is about observing tradition and the status quo.
Chua Mui Hoong earns her living by carrying the balls of the rich and powerful. Sorry, you Singaporeans do not pay her so she need not carry your worthless balls.
http://disgruntledsporean.blogspot.com/2005/10/st-columnist-chua-mui-hoong-say.html
Friday, October 07, 2005
ST columnist Chua Mui Hoong say freedom of press in Singapore should be improved!
From ST:
…
In this respect, other areas that may need improvement would be those that Singapore does badly in the competitiveness ratings. A look at the 2004 report is instructive. There is one indicator in which Singapore fares even worse than in primary school enrolment.
In freedom of the press, Singapore is ranked a dismal 98th out of 104.
Now that’s another rating we should all beaver away at together to try to improve.
Why primary education and health ranked so low
Chua Mui Hoong
Oct 7, 2005
It is really kind of amusing when you think about the background of the person who wrote this article. As many might have already known, Miss Chua Mui Hoong’s sister Miss Chua Lee Hoong (ST’s most prominent political columnist cum senior editorial staff.), used to be an ISD “analyst”. And of course Miss Chua Lee Hoong isn’t the only one. (Our gahmen so kiasu one where got enough right? Have a look at here for the more complete list.)
Now, it isn’t Mui’s fault that her sister worked for ISD before joining Straits Times. However if she is really serious about wanting to improve the freedom of press in Singapore, there is something she can do. She can start by persuading her sister to quit working for Straits Times.
If she ever managed to get her sister to quit, I am sure that many Singaporeans will applaud her courageous efforts in helping Singapore to improve its disgraceful world ranking on the freedom of the press.
posted by at82 @ 10/07/2005 11:35:00 PM
when a gentleman like viswa sadasivan or siew kum hong etc. got ticked off by PAP, why didn’t Chua write this article to praise them for gentlemanly ways?
Blatant double standards.
Josephine yeo’s rebuttal of Low thia kiang must be “ladylike” then? LOL!
If I am not wrong she was a FT from Msia. But now a Sporean. Many of these so-called FTs now citizens are real boot lickers. They are just beholden to their masters, that’s all.
Mr Cha does not speak for the younger generation nor does she speak for anyone
As far as I am concern She is nothing but typical mouthpiece of the PAP.
She should be ashamed of herself….She doesnot come near a Cub Reporter of any Independen Newspaper in the Western World.
Chua Mui Hoong, why you never respond ?
Your name is all over this article.
net squad never inform you meh?
You can describe PAP politicians as anything but gentle.
Look at how many opposition politicians’ lives, careers
were destroyed ,especially by them especially by the
father and son team, for merely just exercising their
democratic rights.
With each MP getting 13,000-15000 pm, the whole Parliament
is just an expensive wayang.
When don’t we settle for a junta govt or a dictatorship and bring down this whole facade
Ms Chua was previously from the intelligence dept, so you can expect the expected stuffs.
I suggest we just ignore her and her bullshit. Otherwise she may think that she is really that important.
In a digital world, accountability follows governance into political office. It won’t be long before TELEVISION FOLLOWING INTO THE COURTROOM worldwide sweeps in liberal democracy.
How long can the mindset stuck in medieval logic of self-adulation and self-praise as if the world out there is blind of vision and thinking of thoughts????
The days of any media’s “politically-correct” farting in politics is near the end if not already over.
Spin doctor in the Straits Times? I’m sure there are more of those, and not just her alone.
Today Mr Vivian B is proposing to persecute online folks connected to ISA and sedition. A sad day for freedom and democracy. So everyone will have to live in fear of prosecution. This is first world country indeed!
That’s what you get when you place ex-ISD officers as journalists.
Bundles of States Times can be seen at the foyers of schools each morning nowadays, presumably for the indoct… er, edification of our precious youth. Your Edusave dollars at work.
And then there are the free newspaper holders thoughtfully strung to the gates of landed property subscribers, never mind that the white clashes with the overwhelming majority of gate colour schemes.
Are these ploys to maintain the circulation figures for advertisers in the face of widespread cancellations? After all, the syndicated content appears online one or sometimes two days before SPH prints it out, while the cartoons are online anyway… and the “value-added” local commentary is well summarised / deconstructed in TR. So why subscribe?
Guys,
Not the wisest of idea to make fun of Chua Mui Hoong. She was ex-ISD.
Gentlemen do not use the judiciary system to destroy their political opponents.