Monday, May 01, 2006

Watch what you say

Poison TongueEvening news have become interesting over the last couple of days due to the extensive coverage that the local broadcast media are providing. Kudos to them. While listening to the latest juicy details of the goings-on and interviews of candidates in these elections last evening (Sunday evening), I was discomfitted by 3 comments made by the incumbent party candidates:

The first has a women PAP candidate (sorry, its a new candidate and I cannot place her) who agreed that while the opposition candidates' qualifications have improved this time around, their morals and integrity are suspect. In one broad stroke, she painted ALL opposition candidates as lacking in integrity. I was incensed. Yes, you may say that about Mr Gomez, but to extrapolate that to cover all opposition candidates? That's crossing the line, lady.

Another PAP candidate, I believe another newbie guy standing in the Sembawang GRC constituency disparaged the opposition, saying that they couldn't organise themselves properly. An example he cited was that opposition candidates only put up their posters and banners at midnight. Now, I would have thought that that is being considerate and hardworking. There is nothing wrong doing so at midnight. It certainly doesn't demonstrate dis-organisation. If nothing, the PAP people managed to mess up their own banner, as my picture displayed in this blog a couple of days shows.

The third is Mah Bow Tan's rejoinder to Chiam See Tong about the 2-in-1 attraction of electing Mr Chiam and getting the PAP to continue working for the constituency. Mr Mah reversed that to say that with the PAP candidate elected, they'd still get Mr Chiam as NCMP. I agree with Mr Chiam that Mr Mah doesn't know what he is talking about. But, in reporting the Chiam-Mah exchange, I cannot understand why CNA chose to report that Mr Mah "turned the tables" on Mr Chiam. If CNA were more objective in its reporting, they would have used a neutral word like "rebutted" instead for obviously, "no tables were turned". Come on CNA, you want to boast about being the region's premier news media. Act like one first in your own backyard.

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