National Day Rally speech informative and entertaining, but the post-rally media-blitz….

“Our Prime Minister Lee’s speech last weekend was informative and in parts entertaining. I do not regret watching the whole speech as it included various topics of crucial importance, eg population policies, that all of us have to ponder on.

To me, whether the PM’s mee-siam should contain “harm” (vernacular term for cockles), is a personal choice and I will not dwell unnecessarily on it.” …more (Dr Huang)

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Think PM’s slip is just a harmless mistake? Think again.

“Go to Prime Minister’s Office website, click on the National Day Rally Speeches and you will see that you can no longer access the ND rally speech. (http://www.pmo.gov.sg/).

Compare the Asiaone’s ND Rally speech transcript, with the CNA report, you will notice that the sentence where LHL referred to the “Bak Chor Mee and Mee Siam Mai Hum” phrase is no longer there. (http://www.asiaone.com.sg/a1news/20060820_story1_8.html)

(http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/225881/1/.html)

The coverup has begun and hail to the Great Internet, we can now see that LHL quote: ‘They have to adapt but they have to remain objective, maintain a high quality newspaper and if you read something in The Straits Times or on CNA, you must know that it is real. It is quite different from reading this, say, on Talkingcock.com,’ is flawed. SPH and CNA have both “distorted” the facts. ”

Update: The mee siam mai hum comment was also edited out of the repeat telecast on TV.

If this slipup is just an insignificant mistake, why is the media censoring it and editing it? …more (forum thread started by leeroy77 @ Sammyboy’s Alfresco Shop)

PM Lee’s Freudian slip: Two wrongs do not make a right

“the media then “quoted” him as saying “mee siam mai hiam” (“hiam” is pronounced hee-arm, meaning chilli in the local Hokkien dialect). (Refer to both Straits Times and Channel News Asia articles below). The whole of Singapore who tuned in to the “Live” telecast of the rally heard it distinctly that Loong said “mee siam mai harm”, and yet, the local reporters somehow ended up reporting it as “hiam” (chilli) instead of “harm” (cockles). To local Chinese (whether they are Hokkians or Cantonese or whatever dialects), these two words are distinctly differentiable, so the local journalists reporting them should not have any problem telling one from the other, unless they are deaf. What were Straits Times and MediaCorp trying to do?” …more (SG Review)

Strategic Uses of the “Population Problem”

“For many years already, Singapore is facing the problem of an aging population. This problem is not new at all. But why the recent fuss/farce (sorry, Molly’s English isn’t very standard) about “the population problem?”

Not long ago, it used to be cast as the problem of an aging population. Now, it is just the population problem. Why?” …more (Molly Meek)