Speaking at a state media forum yesterday (Oct 26), Trade Minister Chan Chun Sing he get to become a Minister because of his “excellent work” and even claimed that he is not an elite.
The S$1.1 million-a-year Minister first started asking the audience if he is the definition of an elite since he is now a Minister:
“So since I am now a minister, I presume that qualifies me as a member of the elite?”
Straits Times propagandist Chua Mui Hoong was quick to praise him in a response:
“Yes – a member of the political elite, a member of the academic aristocracy benefiting from a state-sponsored scholarship and elite by virtue of income and education.”
The PAP Minister then claimed that he is a product of “excellence” and not “elitism”:
“As someone who grew up in a poor, single-parent household and had to work hard to achieve his present success, I should not be labelled a member of the elite class. There is a difference between anti-elitism and anti-excellence. I would not hold it against somebody, regardless of his background, if he does well and makes a contribution to society. But if someone has done well, not through his own effort but maybe through his connections… and doesn’t reach out to people, then that is different.”
Minister Chan Chun Sing then made a more absurd claim saying that the poor doesn’t need money:
“My constituency, Buona Vista ward, which is part of Tanjong Pagar GRC, I am MP to the richest and poorest in Singapore. When the wealthy ask me how they can give back, I often tell them I needs their time and talent more than their money. If only each and every one of you could adopt one family, reach out to that family every week and give the children a positive role model to look up to, that I think is much more important than any monetary help.”
When questioned by a professor that Singapore is becoming unequal and that social mobility is getting worse for youths today compared to the previous generations, the Minister gave a lips service response:
“It is my generation’s responsibility to help today’s young. Those who are successful need to uphold, refine and continuously improve the system so that the next generation can continue to succeed, just like us. The definition of our success is not how well we do for ourselves but how well we enable the next generation to do better than us.”