'Significant part of what has been attributed to MP Seng is false'
Yahoo! Newsroom – 22 hours ago- K Shanmugan defends Seng Han Thong
Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam has stepped out to say that a lot of what has been attributed to MP Seng Han Thong over his ‘racist’ remarks are untrue, reported Channel NewsAsia.
Rather, Seng had been trying to refute a statement made by an SMRT officer.
Addressing reporters, Shanmugam said: "Han Thong heard over the radio what an officer from MRTsaid, essentially suggesting that poor language skills of Chinese, Indian and Malay drivers who work with SMRT were part of the problem in the inadequacy of the response by SMRT. Seng Han Thongstrongly disagreed with this comment.
"So when he went on TV, he referred to this comment, and in essence made the point that the language skills of workers should not be blamed for the inadequacy of the response. And his point is that broken English can be effective in communicating of what needs to be communicated.”
The root cause Seng was trying to point out was that the workers, in particularly the drivers, have not been sufficiently prepared for such massive train break-downs. His mistake, added Shanmugam, was that he had misquoted the MRT officer who had referred to drivers of all races- and not Indians and Malays.
Seng, the deputy chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport on the SMRT breakdown had gone on a TV talkshow, in which he said he had "noticed that the PR mentioned that some of the staff, because they are Malays, they are Indians, they can't converse in English well enough".
The remark created an uproar amongst citizens. Zainal Sapari and Zaqy Mohamad are two Members of Parliaments who have criticised Seng for his comment.
Channel NewsAsia reported that Shanmugam also criticised an article posted by The Online Citizen (TOC). He said that the headline and contents of the article served to reinforce the inaccuracy of the quote. He also believes that Seng is not racist and said that he is a helpful and hard worker.
He added: "We have to look at the facts. So I hope that we can deal with this matter on the basis of facts and not on the basis of false statements which are wrongly attributed to someone."
Rather, Seng had been trying to refute a statement made by an SMRT officer.
Addressing reporters, Shanmugam said: "Han Thong heard over the radio what an officer from MRTsaid, essentially suggesting that poor language skills of Chinese, Indian and Malay drivers who work with SMRT were part of the problem in the inadequacy of the response by SMRT. Seng Han Thongstrongly disagreed with this comment.
"So when he went on TV, he referred to this comment, and in essence made the point that the language skills of workers should not be blamed for the inadequacy of the response. And his point is that broken English can be effective in communicating of what needs to be communicated.”
The root cause Seng was trying to point out was that the workers, in particularly the drivers, have not been sufficiently prepared for such massive train break-downs. His mistake, added Shanmugam, was that he had misquoted the MRT officer who had referred to drivers of all races- and not Indians and Malays.
Seng, the deputy chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport on the SMRT breakdown had gone on a TV talkshow, in which he said he had "noticed that the PR mentioned that some of the staff, because they are Malays, they are Indians, they can't converse in English well enough".
The remark created an uproar amongst citizens. Zainal Sapari and Zaqy Mohamad are two Members of Parliaments who have criticised Seng for his comment.
Channel NewsAsia reported that Shanmugam also criticised an article posted by The Online Citizen (TOC). He said that the headline and contents of the article served to reinforce the inaccuracy of the quote. He also believes that Seng is not racist and said that he is a helpful and hard worker.
He added: "We have to look at the facts. So I hope that we can deal with this matter on the basis of facts and not on the basis of false statements which are wrongly attributed to someone."
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