TR EMERITUS

Dear Mr Shanmugam, I refer to your speech at the New York State Bar Association Seasonal Meeting as reported by the Straits Times on 29 Oct 2009. You said that Singapore had a weak economy back in 1965 when our per capita GDP was US$500.  'Weak' as we were then, we nevertheless had the fourth highest per capita GDP in Asia... 

作者:李卖蚬 有个人在餐馆吃饭，看到汤碗里有一只苍蝇，便叫来侍者问："怎么汤碗里有只苍蝇？“侍者回答说：”你只花5块钱就有菜有汤，你还想吃什么？“ 本来真正的问题是餐馆的卫生情况 (hygiene)，结果被侍者偷梁换柱，问题变成”你花了多少钱“。如果顾客不警觉，与侍者在“花了多少钱”上争吵，侍者便成功的转移视线，避开真正的问题。搞不好最后顾客还要赞同5块钱的确很便宜！ 所以碰到这种侍者，明眼的旁人就要帮忙拆穿他的诡辩。 把中国网民对老李演讲内容的愤怒反应归咎并转移到“制衡“一词的翻译不够严谨就是一个例子。难道说，如果译文用“平衡”而非“制衡”，中国网民就不会被激怒吗？ 不久前的张元元事件也是一个例子。张元元事件的真正重点是国人对政府很宽松的外来人口政策非常不满，却得不到政府认真的回应（政府只一味高高在上的对人民说外来人口是为了保住人民的饭碗）。张元元秀绿卡事件只是给众多受影响而不满的国人一个泄愤的出口。但早报却避开事件背后的主要问题，它的”你花了多少钱”就是只取其表面，把讨论导向... 

OPINION The APEC Summit held in Singapore from 8 to 15 November 2009, which was supposed to showcase Singapore as a modern, cosmopolitan and affluent nation was dramatically hijacked by Dr Chee Soon Juan who gave a series of interviews on U.S. Talk shows in the same period condemning the Singapore government for its political...