MPs are leaders of their constituencies and are part of Singapore’s leadership. In times, of economic difficulties it is expected that senior civil servants and government leaders be sensitive, sensible and empathic towards Singaporeans’ feelings.

Permanent Secretary Tan Yong Soon got rapped by the head of the civil service for being insensitive with his writings in The Straits Times about his extravagant trip to France. I guess nobody actually cared what MP Charles Chong thought of it… until he chose to open his mouth to make the following inflammatory comments, adding fuel to fire:

“Maybe it made lesser mortals envious and they thought maybe he was a bit boastful. Would people have taken offence if his wife (a senior investment counsellor at a bank) had paid for everything ?”

The point of contention lies within the first sentence – “lesser mortals”. We can make a possible inference from his statement – that he believes all Singaporeans who are unhappy over Tan Soon Yong’s remarks (and who earns less than the latter’s family) are lesser mortals. (That probably includes many of the residents in his ward)

What is the definition of lesser mortals? To what extent is the superiority of a person  determined by his wealth and ability to splurge on an extravagant lifestyle?

I argue that this statement is discriminatory, and against the principles of human rights – that all humans should be equal regardless of race, religion, achievements or wealth. May I also add that this statement is also against the principles of a democracy (which Singapore is supposed to be), as well as against the values of the National Pledge which we make our children recite daily in school. Such a person does not deserve to be an MP at all, because he holds beliefs that advocates social divide (distincting lesser and higher mortals based on soci0-economic statuses).

This statement coming from an MP is ridiculous – even worse, more abhorrent and  elitist than Ms Wee Shu Min’s (daughter of a PAP MP) remarks about “the sadder class” and demand that a complaining blogger “get out of my elite uncaring face”.

This also further proves that there are definitely a number of MPs out there who are totally disconnected from the worries and concerns of their constituents – taxpayers who pay their monthly $13k MP stipend. These MPs are indeed from the elite class, and they themselves think so too, judging from the remarks they made.

Charles Chong replied via email to The Wayang Party clarifying the remarks he made, but with no apology or explanation about why he used the term “lesser mortals”. He tried to defuse the situation by labelling himself as similarly a “lesser mortal” as well, but as somebody commented on The Wayang Party’s blog, it appears insincere since he is equally capable of affording a similar lifestyle as Tan Yong Soon. His attempt at this point to ‘clarify’ is obviously not working. Furthermore, the point of contention is his insuination of the existence of castes in Singapore – the distinction between “greater” and “lesser mortals”, not whether he sees himself as a greater mortal or not.

It seems that his comments were also contrary to the opinions of the head of civil service, or the Government’s attempts to remedy the Tan Yong Soon saga by criticizing the latter in  Parliament. It only shows that senior civil servants like Charles Chong still have not learnt any lessons from Tan Yong Soon’s example.

Taking on the Wayang Party’s stance, mrbiao also urges everyone who reads his blog and agree with him about the inappropriateness of MP Charles Chong’s remarks, to support the call for him to apologise to Singaporeans by blogging about this issue – let’s use the power of social media to push for an appropriate action to be taken by or against Charles Chong. There is no need for those useless online “sign a petition” nonsense that always seem to die down after a while  – we can make a difference by keeping this issue in the spotlight just by blogging, publicising and discussing this online.

Beyond the requisite apology and action to be taken against Charles Chong, may I also suggest that Singaporeans do their parts to show displeasure by voting against him (if there isn’t a walkover) in the next General Elections.

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Here are links to other Singaporeans’ responses to Charles Chong’s remarks. If any PAP supporters are reading this, look at the damage that MP Chong has made to the image of PAP MPs:

1. Who is Charles Chong?
2. MP Charles Chong: maybe lesser mortals jealous of Perm Sec’s French holiday
3. Discussion on Hardwarezone – 25 pages worth of responses!
4. Another 11 pages long thread on HWZ
5. Elitism Rawks!
6. On Charles Chong’s “Lesser Mortals” Clarification

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