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SINGAPORE: Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said that a significant part of what has been attributed to MP Seng Han Thong by people and netizens over his recent comments is false.
Mr Shanmugam said: "A significant part of what has been attributed to Mr Seng is false, to be quite blunt about it."
Weighing in on the controversial remarks, Mr Shanmugam said the key point is that Mr Seng had sought to rebut a statement made by an officer from train operator SMRT.
Mr Shanmugam said: "Han Thong heard over the radio what an officer from MRT said, 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 Thong strongly 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 real problem according to him, was that the workers, drivers specifically, had not been given adequate training to deal with these sorts of emergencies."
Mr Shanmugam said the mistake Mr Seng made was that he misquoted the MRT officer and said that the officer had referred to Indian and Malay drivers when in fact, the officer had referred to drivers of all races.
Mr Shanmugam added: "If you put that across I don't think many people will have reacted in the way they did. The mistake... was that he misquoted the MRT officer and said that the officer had referred to Indian and Malay drivers having poor English language skills, when in fact the officer had referred to all three races.
"I think that personally Hang Thong could have also gone further to explicitly disagree with the view which he thought that the officer had expressed - that the Indian and Malay drivers had poor language skills, he could have gone further and rebutted that."
Mr Shanmugam also took issue with an article posted by socio-political website, The Online Citizen (TOC).
TOC headlined its article, "MP Seng Han Thong: SMRT's unpreparedness also due to Malay and Indian staffs English language proficiency". Mr Shanmugam said the article, which was attributed to Mr Seng, was false and was the opposite of what he had said.
The minister said: "The article does not say that he was quoting an MRT officer. They could have pointed out that it was an inaccurate quote. The didn't say he was quoting an MRT officer and neither does it say that he disagreed with that view. Instead, in both the headlines and in the text, it reaffirms the view that these were his words."
Mr Shanmugam believes Mr Seng is not racist. He said he has known Mr Seng for many years, adding that he works hard on the ground and helps everyone.
Mr Shanmugam 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."
-CNA/ac
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