Silencing Of The Lamb

A simple "I stand corrected" obviously would not suffice. Still, it is sad to see someone of his senior citizen status to stoop and grovel, and eat his own words. For someone who once had the chutzpah and panache to declare, "I have always been outspoken," the taste must be as disagreeable as canine excrement.

In an unsolicited "Clarification Statement" dated 10 October, former top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow, 60(?), retracted his earlier remarks documented in the Singapore Medical Association newsletter.

He is recanting the charge that today's ministers are afraid of speaking up in Cabinet because of their high salaries, saying it was "illogical" and unfair. Original quote from SMA interview:

"When you raise ministers’ salaries to the point that they’re earning millions of dollar, every minister – no matter how much he wants to turn up and tell Hsien Loong off or whatever – will hesitate when he thinks of his million-dollar salary. Even if he wants to do it, his wife will stop him."

He also recanted labelling the ministers as elitist, claiming that he had spoken without realising many in fact come from humble backgrounds. Original quote from SMA interview:

"The first generation of PAP was purely grassroots, but the problem today is that PAP is a bit too elitist. I think that they don’t feel for the people; overall, there is a lack of empathy."

The other things he had to say sounded awfully like the scripted 1988 televised confessions of the "Marxist conspirators":

• "...I have not attended any cabinet meetings, and have never seen one chaired by PM Lee Hsien Loong. Thus my statement that ministers will not speak their minds before PM Lee is unfair as it was made without knowing what actually happens at cabinet meetings today." 
• "I have been told by civil servant colleagues that cabinet discussions are robust - as robust as they were when I attended cabinet meetings as PS (PMO), when Mr Goh Chok Tong was PM, and Mr Lee Hsien Loong DPM."
• "They have no reason not to speak their minds when they are convinced that they are doing right by Singaporeans."

Ngiam nuked the last semblance of his credibility when he segued into saying he knows "some ministers have given up successful and well-paying careers in the private sector to join politics at lower pay, while others could have chosen to join the private sector to make more money but did not". Age 60 is too early for senility to set in and, ruling out lobotomy - the operation would be expensive even with his life time civil service free medical entitlement - one has to conclude that a Faustian pact with the devil must have been contemplated to stave off an unpleasant trip to the woodshed.