The People’s Action Party (PAP) have unveiled their youngest candidate: 27-year-old Tin Pei Ling. The Internet has been all abuzz with information about her.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAaZBVo6jgI]
And here’s a video of her answering some questions.
Sure, these two videos and photo might not present her in the greatest light. They might not be screaming “CANDIDATE MATERIAL!” to the general public. I’ll admit, when I first saw that photo and heard her “my biggest regret” answer, I laughed too.
But seriously… why all the vitriol?
Is it because she is young? Because she’s female? Because she’s PAP? Because she has a designer bag?
I’m not particularly impressed by her, either. If she were running in my constituency I wouldn’t vote for her (although with her being part of a GRC I guess it wouldn’t really matter who I vote for). But that is because I do not feel that she is fit to be in Parliament in this point in time. It is not because of where she shops, who she’s married to and her ex-boyfriends.
This article found on Temasek Review, entitled ‘Ms Tin dumped her ex-boyfriend to marry PM’s Principal Private Secretary?‘, is both unwarranted and mean-spirited, not to mention sexist and downright stalkery.
So she had an ex-boyfriend (if indeed, he was her boyfriend – it wasn’t verified). Guess what? I have two. I didn’t dump them because my current boyfriend is higher up the social ladder, or richer, or has better contacts. They went from being boyfriends to being ex-boyfriends because things just didn’t work out. The assertion that seems to have been made in that TR article is that “she didn’t marry this fella, therefore she must be a gold-digging slut who went for that guy because he’s rich/politically connected” (indeed, there are comments very much to that effect). Not only is it sexist (does she not have a right to choose who she marries?), presumptuous and rude, it judges before understanding anything about the actual circumstances. Is it really so impossible to believe that she simply fell out of love with one guy, and then in love with another? Doesn’t that happen to everyone all the time? And more importantly, how is it any of your business?
And the whole hoo-ha about her owning Kate Spade. Sure, Kate Spade is expensive. But hey, she works full-time, she gets a salary. If she can afford it, why not? It’s not like she stole it. And I know many people who have indulged in a luxury item or designer goods from time to time. It doesn’t make them bad people. It’s completely irrelevant to the discussion about whether she is a worthy candidate or not.
Please, if we want to discuss her suitability as a candidate, lets look at her political substance (or lack thereof). What policies would she like implemented? What are the issues she wants to highlight? What can she bring to the table as someone who wants to be a Member of Parliament? These are the things we should be concerned about. Not what handbag she carries, or where she eats her lunch, or how many boyfriends she’s had.
If that’s what we’re fixated on, then we’re just as immature as we insist she is.
bookjunkie
March 30, 2011
I have to agree, but I am surprised like mrbrown pointed out that they didn’t edit out the foot stomping in the video.
kirsten
March 30, 2011
Yes, that was probably ill-advised. And the damage from that is done. Still, it doesn’t make it okay to go and try to dig up her past, private info and resort to gutter journalism. I hope that Singaporeans won’t sink to that level!
And I wonder if a lot of this criticism would still apply if she weren’t young and/or female.
Rachel
March 30, 2011
Hear, hear!
23princessroad
March 30, 2011
I don’t get it. All our MPs and Ministers are ‘wealthy’, relative to the average Singaporean. So what is wrong with people who earn their money fair and square spending their hard-earned money? Judge her on what she can offer as a candidate la…
Maynard
March 30, 2011
The problem part is “people who earn their money fair and square”.
A 27-year-old does not come by a $15,000 pay check the “fair and square” way. Okay, maybe in Geylang.
Durga
March 30, 2011
Used to read your posts. Honestly quite disappointed with this post
modernburrow
March 30, 2011
I agree with you. She has worked 7 years on the ground, and I am sure she has some idea of what is going on. I think she’s put in more effort than some other politicians (PAP and Oppo) have.
Also someone told me that the pictures of her supposed boyfriend is actually that of a friend at another friend’s wedding.
kirsten
March 30, 2011
So far she isn’t earning that yet, because she isn’t an MP. Yet. The scary part is that thanks to the GRC system she probably will be.
The Sun Shines On
March 30, 2011
You surely got it right. Unfortunately, the frightening implication is that it is what most voters are made of.
Character attacks on a PAP candidate might fire up the mob just as easily as character attacks on an opposition candidate, and the mob just swings left and right, back and forth. The mob all the while forgetting that an election is about attacking policies and ideas, not persons and idiosyncrasies.
JimLoh
March 30, 2011
Nothing wrong with Kate Spades or ex-bfs.. but not very smart if you ask me.. Isn’t PAP supposed to be whiter than white, she supposed to clear up all these videos and photos before she gets announced..
Not smart at all…how to survive politics
kirsten
March 30, 2011
I’m sorry to hear that. What are your views on this issue?
kirsten
March 30, 2011
I found the haste at which everyone leapt to a conclusion really unfair and repulsive. And it made me wonder if the same things would be said if she hadn’t been a woman. If it were a man, and someone found some photos of him with a girl, would the condemnation and judgement come so hard and fast? I don’t know.
kirsten
March 30, 2011
Yes. Much as I found the stalking and digging up of her private life distasteful, I did think that all this doesn’t particularly showcase her as the best choice to direct PAP’s online strategy.
PL
March 31, 2011
I agree with you that all that talk about her handbag, where she eats and who she has dated/dumped was downright sexist and appalling – is that what our fellow Singaporeans are concerned about? It’s no wonder that STOMP flourishes with so-called citizenship journalism = clips taken sneakily of people doing random things and posted online. Do we need to stoop so low? How much is too much? We have a sophisticated IT structure in place, high internet penetration compared to many countries and yet, we see kampong-era gossip monger mindsets.
We should be concerned about how much she can contribute – which frankly, though I feel bad for her being in line for the firing squad, I think she hasn’t said anything that would make people shut up, sit up and take her seriously. This is the first time that she is facing the media as the youngest candidate, she should have been more prepared, she should have ‘cleaned’ up her social media accounts and presented the correct image that people would expect of someone running a constituency and will be scrutinized from head to toe under a microscope.
I see a lot of people in the same age group taking pictures of branded things that they bought or received, and no one would think that there’s anything wrong, we are in the cam-whoring generation, we take pictures looking drunk and making faces, we see pictures taken in public toilets, what’s the purpose? Our appalled parents ask – nothing, just for the fun of it. And c’mon, people at a certain level in their career can afford to eat or buy whatever they want, they earned it and honestly, if they wanna hound her about being bourgeois, kate spade is hardly chanel, isn’t it?
But because she is now a public figure And In Politics, I really cannot help but say, ‘you should have seen this coming’, she was in-charge of new media and she would have seen how people criticize and have known how easy it is to dig up ‘dirt’, misconstrue things. There’s some major assessment to do.
We want our politicians to be hardworking, frugal (though they are earning a $15k paycheck and I’m not sure what people expect MPs to do with the money, burn it? Donate it all? They are salaried politicians, not Mother Teresa, that’s why there’s only 1 of her, that’s why she unique and awesome.), down-to-earth – something like a pair of trusty court shoes, even if she’s meant to appeal to the younger generation. We do not want to see an MP brandishing a kate spade bag when needy families in the constituency have trouble getting a job, paying the bills or putting food on the table while coping with inflationary pressures.
I would love to see a girl who shows that she has got a good head on her shoulders, empathy for the people she’s serving and a touch of sass (some opinion would be great). I thought Eunice Olsen did bring up some good stuff in her time and she suffered some ‘beauty queen’ flak at the beginning. Now, it’s up to Ms Tin to ride through the dirt and show us some power.
I’m sure the PAP is not dumb, they must have seen something in her which we, sadly, have not seen.
kirsten
March 31, 2011
I agree! Although the personal attacks are unwarranted, Tin Pei Ling, as the one who is supposed to be heading PAP’s new media, should have seen it coming, and should have been more savvy. All of us have photos on our Twitter and Facebook that could be easily dug up and reframed as something “compromising”, whether it really is or not. She should definitely have taken precautions with her online presence (i.e. either delete or privatise) BEFORE she was introduced as a candidate. The fact that she did not doesn’t say much for her media savvy.
Right now, I see no problem with her owning a Kate Spade bag. She is clearly of the means to own it, and more besides. Of course, this could spark off a discussion about why PAP candidates are always from such a rich “elite” circle, especially since the new candidates all seem to be either relatives of old PAP members, or long-time loyalists who are part of the inner circle. If the PAP really represents the people, why do they seem so exclusive and detached from the average Singaporean? Those, I think, are valid questions. But an observation like, “Tin Pei Ling has a Kate Spade?! She must be a materialistic gold-digger!” does not help, and is, like you say, just gossip-mongering.
But if Tin Pei Ling goes on in her campaigning to say that Singaporeans should be “frugal” or “work harder for their money”, then in that context I believe her Kate Spade photo would become fair game, because then it would show the double standards between her own life and what she expects from the people she is meant to be representing.
Vincent
April 3, 2011
I think she put there to irrate GCT and as a stool pigeon to divert attention from other candidate, those x generals and ntuc CEO
Jezebella
April 7, 2011
Isn’t she the only one to get this nonsense? No other candidates are as stalked as she is. But really, what does Kate Spade have to do with all these? Smells of pure jealousy if you ask me. And the ex-boyfriend and whatever? My mom told me about it last night and I was in disbelief. Like, just because she broke up with an ex and ended up with her current husband it must mean she’s a slut and gold-digger? Are there even any evidence on that? How did people come to believe speculations that have little to no backing behind it? Unless they already subscribed to a certain mindset, that is.
kirsten
April 7, 2011
I think all this focus on her is actually distracting from other issues, and the weaknesses of other candidates as well.