SINGAPORE: Ruling party politician Sim Ann’s explanation for disrupting live performances at the WWF Earth Hour Festival has failed to fly with a number of socio-political commentators, who have asserted that the Senior Minister of State should have known better than to conduct herself in the manner that she did.
Criticism against Ms Sim mounted after members of the audience at WWF’s event at the Esplanade last Saturday (25 Mar) posted photos of her greeting other attendees in the reserved seats at the front row while a singer was performing metres away on the stage.
The artiste who was performing was very affected by the incident, according to Ian Lee, the founder of her label Panik Records. Sharing that the singer-songwriter is coming to terms with the “blow” that the incident was to her, Mr Lee added that several audience members were also upset.
The incident has been seen as disrespectful towards the performers, while some claimed the politician was late to the event.
It turns out that Ms Sim was actually early to the event. She was invited to take part in the ‘Switch Off’ segment that began at 8.30pm but arrived around 8.10pm, in the middle of the ‘Soul Jam’ segment, where local artistes had the stage.
A joint statement from WWF-Singapore and Esplanade emphasised that there was no intention of disrespecting the performers or the audience, and expressed regret for any disruption that may have been inadvertently caused. The organisers said:
“Ms Sim arrived early, and because the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre is a free-and-easy venue where audiences can enter or exit the auditorium at any time, the WWF-Singapore and Esplanade teams ushered her to join the rest of the audience to catch part of the performance, which was still ongoing.
“Upon her arrival at the seat, some members of the audience rose to greet her. We would like to emphasise that there was no intention of disrespecting the artistes, performers or audience, and we regret any disruption that we may have inadvertently caused.”
Ms Sim also apologised for any unintended disregard for the performers on stage and the audience and has reached out to the artistes involved to clarify the matter.
Her apology, however, has failed to land with some critics. Prominent Singapore blogger Mr Brown said yesterday (30 Mar): “One of my Twitter followers, who was in the row behind this taking place, was with his 4-year-old daughter. The kid asked her father why this person was “not sitting down and being quiet”.
He stressed, “A CHILD could see it was rude. But the entire lot in front, including the minister, did not.”
He added that the politician and the organisers were both at fault, despite their explanation. Asserting that the organisers should have considered the artistes before they invited Ms Sim into the arena in the middle of the performance, Mr Brown said that Ms Sim should have asked people to speak with her after the performance:
“When she entered the space, and people rose to greet her, she did not immediately tell them “Eh later then talk, because got performance going on”. Someone even had to shout from the back to ask them to sit down.”
Journalist Kirsten Han agreed that Ms Sim should have taken better charge of the situation. She said in a comment, “It comes off as if she was just following the organisers who ushered her in, as if a grown woman didn’t have her own agency or common sense to tell other people that the chit-chat and hand-shaking can come later.”
Ms Han added: “And who are all these people who are so enthralled by a minister that they must shake her hand *right away*? Cannot wait until the performer was done to say hi?”
Socio-political commentator Andrew Loh pointed out that Ms Sim’s explanation doesn’t excuse her behaviour as she used to be the Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of Culture, Community & Youth (MCCY) for half a decade.
Arguing that she should have been aware of the required etiquette as she would have attended enough of such events during the five years she was at MCCY, Mr Loh asked: “How does a minister spend 5 years at the Arts ministry and then has no clue about the decorum or etiquette required at a performance? And worse, makes excuses that she was “led” to do what she did by others (ie, the organisers)?”
Mr Loh urged Ms Sim to heed the words of her colleague, Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, who had said: “All of us will make mistakes. When a mistake is made, just come clean and say so, but don’t cover up.”
He added, “Don’t chut so many patterns like badminton.”
The editor was referring to Ms Sim’s own infamous comment. In an exceedingly sarcastic speech she delivered during the 2015 General Election campaign period, she personally attacked veteran opposition politician Dr Chee Soon Juan as someone who likes to “chut pattern”, or someone who is full of antics.
https://theindependent.sg/sim-anns-stay-tuned-reply-to-leon-pereras-question-on-vers-draws-flak-from-tiktokers/