Singapore — It’s the time of the year for panettone! Workers’ Party leader Pritam Singh has shared that a resident from his Eunos ward of Aljunied GRC dropped-off the sweet bread for the volunteer team at a Meet-the-People Session (MPS).
In a Facebook post on Monday (Dec 21), Mr Singh said: “Until Jamus Lim introduced panettone into the political lexicon of Singapore on 11 Nov 2020, I, like a fair few Singaporeans I hazard, had no idea what it was.”
In November, Associate Professor Jamus Lim had introduced it to Singaporeans by way of a Facebook post. He said that one of the seasonal treats his family enjoyed was when panettone — an Italian sweet bread enjoyed during Christmas and the New Year, and commonly found across Latin America — became available.
Mr Singh said: “But word is spreading.”
He added: “In between thanking the resident for her generosity and thoughtfulness, I smiled. And yes, I thought of Jamus. Some thanks are probably due to him too!!”
A/Prof Lim’s post on panettone went viral but it also drew flak from former Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Calvin Cheng.
Mr Cheng’s post, titled “CHAMPAGNE SOCIALISTS AND KOPITIAM CAPITALISTS”, was about his earlier comments on those he called “Workers’ Party celebrity MPs”.
On A/Prof Lim, Mr Cheng wrote on Thursday (Nov 12): “WORKERS’ Party celebrity MP shares with his fans the joys of Italian sweetbread panettone, with a designer espresso, lovingly shot with his latest iPhone 12.
A well-deserved treat after his tireless fighting for the proletariat.”
In his post on Saturday (Nov 14), he asked: “It is ok to post pictures of nice cakes that most heartlanders have never heard of, but if Chan Chun Sing wears a Casio watch, it is being fake? Are we headed down the path of superficial Western politics where packaging is more important than substance?”
Mr Cheng, who is known to be aligned with the People’s Action Party, said that he published the posts because he “needed to draw in the hypocrites and the self-righteous, mark them (thank you for being my fan!), and then drop this on them when they are at their most furious”.
However, many of those who responded to his comments were not too pleased, with several calling him petty. /TISG