“Showing off to the world our million-dollar paid minister’s bombastic English” — Netizens react to Dr Ng Eng Hen’s vocabulary that has reached meme-worthy status

The words “discombobulating”, “raucous”, and “rambunctious” aren’t words one really uses in day-to-day vocabulary anymore. However, it seems as though Defence Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen is bringing the use of such words back into popular culture–or so it seems–as a meme of his preferred word usage has recently been shared online.

On Thursday (June 6), an online community page shared a meme that featured Defence Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen’s preferred choice of words. The meme, which has garnered more than a hundred shares in less than a day on one social media platform alone, was captioned “Dr Ng Eng Hen’s chim (profound) English words of the day translated to simple to understand language.”

The first word, “raucous,” is used to describe something that makes a disturbing and loud noise. Under a speech bubble of Dr Ng’s first “word of the day,” were the words “Sibey kao peh.”

In the second speech bubble, is the word “rambunctious,” which is another way to say something is exuberant or boisterous in an uncontrollable way. Under this word was “Sibey char.”

The third speech bubble featured the word “discombobulating,” which is a more complicated way of saying “confusing,” had the words “Sibey luan” written under it.

Online users couldn’t help but leave their two cents in the comments section of the post, with some playing along with the humour and others implying that it would be a better idea for him to speak in “simple(r) English.

“If you can’t convince them, confuse them,” said one. Another mentioned the well-known salary of Singaporean government leaders, saying, “Showing off to the world our million-dollar paid minister’s bombastic English.”