Sunday, October 30, 2011

Fabrications about the PAP: Patrick Tan's NS deferment

They have put up a note putting together the public discourse on Patrick Tan's NS deferment. It would have been better to have gotten all these facts out before the Presidential Elections.

I still have some questions.

1. Given that offering to study medicine in the US isn't a through train program, it was really remarkable that deferment was granted assuming the student will do well enough to enter med school. The term 'pre-med' would undoubtedly have caused many local readers to impute a through train program because of our local experience.

2. Fewer than a handful of people were granted such exemptions. Perhaps not, but it can also be viewed as these very few young men had all received preferred treatment.

This had been so unwise. That was why the Lee family had always conduct themselves to the point where it would even look absurd to question their integrity on such matters. Why open yourself to questions, suggestions and innuendos. What for? Well I could almost hear them say if it is so restrictive, nobody would want to come into politics.....in the end a society get the leaders they deserve. You cannot consistently try to give them better. I think we would only be set up to fail more surely and may be catastrophically.

1 comment:

  1. The way I see it, maybe his son was not even intelligent or bright enough (as compared to other more eligible candidates) to qualify for a place to be properly trained to become a medical doctor. Hence the long route created to help prepare or qualify him for a medical research post.

    To make it look probably fair and equitable, now they want to release the records to make known that it was no exception. But what if all these records smack of favouritism themselves, does it exonerate him from any possible responsibility ?

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