The Bhavani letter
Some ministers upset
Over her poorly crafted letter about the Brown affair, possible repercussion expected. Singaporegovernment.blog
Aug 31, 2006

The Brown man causing black faces?

.. I could just give a little heads up on what happened behind the Brown saga from MICA's (Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts) point of view.

We all reacted strongly in the way the MICA's Press Secretary K Bavani responded to the article. But maybe you didn't know this but several Ministers were very upset with the Press Secretary as well.

Apparently, some of the MICA Ministers (except Lee Boon Yang) and other Cabinet Ministers were not informed when the press letter was published. And many Ministers were angry with her and her badly crafted letter.

Simply, she reacted too soon, too harsh and without much consideration. Considering that she was also the President of the Institute of Public Relations of Singapore, her mistake was inexcusable and was not taken too lightly.

But being part of the civil service the Ministers can't turn around and scold her in public. Unity has to be presented under every circumstance. This is the rule of thumb of the government.

However, this is case of forgiven but not forgotten. Thus, if you read the statements of the Ministers after the letter was published, there was a slight disjoint in statement and tune.

While seemingly supporting the Press Secretary, they tried to soften the damage done.

All sang the same song with a different tune (no punt intended). Don't be surprised if you see some changes to her position in the coming 2 years (but not within this year).

It will be interesting to see or find out if Dr Lee Boon Yang, Minister of MICA, shouldered most of the blame during the stormy Cabinet meeting.

In any case, it doesn't matter, as he will be joining Yeo Cheow Tong on retirement soon.

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