I have been to the Ministerial Forum 2014 on Tuesday, 28 January.
The event has been advertised on campus with posters for quite a while. But getting a ticket was by pure luck: at Canteen B at lunch once we saw a long queue. It turned out that you could sign up for the Ministerial Forum. Well I did that immediately :) I haven't seen any prime ministers up close and personal.
The ticket (the smaller image on the next picture) did say when to go - auditorium opens at 6.30 and doors close at 7.15. And on the backside it laid out the rules: among other things, no bags. Well, I haven't read the backside :) So I took my bag with me, intending to go straight home afterwards. The queue was enormous. I am not joking. At least 100m long along the south arm of the South Spine. So when I was told I cannot bring my back and I rushed back to the PhD office, when I arrived back to the queue, Yaheng was still waaaaaay off from the entrance, even though it took me a good 15 minutes to go leave my bag and get back (because of diversions due to construction works).
It took a full airport security check to get in. Because we got there so late, we were only allowed to sit in the Mezzanine (they called it the Circle).
...and detailing the CV of the Prime Minister.
We were also provided a bottle of water! and a smallish card (the larger image of the first picture) to write down our questions before addressing PM Lee.
Impressive preparations!
Apparently this is an annual event, organized by the Undergraduate Student Union. So when the PM has arrived, the first speech was given by the Chair of the Organizing Committee. Then the PM has given his speech. (Well we were really faaaaaaaaaaar off from the podium!)
On account of Singapore celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2015, he talked about what Singapore and Singaporeans need to successfully embark on the next 50 years. Hence the title of the event: Progressing Together. He discussed 3 fault lines that Singaporean society needs to address to progress successfully: race and religion, rich and poor – income gap, and local Singaporeans vs new arrivals... I thought he was eloquent, charming, and at times even funny. He referred to very current events as well as modern developments, such as selfies and Twitter, and the like. It was an interesting and well crafted speech.
Afterwards, he sat down with a student moderator to address questions from the audience. Student helpers lined up the students intending to ask questions.
Some of the questions were interesting. How would you define a Singaporean? - this in response to recent media discussion of are and should Singaporeans be proud of being Singaporean. Of course this is a tough question, so the answer was not so interesting. What about your promises of improving gay rights? Long answer, but no answer: I won't impose on people to give up their long an deep held values... There were questions about immigration, immigrants taking jobs. He addressed them professionally, if slightly too easily: if immigrants abide by the rules, they will be treated right. Some questions were stupid: What do you think does the international community's handling of climate change? Why would you ask this question of the Singapore PM? Why not something Singapore-specific? And there were some questions which I didn't understand because of the heavy Chinese accent :(
The event for us with Yaheng lasted until about 9pm. Others were luckier to have their pictures taken with the PM :)
The media reports/response on the following day. In Chinese...
An interesting evening!
