I live in a country populated by idiots

Apparently some bureaucrat went on some expensive French cuisine holiday and some bored forum trolls are letting him have it, and the criticism is echoed by our dear government, of which one particular MP's comment is, for lack of a better word, moronic. Make no mistake, this is a follow-up on the previous post about the Golden Rule, and it's all wayang. However, the stupidity that is stemming from this non-issue is pretty astounding even for me.

The man in question, Mr Tan Yong Soon, is a high-ranking civil servant with the Ministry of Environment. He took his family to France's Le Cordon Bleu cuisine school and learnt how to cook with his family. All in all, a healthy family activity. The issue here is the amount he spent on this, a significant $46,000.

Is it extravagant? Yes it is. Is it any of our business? No it isn't. The very fact that it is perceived to be our business is that the taxpayers are paying his salary; but we don't just pay his wages, we are the paymasters of every single civil servant. That however does not make him beholden to us on how he should spend his money, much like how you wouldn't let your boss dictate how you should spend your pay packet.

No, the real issue here is equating the man's spending to the government wasting our money. Technically, Mr Tan don't owe us anything but his responsibility at doing his job, and doing it well for the money he is paid to do so. If you have issues with that, take it up with the government and their policy of paying a high salary to the top civil servants. That should be the beef. His mistake was to write an article for the local rag about his experience, which goes against the Golden Rule.

For the sideline critics, comments like these really show the intelligence of our people. "How long does each of us take to earn even half that amount that Mr. Tan spent on his lessons? And how many of us can afford to be away for five weeks on paid vacation without getting sacked from our jobs?" is one that reeks of envy, defensiveness, and projection. It shows an inability to objectively see what the real problem is, not to mention a blatantly slanted perspective.

Oh, and whoever said "This is a top civil servant that has clearly lost touch with the realities in Singapore", which rock have you been hiding under for the past decade? I am amused and disappointed.

But the best came from MP Charles Chong: "Maybe it made lesser mortals envious and they thought maybe he was a little bit boastful,” he said. “Would people have taken offence if his wife (a senior investment counsellor at a bank) had paid for everything?"

Lesser mortals? Really? There are blunt instruments, and there are dull knives. We should not mistake one for the other, because the sledgehammer is a pretty effective weapon whereas a dull knife is pretty useless for its intended purpose. Mr Chong, your attempt at humour missed the mark. And since you're an MP for my GRC, who have inexplicably lost $4 million of what is actually public money, we should be chasing you for an answer on where that went instead of blaming Mr Tan for his moment of folly. While Mr Tan is spending his salary, no one can disguise the fact that the $4 million lost is nothing but public money.

So how about it Mr Chong?