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Tan Yong Soon

The furore caused by top civil servant Tan Yong Soon's "cooking holiday" continues to rage on today.
This brought to my mind another man who has unfortunately found himself to be the talk of the town last month: Steven Yeo, the General Manager of the Singapore Flyer, who has since resigned after the flyer ground to a halt for close to 7 hours last month.
Before the assuming of the post at Singapore Flyer, Steven Yeo was the deputy CEO of the Singapore Sports Council. As such he was also a top civil servant before.
Coming back to Tan Yong Soon, who has also authored a book called "Living the Singapore Dream", I must admit that he must be feeling very stressful these days for being the talk of the town.
Can you imagine if you were Tan Yong Soon now, how would you feel? being the centre of unenviable attraction of the whole nation?
Has Tan Yong Soon done something very very serious to merit such an inordinate amount of backlash from the cyberworld and ordinary folks?
I could not say Tan Yong Soon has done something very very serious, just that he could have been more tactful. Being a top civil servant who has such an admirable salary that many ordinary folks like me could not even dream of, he should have bear in mind that in publicising his unique 'cooking holiday', he could have left out those figures $46,500 (maybe not a big sum for a man of his wealth) or not to 'overglamorise' the whole holiday event, especially when Singaporeans are currently feeling the brunt of the economic recession.
Some bloggers have asked for Tan Yong Soon to apologise in public to the public as he has a moral obligation to do so being a top public servant. I think at this time, let us give some time for Yong Soon to decide a suitable course of action that he finds most comfortable with.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Yes, he should hv kept those stories private.

Within Europe, civil servants n ministers often goes on "discovery trips" abroad at great expense. We never see any of it benefiting our country. I suspect they just assumed it as a perk for their status.

Years back the mayor of Rotterdam took such a trip to Korea n Sg in relation to Harbour matters (biggest industry in R'dam) or so he said. When confronted with the exorbitant expense, he told his council accountant to just shut up n pay it. His arrogance cost him his prestigous job n was dragged thru the courts to repay the costs. He felt he was above reproach since he was doing his job - but he shouldnt trivialised his mistakes of flying first class n living it up at 5-star hotels, taking his son along for the ride, as well as having his gf (he was divorced) along. He should he travelled alone n be prudent abt spending the public's money !

I'm amazed by people who hv it good n still abuses their status to hv it all for free - it's just intolerable when the public reads abt it.
Thu Jan 22, 04:44:00 AM GMT+8
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