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Why a minister would pass the ball back...


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Expectations differ on dialogues

 

Some appreciate being asked for views, others prefer to hear from VIP

 

Students queueing to raise questions at the Pre-U Seminar last week. Ms Mah Yi Xin suggested that ministers might want to first answer the question, then seek students' views. -- ST PHOTO: ASHLEIGH SIM

By Matthias Chew and Rachel Chang

 

STUDENTS who have taken part in dialogues with ministers say they have mixed feelings about having questions lobbed back at them.

 

When a minister responds to a question by asking what the student's view or solution is, reactions range from indignation to appreciation.

 

This practice is now being debated online and offline, after junior college student Reuben Wang, 17, wrote an angry blog post criticising Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean for asking students at a pre-university seminar what their solutions were to the questions they posed him.

 

Reuben apologised to Mr Teo and retracted his comments on Thursday.

 

Yesterday, Minister of State for Trade and Industry Teo Ser Luck said when he and his colleagues ask students for their views, it is not a bid to 'pass the ball back'. Rather, it is because policymakers value their input, he said, adding: 'No solution is perfect. It is a learning and two-way process for both sides.'

 

He said young people should not underestimate their own abilities to come up with solutions. Feedback from teenagers has prompted him to launch certain constituency programmes.

 

But some undergraduates who had their questions posed back to them at other ministerial forums said it was disconcerting.

 

During a dialogue last year, National University of Singapore (NUS) undergraduate Mah Yi Xin, 22, asked Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, then the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, if a $100 levy was enough to deter Singaporeans from gambling at casinos.

 

She found it 'frustrating' that instead of answering the question, he asked her what she thought.

 

'When people go for these forums, they want to hear what the minister says, rather than what participants say,' said Ms Mah.

 

Mr Muhammad Farouq Osman, 23, was stumped when Mr Lee Kuan Yew threw back a question about aid for low- and middle- income families during a university forum last year.

 

The NUS undergraduate worries such exchanges 'intimidate' other dialogue participants, who may not subsequently come forward with questions for fear of being put on the spot. He said what students want is not a 'right' answer but rather a glimpse into how policymakers, who have access to a wealth of data and support from civil servants, view urgent issues in society.

 

Still, others like Singapore Management University law undergraduate Lea Woon Yee believe they have gained from having questions posed back at them.

 

She attended a Young PAP forum last year during which Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing asked participants not just to 'throw stones', but to 'offer better solutions'.

 

The 22-year-old, who asked Mr Chan about youth involvement in the community, said that 'he was showing us that it's not such an easy problem' to solve.

 

It was effective, she said, because it allowed her to appreciate the constraints ministers face in making policy.

 

Jurong Junior College student Douglas Ong, 17, who attended the same pre-university seminar as Reuben, said students like him did not get a chance to speak to political leaders every day.

 

'We want to hear his opinions, rather than having to give our own. I see the point of getting us to think about our own views, but what we really want to hear is what he's going to do,' he said.

 

Ms Mah suggested that ministers might want to first answer the question, then seek students' views. That way, students would not be 'unsettled' by the swift return and the gesture 'would show that he is genuinely interested in your view'.

 

 

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Supersonic

Why go to a seminar to have a question answered with another question ?

 

If they don't know the answer, they shouldn't be there in the first place.

 

The seminar should not be held and waste people's time and resources.

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Knn...I will go the same to my boss when he ask me for solution and strategy...I likely get fired...

 

I know what you mean, but at work, it's a bit different - we and our bosses are working for the same purpose.

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Why go to a seminar to have a question answered with another question ?

 

If they don't know the answer, they shouldn't be there in the first place.

 

The seminar should not be held and waste people's time and resources.

 

 

Maybe the organiser should invite Low Thia Khiang. I'm sure he has the answers, which the PAP may not like. Ha...ha...

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Turbocharged

if the minister comes out with an answer like "flood occurs due to heavy rain once every 50 years", it shows that they are at their wits' end already.

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Knn...I will go the same to my boss when he ask me for solution and strategy...I likely get fired...

But if it's the other way around, you (the subordinate) ask your boss and then he ask you back for a suggested solution ... can right? In fact most bosses do that.

So DPM no wrong what.

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Maybe the organiser should invite Low Thia Khiang. I'm sure he has the answers, which the PAP may not like. Ha...ha...

LTK's anwers would probably be the holey baloney kind lah [:p]

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Turbocharged

This is one of the techniques you can use when someone ask a question and you can't think of a immediate answer. It can buy u time to come up with an answer.

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(edited)

But if it's the other way around, you (the subordinate) ask your boss and then he ask you back for a suggested solution ... can right? In fact most bosses do that.

So DPM no wrong what.

Technically we are his boss...

Edited by Tigerwoods
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I know what you mean, but at work, it's a bit different - we and our bosses are working for the same purpose.

 

This is a valid point precisely.

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Seminars is where the speakers share and offers their views!

But the multi millionaire turn it into the art of asking and hoping to get answers instead from the audience.

Truely well worth the income tax n GST I paid to feed them.

 

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Seminars is where the speakers share and offers their views!

But the multi millionaire turn it into the art of asking and hoping to get answers instead from the audience.

Truely well worth the income tax n GST I paid to feed them.

Yah of course

So What do you think ?

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During a dialogue last year, National University of Singapore (NUS) undergraduate Mah Yi Xin, 22, asked Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, then the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, if a $100 levy was enough to deter Singaporeans from gambling at casinos.

 

She found it 'frustrating' that instead of answering the question, he asked her what she thought.

 

'When people go for these forums, they want to hear what the minister says, rather than what participants say,' said Ms Mah.

 

 

Vs

 

The 22-year-old, who asked Mr Chan about youth involvement in the community, said that 'he was showing us that it's not such an easy problem' to solve.

 

It was effective, she said, because it allowed her to appreciate the constraints ministers face in making policy.

 

Vs

 

Jurong Junior College student Douglas Ong, 17, who attended the same pre-university seminar as Reuben, said students like him did not get a chance to speak to political leaders every day.

 

'We want to hear his opinions, rather than having to give our own. I see the point of getting us to think about our own views, but what we really want to hear is what he's going to do,' he said.

 

 

The answer lies in the fact that different calibre of students read differently what the leaders are trying to say.

 

And for all the si gi nas out there, yes, dont be fooled, there is such a thing as a "stupid question". :D

 

 

 

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