Catherine Lim - Prospective Politician

Catherine Lim is a well known novelist - see for example the following web pages:

http://www.thecore.nus.edu.sg/post/singapore/literature/c.lim/c.limov.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Lim

http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2732

However, in 1994 the then Prime Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong, suggested the idea of her becoming a politician in a public letter addressed to her responding to two articles she published in Straits Times. The suggestion might be rhetorical, but it was deadly serious all the same. She did not however take up the suggestion, and apologized to him for any distress her articles might have caused him, thus putting an end to the storm-in-teacup might-have-been. Her occasional returns to the political forum, usually to make some statements about the lack of prospect for real changes, are still eagerly anticipated, but probably disappointing when one actually occurs.

So why is she such a sought-after political commentator, even prospective politician? Whenever anything "sensitive" need to be done, one looks for a safe choice, someone with a sort of "stamp of approval", so that even if something unexpected arises, you do not get blamed for making a bad choice. Political commentary is obviously "sensitive", but getting someone with stamp of approval to do political commentary probably makes the exercise redundant, since what he/she has to say is quite predictable. Getting Catherine Lim to do political commentary was obviously a brainstorm that occurred to someone at Straits Times: She has considerable social and behavioural insight from her material for writing novels, and is sufficiently well known and well off to be able to speak independently. These factors make choosing her a relatively easily defended move - after all, if her comments upset anyone, you can always say, oh well she was a novelist.

In passing, let me mention another prominent figure who was for a brief period seen in the same light, the retired senior civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow, but his discussion of bureaucratic practices in the government soon petered out.

Catherine Lim's  first 1994 article talked about an "affective divide" between the government and the people, but it was the second one that caused problems: she basically said Goh Chok Tong was not to blame for some of the "harsh" things that were taking place (e.g., suing opposition politicians for defamation was not yet the familiar practice, but became commonplace after the 1997 election). She might have thought she was being helpful, but failed to realize that the implication that the Prime Minister was not in full control, was unacceptable to the incumbant, whose letter simply told her to go into politics formally if she wished to "set the political agenda", leading to her apology and (for a few years) hasty exit from the political forum.

While the reaction among the English newspaper readers were predictable, the few Chinese paper columnists who commented on this turned out to be much more interesting: as a mere novelist, she should not have "talked down" to the Prime Minister, and her violation of protocol deserved a quick rebuke. Presumably they have the same attitude towards others that might presume to know better than the government. Given that the Chinese paper columns usually provide a more diverse set of views compared with the Straits Times, their failure to address her ideas and their deep concern for her manners, explain why this diversity has produced so little impact.

Currently Catherine Lim has a regular column in Today publishing her poems;  here is an example:

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/123014.asp

Like such individuals as Janadas Devan, Philip Jeyaratnam, Cherian George, Elinor Wong... by virtue of her unique attributes, she occupies a niche as an alternative voice to be called upon now and then when such a voice is needed.