“Search for the horse based on the diagram”

When taking media queries or explaining policies, several political office holders have the habit of illustrating their ideas on white-boards using ‘diagrams'. At a dialogue between REACH, the official government feedback channel, and SMU held last Tuesday, Acting Minister for Manpower and Senior Minister of State, Ministry of National Development, Tan Chuan Jin let his thoughts ‘leap' onto the white-board. He drew a heart and wrote the words ‘Singaporean', ‘Singapore', ‘today' and ‘tomorrow' within the heart, and highlighted various factors which will shape Singapore, such as ‘history', ‘geographical location' and ‘international climate'. When an SMU student asked why the government does not dish out $300 to $400 to every Singaporean every month to help households, he also wrote ‘Income – Expenditure = Savings' and used this to explain the impact on other national expenditure items as well as on the country's savings.