An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
He believes history has never been kind to small nation states. "Our challenge is to continually find relevance so that we have some strategic importance. Otherwise, even if we sink beneath the waves of the South China Sea, nobody will shed a tear."
It is a concern he raised as early as at his first press appearance in April 2011, when introduced as one of the PAP's new crop of candidates. Then, some netizens mocked his use of Lanfang Republic to make his point about vulnerable small states. Though he did not have to contest the election in the end - Tanjong Pagar GRC was the sole walkover - Mr Chan met with more derisive comments during the campaign, especially over his use of the phrase "kee chiu" (Hokkien for "raise hands") in one speech to rally the crowd.
"There will always be people who judge you for all sorts of things... I've always been very informal with my people in the way I speak. Some say I neither sound like chief of army nor like minister," he laughs when asked about it.
"But I did nothing to be ashamed of. I don't make fun of people. To those people who know me, they say 'He's always been like that.' "
BT INTERVIEW
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