Jumping to event a few days back -- the PM speech.

Two words: Election is coming!

Okay, three words. (I was going to type 'election coming', but I added 'is' accidentally and was lazy to stretch my ring finger to the 'delete'key.)

Anyhow, I don't care for the freebies and Christmas come early, since none of the government give-away benefit me in any direct way, but I do have a problem with the way our PM speaks. It is a torture to listen to him speak, and the only bearable instance is when he speaks Malay, which I only half-bucket full. It's probably not his fault, though. I heard that politicians they got teachers to teach them talk properly one, so it must be the teachers kena sai as most teachers nowadays tend to be.

Which brings us to the point of this post. I think our politicians need to learn to speak more interestingly! Most of them are too monotonous and put me to sleep. SM Goh is all right, and his slightly monotonous (but still monotonous!) speeches are saved by his charisma and wicked sense of humour. He got stage presence.

Among the politicians I have heard, Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan seems the best. He is natural and quick-thinking. PM Lee, on the other hand, is very bland, and I always sense that he is very nervous, and that makes me nervous. And before I go on, let me state for the record that I do like PM Lee, okay. I like to think that he is a closet liberal, and is sincere about doing good for the country. But his oratorical skills really cannot make it leh. There were times that I sensed he was trying to be humorous, but sorrie, I think not funny, and was annoyed that the audience were laughing and clapping. Very ... hmm ... never mind. The point is, he not funny. And a general rule of thumb is, if you not funny, you shouldn't try to be funny. Try being sincere instead. In fact, sincere and straight-forward seems like his kinda style, so why try to imitate SM Goh? Mould thy own signature style!

I know this sounds kinda superficial because what matters most is that they good at their jobs and produce result. But I have firm belief that charisma and charm can help one go a loooong way. Don't believe me, look what happened to John Kerry!

John Edwards, on the other hand, is beri teh charming. Beri good speaker, to the point that I wonder if he is conman by profession. But then Kerry was so jia lat (machiam cardboard!), Edward also cannot save him.

This is a very ironic situation, given that politicians are supposed to be good speakers. I suppose that given the lack of competition, and the fact that most of them climbed the ranks via the public administration route, this situation shouldn't be surprising, but aiyo, the government image needs revamping lar. And opening DXO ain't enough! Speak better, connect with the audience, more energy!

On a separate note, I am also very disappointed with this year's speech. All the talk about being more open, more consultative, blarblarblar, at the beginning of his term all go missing oredi. Suspect it's because of the beri clever 4-person professional public nuisance (by professional, I meant it in the most respectful manner; they obviously knew what they were doing), Singapore Rebel and all that. The whole speech machiam public announcement, no drafting, and all choppy. So not charming. I gave up 5 minutes into the speech, and read the rest from ST.