7 reasons Minister Shanmugam's "A Day in the Life of a Minister" video made you raise an eyebrow

Minister Shanmugam's volunteers took nearly half a year to release Minister's "hard days night".

Martino Tan| May 15, 12:26 PM

The volunteers of Foreign Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam have produced a 12-minute video to reveal just how hectic the Minister's life is (and to launch his Instagram account).

In the past five days, the video has received 181, 146 views -- perhaps a testament to how Singaporeans have lapped up the gritty reality television coverage of a Minister's life.

In fact, it was so well-received that occasionally anti-establishment outfit SMRT Ltd (Feedback) took this opportunity to embrace the establishment.

Our'>
broest of the bro, makes it look so easy.

Posted by SMRT Ltd (Feedback) on Monday, May 11, 2015

 

Below are 7 observations from the video besides knowing that Minister K Shanmugam works really hard:

 

1. Minister Shanmugam drives his own car.

Shanmugam Video13 Source: K Shanmugam Facebook

Which means he chauffeurs his security officer to work daily.

 

2. Foreign Minister K Shanmugam highlighted his meeting with the Australian Opposition. 

Shanmugam Video1 Source: K Shanmugam Facebook

Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam started his morning with a breakfast with Bob Carr and his wife.

Carr was Labour's Foreign Affairs Minister before the Labour Party was booted out by the coalition led by current Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

PM Abbott has been a good friend of Singapore, as he led the Parliament to pay tribute to the late Lee Kuan Yew over two days (March 24 and March 25). He also travelled to Singapore to attend the funeral service of the late Lee Kuan Yew in person.

Tony Abbott Source: SBS

We wonder if the top diplomat should keep such meetings low-key, as the Singapore government would not be too pleased if Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop welcomes Sylvia Lim or Chen Show Mao with open arms in Canberra.

 

3. Minister Shanmugam arrives for work at 11am.

Shanmugam Video2 Source: K Shanmugam Facebook

Yup. Reaching office at 11am.

 

4. Civil servants waiting their turn to see the Minister.

shanmugam-video Source: K Shanmugam Facebook

Let's hope the civil servants do not spend too much time hanging around to wait for such meetings to start.

 

5. Minister using the iPhone while charging it.

Shanmugam Video3 Source: K Shanmugam Facebook

Probably the most dangerous thing the Minister did without the presence of his security officers.

fortune-iphone Source

Let's hope Minister is not using a third-party charger to charge his iPhone.

 

6. The Special Assistant to Minister works really hard.

Shanmugam Video5 Source: K Shanmugam Facebook

Shanmugam Video6 Source: K Shanmugam Facebook

He is either standing beside Minister.

Shanmugam Video8 Source: K Shanmugam Facebook

Or chasing after him.

Shanmugam Video7 Source: K Shanmugam Facebook

Or chasing after him with lots of notes and bags.

Shanmugam Video4 Source: K Shanmugam Facebook

Or standing beside him at 7am the next day at Changi Airport.

Fancy becoming Minister's right-hand man? Try becoming the top 'O' levels student in Singapore first.

 

7. Two events after Meet-The-People (MPS) session

Shanmugam Video9 Source: K Shanmugam Facebook

Shanmugam Video10 Source: K Shanmugam Facebook

Shanmugam Video11 Source: K Shanmugam Facebook

To put things in context, many members of parliament, from both the ruling party and the opposition, conduct their meet the people session with residents once a week.

Shanmugam MPS Source: Parliament website

In other words, MPS is not a daily occurrence for Minister Shanmugam.

Grassroots volunteers will also know that attending two community events after the MPS is a very uncommon phenomenon. This is because MPS usually ends closer to midnight and it is just not very prudent to plan two back-to-back events after that.

Did'>
my Meet-the-People session last night. We had 116 cases, about the usual number. Half were from my own ward Teck...

Posted by Lee Hsien Loong on Wednesday, July 18, 2012

 

A Day in the Life of a Minister?

Maybe Minister Shanmugam needs to have a word with his personal assistant for over-scheduling him on Oct 21, 2014.

 

Photos from K Shanmugam Facebook Page.

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