What do Teo Ser Luck, BBC and Ministry of Manpower have in common?

They committed gaffes.

Martino Tan| Tan Xing Qi| December 18, 04:45 PM

Netizens are whacking Teo Ser Luck left, right and centre for a photo posted on Dec. 11 of his visit to a workers' dormitory.

This is the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) photo in question, featuring the Manpower Minister of State in a semi-lying/ in between crunches position.

teo ser luck mattress

The photo is accompanied by this caption: "I learnt that some workers prefer to sleep without a mattress as they are used to it back in their home country".

The post has generated more than 130 comments and attracted more than 700 shares.

"I'>
learnt that some workers prefer to sleep without a mattress as they are used to it back in their home country."

Posted by Singapore Ministry of Manpower on Wednesday, December 16, 2015

In fact, the online debate has became so intense that even esteemed international broadcaster BBC wrote a story, describing the story as a "migrant gaffe".

But not without committing a gaffe of their own.

BBC's gaffe

Teo was mentioned in the story as a Minister three times despite holding a Minister of State title.

Source: BBC Website Source: BBC Website

Source: BBC website Source: BBC website

Google properly, you must, BBC.

Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 3.18.04 pm Source: Singapore Government Directory

We also notice that BBC did not provide a byline for its story.

Is BBC adopting the route of The Economist or The Real Singapore?

Teo's gaffe

Anyway, back to Teo's gaffe, why did Teo put himself in this uncomfortable position in the first place?

It is commendable that he made the effort to visit the dormitories and blog about his experiences there.

"At this point, I thought about those online articles on the mistreatment of foreign workers. But based on what I saw, most of them are well-adjusted and taken care of. In any case, when there were instances of mistreatment, MOM would look into them".

Looking at this statement by Teo, we assume that the purpose of such a visit is to dispel Singaporeans' misconceptions about the unhealthy state of foreign workers' dormitories.

But there is fine line between stating a fact and overselling the situation.

While Teo is right to educate the public about the foreign workers' dormitories, the dormitories are certainly no five star hotels.

BBC also wrote that Teo denied making that insensitive comment on migrant workers' sleeping habits.

So what did Teo say actually?

MOM's gaffe

And since this is a story on gaffes, here's one more for the collection.

MOM_gaffe

Kudos to MOM for being transparent - they could have deleted the post but they didn't.

With the power of the backspace key, which resulted in the loss of two critical sentences and exclamation marks, the bed's not so comfy and cool anymore.

If Teo didn't utter that line, who said it?

We digress.

The pertinent question is: Why would MOM's social media team post such a photo, which – from the looks of it – destined to become a gaffe?

And did MOM verify with Teo on the quote before posting it?

If they did, why did they amend his quote? That would be dishonest of MOM, wouldn't it?

If they didn't verify with Teo, that would be rather incompetent of MOM, wouldn't it?

Thankfully, someone broke the series of gaffes.

Facebook user Ibrahim Khalil, presumably a migrant worker, explained why some prefer sleeping without a mattress.

Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 3.33.32 pm

 

 

Top photo from the Ministry of Manpower Facebook page.

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