Reflections time!

Hey guys, here is the first of our entries =D


Reflections for Budget Dialogue (Tricia)
The Budget Dialogue was quite a new experience for me as I have never attended such dialogues with the MPs before. :)

I think there was sufficient interaction between the residents and the MP, Mr Iswaran during the dialogue session. It was probably also relevant to everyone who attended the session in a way or another because the several questions raised were of different genres and concerned different age groups of the population.

Also, I thought the translation of what the MP said to Chinese was a good measure as well. It makes the dialogue sessions more accessible and reaches out to a larger group of residents, especially those who only understand Chinese and cannot understand English. It was also a good recap of what the MP had said previously, and allowed the audience to catch up on the issues that the MP had talked about, should they have missed out earlier on. However, it seemed to be a little time-consuming towards the end. The person in-charge of translating could also have been more effective in his translations as some content that was translated seemed to differ quite greatly in meaning from what the MP had said in English. This may seem quite trivial, but I thought some other parts of the translation were not very well done and sounded a little unpolished and crude as well (It is not my intention to sound rude or anything). However, I can’t provide any examples because I can’t remember them already. Maybe there can be improvement in this aspect of the Dialogue?

Personally I was quite impressed by Mr Iswaran. He tackled questions in a calm, confident manner and never failed to entertain us with humour here and there, whilst answering the residents’ questions in a clear and concise manner which showed a clear stand of his and the PAP on many issues proposed by the government. He was quite approachable and friendly too. :)

thanks tricia =D, guys keep those entries coming in!