Hotel management apologises profusely
Red faces were present throughout the 2013 Shangri-La Dialogue yesterday as Ho Ching was ordered by an unwitting waiter to wipe up spilt wine. While the wife of Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong who is also the head of Temasek Holdings obliged with nary a smile, Shangri-La management were clearly mortified.
With the Indonesian Prime Minister and his wife. Pic stolen from PM Lee’s own facbeook page.
“That white napkin was not meant to be anywhere near red wine!” said head waiter Philippe de Garcon. “It’s frightfully embarrassing that Mdm Ho now thinks that we don’t know the first thing about hospitality.”
According to attendees at the annual security dialogue, Ho later pulled the offending waiter aside and gave him pointers on how to clear up spilt fluids using just a quarter of a napkin.
This would not be a first time Ho was not recognised as the most powerful mother in Singapore. Attendees of various functions ranging from the Chingay parade to Chinese New Year celebrations noted that Ho used to be mistaken for a lion dance troupe member due to her distaste for any article of clothing remotely feminine or flattering to the female form.
PM Lee and Ho Ching at Chingay Parade 2010
“She certainly cuts a maternal figure,” said style guru Jeannie Mai. “Like many other powerful women in the political world, she doesn’t seem to mind exuding masculinity, though she does fall on the slightly dowdy side.”
Masculinity is the road to power – Angela Merkel, Wu Yi and Ho Ching.
“Truly, I could never tell that she was the wife of the Prime Minister” said a foreign dignitary present at the Shangri-La dialogue, who chose not to be named.
“The first time I saw her, I honestly thought the world had its first gay prime minister!”
“But after all that’s said, she has a great heart.”
Power gesture from Mdm Ho at the Institute of Policy Studies Luncheon, Wednesday July 29, 2009
