In September 2021, there was a hot mic moment in the Singapore parliament where a politician was caught making remarks about another politician being “illiterate” and from a “lousy school.” The politician making those remarks had apologised for his offensive remarks after a recording of the hot mic moment went viral.
Recently, another hot mic moment in parliament went viral. This time, the politician caught in the hot mic moment muttered an unceremonious remark on another politician, referring to him as a populist, tagged with an expletive. This incident happened in March 2023. The politician who made the unparliamentary remark also apologised after the hot mic moment recording went viral in July.
What are hot mic moments?
Dictionary.com define a “hot mic” as “a microphone that is actively recording or broadcasting, especially if it captures a comment or conversation that the speaker or speakers believed to be private. E.g.: The reporter was suspended after her profanity was caught on a hot mic.
Therefore, a hot mic moment is oftentimes a moment where the public becomes aware of your inner voice with regard to your private thoughts towards a person or a situation. It is an unguarded moment where you said something not knowing that your microphone is still picking up sound, so everyone could hear your supposed private thoughts.
Those two politicians knew they had to apologised because their remarks revealed that they had failed to show honour to another fellow human being. By doing so, they have fallen short of the expectations the public would have of them as role models for the nation and thus they apologised swiftly.
This year, Timothy Fellowship had been going through a devotional series at the beginning of our gatherings by Chuck Swindoll. Recently, one of the devotional passages zoomed in on Philippians 2:3.
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,” (NIV)
If we internalise this verse and truly be doer of this word, then we would be ascribing value to others. We would be esteeming others above ourselves. By doing that, this means our inner voice would not begin to conceive expletive-laden thoughts or condescending thoughts about others, no matter how much we disagree with their suggestions.
I am by no means saying I have arrived. Philippians 2:3 is a tall order. It is a struggle where we must constantly check and review the kind of words our inner voice use on others. If our inner voice can come in line with this verse, then there is no need to fear hot mic moments. In fact, hot mic moments would then become an edifying snapshot of our inner voice.