SINGAPORE - Leader of the House Indranee Rajah has sought an apology from Progress Singapore Party (PSP) secretary-general Leong Mun Wai and asked him to remove a video posted on his party’s Facebook page, saying it gave a false and misleading impression that the Ridout Road issue was not fully aired in Parliament.
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, she said the video also gave the impression that Mr Leong was not allowed to ask questions after the House heard ministerial statements on Monday on the rental of two black-and-white state bungalows at 26 and 31 Ridout Road by Law Minister K. Shanmugam and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.
The video, posted at around midnight on Tuesday, started with clips of exchanges between Mr Leong, who is a Non-Constituency MP, asking questions on the Ridout Road issue, before showing an exchange between him and Deputy Speaker Christopher de Souza.
Mr Leong had asked Mr de Souza to “not end the debate early because it is an important topic... All Singaporeans are watching this debate”. Mr de Souza’s response was that the Speaker decides when to end the session, and based on parliamentary procedure, the House does not debate ministerial statements, though MPs can ask for clarifications.
The video was accompanied by the caption: “What some online commenters are calling another ‘sia suay’ (embarrassing) moment. The PSP’s Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa are here to do whatever it takes to ensure that the voice of people is heard.”
Ms Indranee said the video “gives a false impression that issues on the Ridout matter could not be fully ventilated because Mr Deputy Speaker would not allow a debate despite a plea by Mr Leong for this to happen”.
It did not reflect that questions were put to the ministers, who were held to account and did respond, she added, in raising a point of order during Wednesday’s sitting. Any MP can raise a point of order to bring a breach of order or Parliament rules to the Speaker’s attention.
Ms Indranee noted that the debate had gone on for almost five hours at the point of the exchange between Mr Leong and Mr de Souza.
The whole issue was discussed in Parliament for six hours, with two hours of ministerial statements from four ministers and clarifications taking up 3 hours 48 minutes, she added.
She pointed out that in total, Mr Leong asked 11 questions during the session and Mr de Souza had given him multiple opportunities to do so.
Ms Indranee reminded MPs that they are obliged to uphold proper conduct in and out of Parliament under the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act.
She noted that Mr Leong had breached parliamentary rules on multiple occasions, from 2021 to as recent as March 2023.
In response, Mr Leong said the “sia suay” comment in the Facebook post was referring to himself, and not Mr de Souza.
“My communications department, specifically, is using a past example about people calling me ‘sia suay’, so this (phrase) is... referring to another instance that some people online may think that it is ‘sia suay’,” he said.
The video put up by his party was “just an expression”, Mr Leong added. “In this country, we’re still supposed to have free expression.”
To that, Ms Indranee said that while there is free expression in Singapore, it “has never extended to falsehoods, scandalously defaming somebody or misrepresenting situations or facts or misrepresenting what happened in Parliament”.
She asked Mr Leong to respond to her request for an apology to Parliament and removal of the Facebook post by Thursday.
Mr Leong said he would discuss the matter with his party and give a formal response as soon as possible.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...ise-remove-sia-suay-video-on-ridout-road-saga
