It has been absolutely jam-packed #news-wise in #Singapore, so maybe I should give a rundown of what’s happened in just the month of July…
Ministerial statements on K Shanmugam (home affairs and law minister) and Vivian Balakrishnan (foreign affairs minister) living in huge state-owned properties. The Singapore Land Authority, who manages these properties, comes under the law ministry. But the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) cleared them of any wrongdoing.
1a. They were also cleared by Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean, who had been tasked with reviewing the CPIB’s investigation. But Teo’s review wasn’t convincingly independent; he’s a member of the same party, and it was revealed that when Shanmugam recused himself from the decision-making chain in this matter, he left then-Senior Minister of State for Law Indranee Rajah in charge of handling any issue related to the property that might arise. Indranee was told to consult Teo if necessary.
1b. Nothing came up so Teo wasn’t consulted, but still, he wasn’t the right choice to carry out an independent review of the government really wanted to convince the public that the review was more than wayang (for show).
The Ridout Road saga pissed off a lot of people, but we were soon distracted by video footage emerging in which Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-jin was caught on a hot mic muttering that Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim was a “fucking populist” after Lim gave a speech calling for more support for low-income Singaporeans and the establishment of an official poverty line. Tan apologised for “unparliamentary language” but this prompted doubts over his impartiality as Speaker.
The next day, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that he’d put S Iswaran, the transport minister, on leave of absence because of a corruption probe. This is the first time in about 40 years that a minister has been investigated for corruption. We later learnt that, by the time of the PM’s announcement, Iswaran had actually already been arrested and released on bail.
3a. Also arrested and released on bail was billionaire Ong Beng Seng, who is widely credited with bringing the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix to town. Details about the corruption probe are scant but given that Iswaran and Ong are both being investigated, many are speculating that it must have something to do with the renewal of the F1 race contract in Singapore. We don’t know for sure yet, though.
So that was happening… and then Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-jin resigned, alongside Cheng Li Hui, a fellow ruling party MP. In a press conference, PM Lee Hsien Loong revealed that the two had been having an affair since 2020. (Tan is married, Cheng is not.) Tan was already Speaker back then, so it turned out that the “fucking populist” hot mic was not the most serious case of him undermining the required impartiality of the position.
4a. Even more shocking: the prime minister also revealed that he had confronted Tan about the continuing affair in February this year, and Tan had offered his resignation then. Lee accepted the resignation… but this was not made public until July. The Speaker of Parliament’s offer of resignation was accepted in February, but he just kept showing up for work without the public knowing for five months?!
Mysteriously, footage of Workers’ Party members Leon Perera and Nicole Seah holding hands while at dinner emerged the same day Tan and Cheng’s resignations were announced. The two are married, but not to each other. And extramarital affairs are seen as extremely politically damaging in Singapore. The two resigned from their party the next day. Perera also gave up his seat in Parliament. (Seah was not an elected MP.)
5a. According to the Workers’ Party, Perera and Seah’s affair also started some time after the 2020 general election, but already ended some time back. This means the leaked video was not new, which led to people wondering who shot it, and how it was sat on for some time only to be released on the same day as the PAP’s affair scandal. It’s not likely we’ll get answers, though.
Another big piece of news to have caught everyone’s attention is the death by suicide of Uvaraja Gopal, a police officer who left behind a Facebook post saying he had been bullied and subjected to racial discrimination while in the Singapore Police Force. Shanmugam has ordered an investigation into Raja’s claims, but this investigation will be conducted by the Singapore Police Force themselves.
6a. The Singapore Police Force—who have already released a statement saying that Raja’s allegations of racial discrimination were found to be “unsubstantiated” back when he lodged a complaint—say they will investigate and send their findings to the Attorney-General’s Chambers. As both minister for home affairs and law, Shanmugam is the big boss of both the police and the AGC.
@kixes is there an existing pattern of racism against people of Indian background in Singapore (I'm assuming the officer in question had that background by the name, sorry if I'm wrong)
All this happened in July. And I’m not even including things like the desperate and pathetic POFMA (“fake news”) orders the government has issued, making independent news website The Online Citizen a “declared online location” (which affects its funding), the Auditor-General’s Report that flagged weaknesses in government agencies, the passage of the Online Criminal Harms Bill… 🫠🫠🫠
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