Several netizens have expressed their support for Workers’ Party chairman Sylvia Lim after she faced intense debate in Parliament last week.
Lim faced off with Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam over the timing of the GST hike announcement.
Lim had said earlier that the Government had floated “trial balloons” on a possible tax hike but possibly backed down after the public noted Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s comments in 2015 that the Government has enough revenue for the next decade.
Taking the opposition party chief to task, the Minister asked Lim to retract her statement: “Can I invite her to agree that this is a thoroughly hypocritical and dishonest statement and typical of the statements she makes in this House?”
Lim responded: “I can understand why he wants to accuse me of various things because he probably was not happy about past debates where I had disagreed with some of his legislative changes and in typical fashion, he always accuses me of dishonesty when as far as I am concerned I’ve acted honestly.”
When pressed to withdraw her statement, Lim jumped up and asserted: “I clearly said that it was my suspicion…it’s my honest suspicion, am I not entitled to have a view?”
She added: “This is what we as MPs have to do, to get better clarity on matters of public interest. Of course, the Government can rebut our speeches robustly – that’s fine. But I don’t think I’m disentitled to come to Parliament to advance honestly held beliefs or suspicions.”
Finance Minister also tried to pressure Lim to withdraw her statement, both in Parliament and in a subsequent letter, in which he pressed: “Now that Ms Lim has had an opportunity to check the record, will she withdraw her allegation, as an honourable MP should, and apologise to the House? Or does she still hold she has carte blanche to raise any and every suspicion, rumour or falsehood in Parliament, and continue to insist on them regardless of the facts?”
Netizens have been circulating this tribute to Lim and have praised her for standing up for Singaporeans and not cowing to “intimidation tactics”:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2056416471051704&set=a.1855579634468723.1073741829.100000501136909&type=3
Check out some of the top comments here:
https://theindependent.sg.sg/in-typical-fashion-law-minister-always-accuses-me-of-dishonesty-sylvia-lim-hits-back-at-shanmugam/
https://theindependent.sg.sg/will-sylvia-lim-act-as-an-honourable-mp-should-heng-swee-keat-asks/