SINGAPORE: Academic Donald Low publicly criticised the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) yesterday (Aug 3) for what he has deemed “hypocrisy, blatant double standards, and self-righteousness,” given the way the party treated the opposition while maintaining silence on the indiscretions of its own members.
His comments on the PAP’s alleged hypocrisy come after Parliament sat on Wednesday (Aug 2) to discuss the corruption probe involving Transport Minister S Iswaran and the affair scandal involving Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin and Tampines GRC MP Cheng Li Hui.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivered a ministerial statement explaining why he handled the two controversies the way he did and acknowledged that he should have dealt with the affair more swiftly as he first came to know about the inappropriate relationship in 2020.
Workers’ Party (WP) chief and Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh then slammed the Government for what he perceives as a lack of transparency and selective standards when dealing with potentially embarrassing issues.
Mr Singh argued, “The Prime Minister did not bat an eyelid in giving the Leader of the Opposition a sermon on Confucian ethics, morality and shame even though at the material time, he would have been aware of the affair between Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin and MP Cheng Li Hui.”
Highlighting this remark, Prof Low said on Facebook: “People in glass houses…When your party isn’t exactly a paragon of virtue, maybe you should pontificate less, and stop calling other people hypocrites.”
Calling Mr Tan “the most egregious example of hypocrisy,” given the way he allegedly treated national athlete Soh Rui Yong for the use of an expletive in a podcast while he himself called an opposition MP a “f**king populist” in Parliament, Prof Low said:
“So let’s be clear here: Singaporeans are not Sunday school kids. We don’t have a problem with our politicians having extramarital affairs as long as these do not affect their public duties”.
“We also don’t really have a problem with politicians using vulgarities. It’s the hypocrisy, the blatant double standards, and the self-righteousness of the PAP that are contemptible.”
He added, “If the PAP wants to regain trust, instead of declaring that it is upholding standards, how about it just stop its preachiness and talking down to people, and check its hypocritical, holier-than-thou attitude?”
Prof Low was the Associate Dean of executive research and education at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) before he resigned in 2018. He now teaches at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. /TISG