Lee Bee Wah Allegedly Refuses to Discuss Section 377A at Meet the People Session; Says "I have other residents with real problems"

Edward Foo, 21, a volunteer from the Ready4Repeal online movement, a movement that seeks to repeal section 377A of the penal code volunteered to talk to his Member of Parliament (MP), ER. Dr. Lee Bee Wah at a Meet the People Session (MPS). However, at the session, he accused her of refusing to hear him out.

Mr Foo volunteered to pass Er. Dr Lee a copy of the petition to repeal 377A at the Meet the People Session at Nee Soon South GRC. In a Facebook post, he wrote that at around 6pm on Monday, December 3, Mr Foo and his friends Ms Madeleine Brétéché, Ms Lee Joann Noah and another volunteer from the Ready4Repeal movement attended the Meet the People Session looking to speak with Er. Dr Lee Bee Wah.

Hello, my name is Edward Foo, a volunteer from the Ready4Repeal online movement. I volunteered to talk to my Member of…

Posted by Edward Foo Poh Jien on Monday, 3 December 2018

He wrote, “There is a letter writer, who is a Meet the People session volunteer to assist with writing letters to the relevant ministries regarding our issue. She pulls up four chairs for us to sit around the table. When the letter writer asks what matter this is in regard to, we explain that it is a personal matter, and we would like to speak to the MP personally”.

“The volunteer accepts, and pulls up a chair for the MP. She then calls the MP over and tells the MP that we have a personal matter to discuss with her”, he added.

In his account on Facebook, Mr Foo continued that when Er. Dr Lee came over, she “stated that “she thinks she knows what this is about”, as her other MPs have “mentioned this before”. She waited for all three of my friends to leave, and I was left alone. She then asked me to “say what I wanted to say””.

He continued, “I then said: “This is regarding section 377a, and I was wondering what your views on this matter are””.

According to Mr Foo, Er. Dr Lee told him, “I have other residents with real problems”, and exited the room.

Mr Foo also claimed that when he tried to pass a copy of the petition he brought to Er. Dr Lee, “She gestured her hand away and asked me to pass it to the volunteers instead”.

TISG reached out to Er. Dr Lee for comment on the matter. Her response only pointed us to the following clarification from her branch.

We were alerted to an online post about individuals who came to our Meet-the-People session last night. We would like…

Posted by PAP Nee Soon South Branch on Tuesday, 4 December 2018

The statement read: We were alerted to an online post about individuals who came to our Meet-the-People session last night. We would like to clarify that both individuals who were residents of the GRC were seen by volunteer letter-writers, just like every other resident. The male resident indicated there was no need to write an appeal letter for him. Our volunteer wrote an appeal letter for the female resident. MP Er Dr Lee Bee Wah spoke to them briefly and moved on to speak to other residents about their issues.

TISG got in touch with Mr Foo, who said, “Yes, I saw the statement by the GRC. It neither confirms nor denies what transpired yesterday”.

Netizens had mixed reactions where most supported Er. Dr Lee, adding that the Meet the People Sessions were for individual cases, and not so much to discuss larger laws in place.