Singapore — In an open letter to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong following Tuesday’s debate in Parliament on the Committee of Privileges (COP) report, a netizen said: “I came away with a vastly different opinion” from what the PM said in his speech.
The letter has since been shared on a variety of Facebook groups and WhatsApp chats since Wednesday (Feb 16) and has garnered more than 2,000 likes on one Facebook page alone.. The writer is Gerard Ong, a retiree who used to run a public relations firm after a career as a regular in the Singapore Armed Forces.
Mr Ong began by saying “please spare us the details of how Singapore’s system has to work and why people must be able to respect parliament and trust it’s members, processes and proceedings”.
He said the COP proceedings seemed to be more of an inquisition than an inquiry – a sentiment shared by PM Lee’s estranged brother Lee Hsien Yang. Mr Ong commented that the COP proceedings seemed targeted at the Workers’ Party leaders, instead of the disgraced former MP Raeesah Khan whose lies in Parliament had prompted the inquiry.
“What I saw instead were some MPs from the ruling party behaving like a pack of wolves devouring their prey instead of members adhering to a strict protocol of fairness, free of bias and even-handedness”, Mr Ong wrote.
In his speech in Parliament, PM Lee had said: “The Leader of the Opposition does not have a blank cheque. Mr Speaker, integrity is the linchpin of democracy”. Referring to this, Mr Ong agreed that this was true, but added that it applied to both sides of the House.
Mr Ong said the Leader of the Opposition, Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh, was “openly tormented” during the proceedings, to the point where it seemed that he had been found guilty by the ruling party even before he had his day in court.
“Until it is proven that he is indeed guilty of lying under oath, he should be judged based on ethical and moral principles as an upright member of parliament. To the layman watching or reading the COP proceedings, Pritam Singh was crucified not questioned.
To date there is still no proof that he gave Raeesah Khan the instruction “to take her lie to the grave”. It is her word against his but the COP has decided to take her word instead – the word of someone who has lied on two occasions in the House. I find this baffling. My question is where is the “smoking gun?”” Mr Ong wrote.
Mr Ong said the true definition of democracy was not upheld and said: “please spare us your long discourse on the apex institution of Singapore’s democracy and its attendant features. It rings hollow in my opinion”.
His views struck a chord with many netizens. Here is a sampling of their views:
