Amid concerns by parliamentarians and the general public alike that Parliament may not be the best arena to settle the Oxley Road saga, PAP MP Janil Puthucheary has come under fire for saying that “our ability to talk about this in this House is a marker of our system working.”
Targeting Workers’ Party MP Pritam Singh who said earlier that Parliament is an inappropriate venue because MPs have not been able to bring up evidence for or against the allegations, Janil suggested that that is an indicator of a lack of evidence or lack of a problem as opposed to the House being an unsuitable forum.
7月3日 工人党议员毕丹星 Pritam Singh 说,他不认为国会辩论将能让这起事件有结果,而国会应该成立特别特选委员会来调查这起事件。http://bit.ly/2tArHWV
Posted by 8频道新闻新加坡 Channel 8 news on Monday, 3 July 2017
He then appeared to cast doubts about MPs from the opposition by emphasising that this reasoning is viable only under the assumption that opposition MPs have done their due diligence in trying to find a problem. By doing so, he failed to consider whether the original claim that the setting itself hampers the investigative process has credence, instead repeating that the allegations have no substance.
Janil then showed zealous support for the Prime Minister saying that he has “held himself up as an example. He’s set the bar very very high. He’s made it absolutely transparent what he expects of all of us.”
He added, “Recusal whenever there is a possibility of conflict of interest, removal of any benefit that you might accrue to yourself, (to) expose yourself to questioning, waiving of the parliamentary privilege – these are steps to deal with conflicts of interest, deal with possible abuses of power, and remove all possibility of conflict of interest, remove the possibility of an abuse of power. And yet all these mechanisms are now being criticised as markers of the exact opposite, it’s ridiculous.”
VIDEO: MP Janil Puthucheary says the ability to discuss 38 Oxley Road issue in Parliament is a “marker of our system working”.UPDATES: https://cna.asia/2ugtI8b
Posted by Channel NewsAsia on Monday, 3 July 2017
Netizens have flamed Janil for being a PAP Yes Man for his comments.