SINGAPORE: Speaking in Parliament on Aug 2, Indranee Rajah addressed Tan Chuan-Jin’s hot mic incident.
Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh asked Ms Rajah: “Would the leader be minded to refer that matter to the police to investigate, to inquire who released that video? Because, as Leader said, I don’t believe anybody in this house picked up that language.”
Leader of the House Indranee Rajah said she did not consider making the audio louder an offence that needed to be referred to the police.
Mr Singh said that the question was “the duration of time it took for that video to become public. I’m not sure whether the Leader considers there to be something suspicious about that. There is also the matter of what we came to know later of a long-running affair between Speaker and another MP, whether in total they are circumstances which the authorities should actually look into”.
In the case of the personality involved – the Speaker of the House, a very senior member of the government – whether there would be some thought placed on the circumstances of how that video came to be circulated in public. He added that individuals have approached him asking whether there is a “false flag” in the matter as well.
Ms Indranee said that she struggled with what she should refer to the police as “release of timing at a later stage is not per se an offence”. She then closed the matter.
On Jul 11, it was captured that Former Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin reacting to a speech by WP MP Jamus Lim in which he was heard using an expletive. Ms Rajah said it was not audible to members of Parliament at the time but circulated online three months after it was heard on the live stream. In her statement in Parliament, Ms Rajah said there were precedents on how unparliamentary language has been dealt with, and she read a statement from Tan Chuan-Jin in Parliament where he apologised and acknowledged his lapse. /TISG