Singapore — A week after telling Progress Singapore Party (PSP)’s NCMP Leong Mun Wai in Parliament to sit down and not ask his final question, House Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin shared a graphic on Facebook on Tuesday (Jan 18) explaining the rules for conduct in the House.
This was originally posted on Parliament of Singapore’s Facebook and Instagram accounts on the same day.
The Speaker called the graphic “a simple piece to help the public understand some of the rules governing the business in Parliament.”
The rules, he added, are put in place “so that we can be consistent, fair, allow business to proceed and provide time for more members to speak” and are not imposed merely for the sake of being restrictive.
Mr Tan also added that he has taken “a more expansive approach” allowing for more free-flowing debates, but this should not be taken as permission for anyone to follow their own will.
“If every member decides to speak and debate and question just because they feel like they ought to, it’d be chaotic and it would be inappropriate.
In these instances, when members are so denied that space to speak, it is because they have been out of order or there are no provisions for them to do so.”
When MPs cross boundaries, the Speaker said it’s his role to make sure that discipline and dignity are maintained in the House.
“I also expect members to be able to substantiate what they say in Parliament,” he added.
Mr Tan acknowledged that MPs have been “in most cases… responsible and matured in their behaviour and conduct,” and that he has hardly needed to enforce the rules of order.
“But if I need to be firm, I will not hesitate to do so. It’d certainly be remiss of me to do otherwise,” he wrote.
The PSP NCMP had a Point of Order called upon him in Parliament last week.
In parliamentary procedure, a point of order occurs when someone draws attention to a rules violation in a meeting of a deliberative assembly.
Mr Tan had called on Mr Leong to make a “personal explanation” of a point he had made the day before concerning children in schools not being subject to vaccination differentiation.
After the NCMP began to speak, he was interrupted by the Speaker Tan, who said, “Mr Leong, this is not to make another speech, you were meant to clarify, I think, the source of some of the feedback you provided.”
When Mr Leong responded that he would address it, Mr Tan replied: “You can come to that fairly immediately.”
As Mr Leong continued speaking, Mr Tan interrupted him again and said: “Mr Leong, I’m not going to repeat myself, you are here to clarify the source of the points that you made, not to repeat another speech”.
Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh later stepped in asking for clarification and was told by Mr Tan that it was a Point of Order.
Mr Singh then said, “I understand, it started with a request for a personal explanation”.
I understand it was on the basis of a personal explanation, which is how you introduced the subject which Mr Leong then started to speak about”. /TISG