Singapore — NCMP Leong Mun Wai of Progress Singapore Party (PSP) had a Point of order called upon him in Parliament on Tuesday (Jan 11) when Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin told him to sit down and not ask his final question.
In parliamentary procedure, a point of order occurs when someone draws attention to a rules violation in a meeting of a deliberative assembly.
On Tuesday, when Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin called on Mr Leong to make a “personal explanation”, Mr Leong said: “Yesterday I attempted to get assurance from your good self that children in schools will not be vaccination differentiated.
“You may wish to know that, from ground feedback, that many distressed parents are still trying to get reassurance from you and your ministry and to be very clear on your position. I see it as my duty as a parliamentarian to bring their valid concerns to this house.”
His next sentence was interrupted by Mr 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 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”.
“The point I raised that some schools might have started practising VDS (vaccination-differentiated safe management measures) is based on a screenshot from a Telegram chat group SG Concerned Parents sent by a Facebook friend,” said Mr Leong. As he began to read out the “relevant messages”, Mr Tan again interrupted him and said: “Mr Leong, the question was about which school, where and so on. Do you have those details?”
“You’re going through the thing, the question which you said you would clarify, and the question was about which school so that the minister could follow up on the allegations that have been made. Or is it just a screenshot from some Telegram page?” said Mr Tan.
Mr Leong asked to be able to finish, but Mr Tan declined, “No, we’re asking you to substantiate, we’re giving you air time to substantiate what you said yesterday. So is that going to come out? Or you’re just going to repeat the screenshot?”
In response, Mr Leong said that the chat group where he got the screenshots from was publicly available, and therefore public information that the ministry could look into.
Indranee Rajah calls out Leong Mun Wai
Leader of the House Indranee Rajah then spoke and said: “As Leader of the House, I would like to issue some salutary advice to the learned member. I have in this House before spoken about the importance of being able to substantiate allegations that are made in this House. And we have seen what happens when members make allegations which cannot be substantiated or are irresponsible”.
“I wish to remind the member exactly what transpired yesterday. The member stood up and made an allegation that teachers in MOE (Ministry of Education) were practising vaccine-differentiated measures. It is an allegation, which is cast out there and besmirches teachers as a whole”, she added.
Speaker of the House interrupts Mr Leong multiple times, declines to hear his question
After she spoke, Mr Tan asked Mr Leong: “Is that point taken Mr Leong?”
Mr Leong responded by saying: “Speaker, thanks, can I ask the Minister -“, but he was interrupted by Mr Tan once again, who said: “I’m asking you whether that point was taken”.
When Mr Leong repeated that he had a question, Mr Tan once again emphasised his question and told Mr Leong, “if you have no response to that, you can sit down”.
“I noted that point, but can I ask my question?” said Mr Leong. To that, Mr Tan declined, “You have no questions, no, you have no question. Thank you. We are moving on”.
Mr Leong pushed, and was abruptly told by Mr Tan: “We are moving on, you can sit down”.
When Mr Leong still tried to ask his question again, Mr Tan called, “Order” and carried on to read the orders of the day while ignoring Mr Leong.
Pritam Singh steps in
Stepping in, Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh said: “Mr Speaker, can I just have some time to understand – ”
Mr Tan then said that it was a Point of Order. Mr Singh continued: “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”. Mr Singh wanted to clarify if Mr Leong had put in a standing order 25, and had written to the Speaker of Parliament about wanting to put in a personal explanation.
“I ask because when a personal explanation is made, understanding Order 25, you would actually receive the whole statement in full. So the assumption was when you mentioned personal explanation, you would have had sight of what Mr Leong was going to say”.
What Initially Happened
On Monday (Jan 10) in Parliament, Mr Leong said in a supplementary question to Minister for Education Chan Chun Sing that he had received feedback from residents that “some teachers have already practised” vaccination-differentiated safe management measures in schools.
To this, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing asked Mr Leong for further information on which schools and which VDS measures have been implemented.
Mr Leong replied: “The resident who has given feedback to me is on my WhatsApp messages (sic). Can I refer to the messages, and then I give a reply later? Thank you”.
Wanting to follow up on the matter, Mr Chan asked again if Mr Leong could provide the information on which teacher in which school practised VDS measures. /TISG
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Was Leong Mun Wai shut down in Parliament once again? We ask the Parliamentarian directly