‘The bar has fallen so low’: Academic raises concern as backlash against PAP rookie continues

SINGAPORE: An academic has questioned the quality of the ruling party’s latest batch of politicians following Senior Parliamentary Secretary Syed Harun Alhabsyi’s widely criticised performance in Parliament this week, reigniting public debate over the high salaries paid to political officeholders.

Dr Syed Harun led the debate on the Statutes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, which formally regularises certain fees and charges that had already been collected by four MND statutory boards over a period of years.

According to MND, the fees had previously been treated as administrative charges tied to services or enforcement actions, but an internal review later found that the fees should have been explicitly provided for in legislation.

Members of the Workers’ Party (WP) grilled Dr Syed Harun as they asked the Government to be transparent about the scale of the issue. When WP secretary-general Pritam Singh directly asked whether the Government had figures on the number of affected parties and the total amount collected, Dr Syed Harun admitted he did not have “the full number of the extent of the collective amount”.

The PAP MP was then seen pausing for an extended period while flipping through stacks of notes in an apparent attempt to locate the figures being requested. At one point, he appeared to make calculations on his phone while the chamber waited.

Eventually, Speaker Seah Kian Peng called on National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat to address the House directly after another lengthy pause while Dr Syed Harun searched through his documents.

The intervention was viewed by some observers online as an attempt to rescue the junior officeholder.

Mr Chee acknowledged that his colleague was “struggling a little bit to look for the exact information” as the ministry might not have the “full, accurate record of all the amounts collected” to share “precisely”.

Clips of the exchange quickly circulated across social media platforms, where many Singaporeans criticised Dr Syed Harun’s apparent lack of preparedness.

Some netizens mockingly referred to him as “Mr Integrity,” in reference to an earlier parliamentary exchange with WP chair Sylvia Lim.

Earlier this year, Ms Lim had accused Dr Syed Harun of “pontificating” about integrity and questioned his own position after he resigned as a supposedly non-partisan Nominated Member of Parliament before contesting the 2025 General Election under the PAP banner.

Amid the online criticism, Assistant Professor Abdul Raoof weighed in with a strongly worded post questioning whether the incident reflected a broader decline in the calibre of PAP politicians.

Calling Dr Syed Harun’s parliamentary showing “maladroit”, the academic contrasted the incident with the performances of Singapore’s first-generation leaders.

“Go back to the 1st Gen. When Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Keng Swee, or S. Rajaratnam stood up in that chamber, they came armed with facts, figures, and fierce preparation,” he wrote. They didn’t need a calculator to tell you what they collected from citizens. They didn’t search for records that ‘might not exist.’ They respected the House and the people enough to come ready.”

Asst Prof Raoof also aimed the salaries paid to political officeholders, noting that a Senior Parliamentary Secretary earns more than half a million dollars annually.

“Today, a Senior Parliamentary Secretary draws a salary of over half a million dollars, paid for by your taxes and mine. Yet that same person stands before Parliament, completely unprepared, unable to answer the most basic question about money taken from Singaporeans,” he wrote.

He further criticised the PAP’s parliamentary dominance, pointing out that the bill was passed despite unanswered questions over the fees collected.

“A handful of voters still think the opposition ‘can’t match’ this. Match what? A fumbling, blank-cheque culture that doesn’t even keep proper records?” he asked.

The academic asserted, “The bar has fallen so low, you’d need a shovel to find it. And you’re still paying half a million a year for the privilege of watching them dig.”

Asst Prof Raoof concluded his post by arguing that the opposition plays an essential role in holding the Government accountable, “Think about that the next time someone tells you the Workers’ Party isn’t good enough … because without them, nobody would be asking a single question.”