SINGAPORE - A post containing a video on the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) Facebook page was taken down, and an apology issued by the party on Thursday night, two hours after Leader of the House Indranee Rajah had said they were in breach of parliamentary rules.
In Parliament, PSP secretary-general Leong Mun Wai was given a 10pm deadline on Thursday to remove the post and video, which had been edited after Ms Indranee had first taken an issue with it on Wednesday.
A day later, Ms Indranee said the post was still unsatisfactory.
She had said that if he did not comply, the matter would have to be referred to Parliament’s Committee of Privileges, which looks into any complaint alleging breaches of parliamentary privilege.
On Wednesday, Ms Indranee had said the video gave the impression that Mr Leong was not allowed to ask questions, after the House heard ministerial statements on Monday on the rental of two black-and-white state bungalows at 26 and 31 Ridout Road by Law Minister K. Shanmugam and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.
She highlighted some of the edits to the post and video on Thursday.
These included text that was superimposed on the video saying that the Deputy Speaker reminded Mr Leong he should not start a debate during a ministerial statement, after Mr Leong urged the Deputy Speaker not to end the debate early because it was an important topic.
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Ms Indranee said while most MPs know that there are debates for motions tabled in Parliament, and clarifications for ministerial statements, members of the public may not appreciate the difference.
She said: “Therefore, to suggest that a debate was not allowed, without explaining the context, without clarifying that it was actually incorrect to call for a debate... creates a misleading or false impression that issues could not be ventilated and that (the Deputy Speaker) actually shut down the questions by Mr Leong and other members on a topic that was of some importance.”
Ms Indranee then asked what the intention for highlighting this could be.
She said: “Why out of the 10 other interventions that Mr Leong made, you would highlight this particular section and that particular quote without giving the context, knowing full well that public could be misled?
“There’s only one reasonable conclusion, which is that it was intended to cast aspersions on the manner in which parliamentary proceedings were conducted, and to suggest that the Deputy Speaker was not carrying out his duties neutrally or fairly or in a proper manner.”
In a post on PSP’s Facebook page three minutes before the deadline on Thursday, Mr Leong and the party apologised for the video and the post, saying it created a misleading impression about the proceedings in Parliament on Monday.
It said: “We accept that through our two videos, we have given the impression that no debate was allowed (even though it was we who did not file a Motion for debate). We also accept that this is misleading.
“Our two videos are also misleading because they give the impression that Mr Leong was not given the time to ask the questions that he wanted to, when in fact he was given the time to ask all his questions, and he did ask all his questions.”
Another issue highlighted by Ms Indranee on Wednesday was part of the post which had said: “What some online commenters are calling another ‘sia suay’ (embarrassing) moment.”
The caption was edited to state that the ‘sia suay’ moment the online commenters were calling was by Mr Leong – something which the Non-Constituency MP had also highlighted in Parliament on Wednesday.
Noting this, Ms Indranee said this was less of an issue and added: “I find that odd that it would have referred to him even in the original video because what political party puts up a video referring to its own secretary-general as ‘sia suay’, understanding and knowing the kind of memes and labels that it would generate following that.
“But be that as it may, it would appear that PSP and Mr Leong have embraced this label.”
Mr Leong responded by saying that PSP never intended to impugn or defame anybody and that he was not in contempt of Parliament.
While noting Ms Indranee’s point about the misimpression that the video could create, he said “we cannot be perfectly sure how the viewers will view the video”.
He added: “We should be entitled to a different view... We should not be forced to present only the view that you want to present. This is a democratic Parliament, not a rubber stamp Parliament.”
He asked Ms Indranee if there was a need to apologise if PSP were to take down the video, saying that the party neither said wrong facts nor impugned anybody.
She said yes, explaining that the parliamentary privileges and the conduct of Parliament are important things that underpin Singapore’s democracy.
She said: “(The) rules are there for a reason. And the reason is that for any democracy to function properly, it must function on the basis of a Parliament that it can trust. And it must function on the basis that the Members of Parliament and their political parties will speak truthfully to people and give accurate representations of what happened in Parliament.
“Because that determines the kind of society we are. And if you are a political party which has misrepresented what has happened in Parliament – which is a direct strike at the values that underpin this Parliament – then you should apologise because it’s not the right thing to do.”
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.