In a Ministerial statement today (2 Aug) Prime Minister (PM) Lee Hsien Loong admitted that he should’ve acted sooner on the affair between former Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin and Tampines MP Cheng Li Hui.
Source: MCI Singapore on YouTube
The PM made the confession in response to questions about why he took two years to address the matter between the former PAP members.
In Parliament on Wednesday (2 Aug), PM Lee admitted that, in retrospect, he should’ve “forced the issue sooner” — referring to his call for former PAP MPs Tan Chuan-Jin and Cheng Li Hui to end their affair.
Following news of the affair, members of the public asked why PM Lee took two years to act on it. He acknowledged their queries, which he said were “fair”.
Explaining why he took some time, the PM said that he intended to allow the former MPs to leave their posts subtly, with their family’s wellbeing in mind.
Unfortunately, he realised in hindsight that he may have placed “too much” weight on protecting the innocent parties — the MPs’ families — and agreed that he should’ve acted sooner.
Nevertheless, PM Lee pointed out that such scandals had happened in the past. He also expects similar incidents to happen in the future.
In dealing with such scandals, he said that the PAP has a “long-standing” practice dating back to the days of Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
Factors the PAP takes into consideration for such cases include:
Pointing to the Workers’ Party members who resigned under similar circumstances, PM lee noted that their innocent family members are suffering too.
Therefore, with such considerations in mind, he made the decisions accordingly.
After Mr Tan promised to end the affair in Nov 2020, PM Lee took his word for it. He thus felt that there was time to decide the subsequent steps.
Had the affair stopped, he would’ve asked Mr Tan to relinquish his Speaker role. This would have happened before the end of his term, to reduce shame on his family.
Now that the affair has come to light, he hopes for empathy and compassion for the families. During this period, he appeals for privacy and space for them to heal.
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Featured image adapted from MCI Singapore on YouTube.
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