Tan Chuan-Jin Apologises For Using Unparliamentary Language, Says It Was His ‘Private Thoughts’

Speaker Of Parliament Tan Chuan Jin-Apologises For Language Used In April Sitting

On Tuesday (11 July) morning, Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin released an apology on Facebook for an incident that occurred in April this year.

He had apparently made an inappropriate remark during a parliamentary sitting.

Clips of the incident have since circulated on social media sites such as Reddit and Instagram.

Based on the videos, it sounds like the speaker had muttered “f**king populist” under his breath after Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim’s speech.

Tan Chuan-Jin apologises for inappropriate language in parliament

In his post, Mr Tan acknowledged the existence of the recording. However, he said that he “did not recall the occasion”.

He then put forth that he had a “reaction” to the speech made in Parliament.

The speaker shared that, “like everyone”, he forms views to the speeches he hears and that what he said were his “private thoughts”.

That said, he acknowledged that he shouldn’t have said them out loud or in “unparliamentary language” and apologised for doing so.

He then shared that he has also extended an apology to Associate Professor Jamus Lim regarding the transgression.

Used unparliamentary language in April

Channel NewsAsia (CNA) reported that a Reddit user pointed out the Speaker’s reported slip-up.

In the post on the Singapore subreddit, the user attached a video of a parliamentary sitting from 17 Apr 2023.

The clip starts with the ending notes of Assoc Prof Lim’s speech before the speaker called for PAP and Sembawang MP Vikram Nair.

After which, a voice could be heard muttering the phrase “f**king populist”.

According to Mr Tan’s Facebook post, Assoc Prof Lim has “kindly accepted” his apology.

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Featured image adapted from Tan Chuan-Jin on Facebook and MCI Singapore on YouTube.