Personal Explanation by Member

Personal Explanation. Mr Leong Mun Wai.

Speaker, thank you for giving me this opportunity to make this Personal Explanation.

At yesterday's MOM COS, I was hoping to ask the Manpower Minister a very important point about the displacement of Singaporean PMEs. It was not my intent to impugn the Speaker or the Parliamentary processes. But in my social media post, I was trying to highlight that some amount of discretion and flexibility with the Standing Orders will go a long way in enhancing our discussion in this House.

But, today, I would like to sincerely and unreservedly apologise to the Speaker and this House for my Facebook comments of 12.52 pm and 12.53 pm on 7 March 2022, and the video I posted at 6.55 pm on 7 March 2022, and the statements therein which impugned the Speaker and the processes of Parliament.

I have taken the post down at 5.30 pm today. I withdraw what I said in them and undertake not to repeat such words again. I acknowledge that I had not set out all the facts in my post and thus, gave a misleading impression.

Deputy Leader.

Mr Speaker, Parliament is the place for us to debate important issues that affect Singapore and Singaporeans. We have, in this House, developed a set of procedures and practices to guide us on how we are to do this in an effective and efficient manner.

In other jurisdictions, there are examples where we see such procedural rules and how they are used to prevent or frustrate the government of the day from carrying out its proper functions. It would be completely contrary to our interests for this to occur in this House. The rules have been designed and finetuned over the years and have worked in ensuring that important issues to us are brought up before the House and robustly debated, while allowing business to be completed without undue delay.

Mr Leong Mun Wai himself should acknowledge this. We had a long debate on the Motions on the topic of Singaporeans' jobs and our foreign talent policy just six months ago, which we spent hours debating here.

In this year's COS, more than 600 cuts were filed and we are looking at more than 50 hours of debate. So, I do not think anyone can reasonably say the Budget was not extensively debated. There are also avenues for issues to be raised in subsequent Sittings.

So, I would, therefore, hope that Members would bear this in mind and remember that we are all representatives of this House and we should resist any attempt to lower the standing or dignity of this House.

We all play a part in ensuring that robust debate can take place here and that Parliament remains a trusted and respected institution, where issues can be raised fairly and can be scrutinised by the public. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I accept the apology.