Personal Explanation by Member

Mr Leong Mun Wai (Non-Constituency Member): Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity for me to respond to Minister Chan's query yesterday.

Dear Minister Chan, yesterday, I attempted to get assurance from your good self that children in schools will not be vaccination-differentiated. You may wish to know from ground feedback that many distressed parents are still trying to get reassurance from you and your Ministry, and to be very clear of your position. I see it as my duty as a parliamentarian to bring their valid concerns to this House. Yes, Minister Ong Ye Kung and yourself have given the assurance before —

Mr Leong, this is not to make another speech. You were meant to clarify the source of some of the feedback that you provided.

Yes, Mr Speaker, I will come to that very soon.

You will come to that, fairly immediately?

Yes.

Thank you.

In spite of that, I sought to get your commitment of a more definite scenario that Vaccinated-differentiation Safe Management Measures (VDS) will not be considered for children at least until non-mRNA vaccines are available for children, which you have avoided to answer directly.

Mr Leong, I am not going to repeat myself.

Yes, thank you.

You are here to clarify the source of the points that you made, not to make another speech.

Okay, yes. Point taken. The point I raised that some schools might have started practising VDS is based on a screenshot from a Telegram chatgroup, sgconcernedparents, sent by a Facebook friend. The relevant messages, among others, are as follows: one, "Depends on school; my niece came back crying, saying her teacher scolded her for being unvaxxed" —

Mr Leong, the question was about which school, where and so on. Do you have those details?

I am going through the thing.

No. You are going through the thing, the question, which you said you would clarify and the question was about which school so that the Minister could follow up on the allegation that you have made or is it just a screenshot from some Telegram page?

Mr Speaker, can you let me finish the —

No, we are asking you to substantiate. We are giving you airtime to substantiate what you said yesterday. So, is that going to come out? Or are you just going to repeat —

Okay, this information that I am going to say —

Or are you just going to repeat about the screenshot?

I am going to repeat about the screenshot.

Do you know the source? Which school and so on?

There is no mention of the school on the screenshot. But this is public information, on the public domain, sgconcernedparents, a chatgroup with close to 6,000 members. So, if the Ministry wants, they can contact the persons —

So, Mr Leong, there is no clarification from you therefore, is that right, as to which school and what specific circumstances?

I have clarified where the information comes from.

Which is from a Telegram page.

Yes.

You have no idea what the school was? You have not verified whether that was true or not and so on?

Yes, I want to clarify that that is where I got my information, yes.

Okay. Ms Indranee Rajah.

Mr Speaker, as Leader of the House, I would like to issue some salutary advice to the learned Member. I have, in this House before, spoken about the importance of being able to substantiate allegations that are made in this House and we have seen what happens when Members make allegations which cannot be substantiated or are irresponsible.

I wish to remind the Member exactly what transpired yesterday. The Member stood up and made an allegation that teachers in MOE were practising vaccination-differentiated measures. It is an allegation which is cast out there and besmirches teachers as a whole. Minister Chan Chun Sing stood up to ask for details of this allegation. And the reason why you provide details, if you are a responsible Member of Parliament, is because when you come to this Chamber and you are given a seat in this Chamber, you are expected to discharge your duties responsibly. When you make allegations against teachers and just cast it out there, you must be able to substantiate it.

And that is why Minister Chan asked, "Please provide me with the details of which school and which teacher so that the Ministry of Education can follow up."

What we have seen today is Mr Leong Mun Wai coming here firstly, to grandstand and make broad allegations or broad speeches that have no bearing whatsoever on the details that were requested of him. We have seen that when you, Mr Speaker, requested him to provide those details, he prevaricated and evaded. And now, finally, we discover that the details cannot be forthcoming because he is referring to a Telegram chat where there are no details at all.

So, I just wish to conclude by reminding Members that they are given the privilege of speaking in this Chamber and that privilege must be exercised responsibly. And I hope that that is something that the Member will bear in mind.

Is the point taken, Mr Leong?

Mr Speaker, thanks. Can I ask the Minister —

I am asking you whether that point is taken.

I want to ask one question.

I am asking you whether the point is taken. If you have no response to that, you can sit down. Thank you very much.

No, I note the point but I have my question. Can I ask —

No, you have no question. Thank you. We are moving on.

Mr Speaker —

We are moving on. You can sit down.

No, I want to ask what —

Order.

— then what is feedback?

We proceed to read the Orders of the Day and Notice of Motions.

Mr Speaker, can I have some time, please, to just understand. It is a point of order. I understand it started with a request for a Personal Explanation. Am I right to say that?

Mr Leong was asked to clarify the source of the points that he made.

So, he did not follow the —

Thank you for that. I asked because when a Personal Explanation is made under Standing Order 25, you would actually receive the whole statement in full. So, the assumption was when you mentioned "Personal Explanation", you would have had sight of what Mr Leong was going to say. That is the only reason I am asking the question.

The content really was with regard to the clarification that he was supposed to have made as to the source of the point that he made.