Lord Michael Bates, Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom offered his resignation for arriving late to a session of the House of Lords. He explained that as a result of his tardiness, he was not “in [his] place to answer [a] question on a very important matter at the beginning of questions”.
Mysterious Disappearance of Mano Sabnani’s Facebook Post
A Facebook post by Chairman and CEO of Rafflesia Holdings Pte Ltd, Mano Sabnani, has mysteriously disappeared
The post, published on the 7th of March, was on the contrast between the behaviour of parliamentarians in the UK and Singapore. According to Sabnani, it received 350 reactions, 155 comments and was shared 650 times before it was mysteriously taken down two days later. It still remains unclear as to why or if Facebook took down the post.
Sabnani’s post compared British Minister, Lord Michael Bates and Singapore’s Member of Parliament (MP), Sylvia Lim.
He also added, “I’ve always believed that we should rise to the highest possible standards of courtesy and respect in responding on behalf of the government to the legitimate questions of the legislature”.
More than 50 MPs absent from yesterday’s Parliament
A quick count on the video screenshots found a disappointing 27 PAP MPs, or less than a quarter of the total 81 PAP MPs in Parliament. An estimated of more than 50 PAP MPs were missing in the Budget debate yesterday, along with 7 heavyweight Ministers including potential PM successors like Chan Chun Sing and Ong Ye Kung.
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More than 70 PAP MPs skip Parliament on Tuesday
According to a screenshot of a Parliament session on Tuesday (Jan 9), an estimated of more than 70 PAP MPs did not attend Parliament. Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam was the only senior Minister present, and none of the three Prime Minister runner-ups – Minister Chan Chun Sing, Minister Heng Swee Keat and Minister Ong Ye Kung – was present.
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Sattar Bawany is feeling disappointed at Parliament of Singapore 16 January
As I understand, one of a Member of Parliament's (MP) primary duties is to attend the sittings of the House whenever it is in session.
I am of the view that for an MP attending the Parliament is a crucial part of parliamentary democracy as they exercise the duties and responsibility of legislature in whole. As an individual, they are accountable to the constituency they represent and to the constituents or citizens that elected them in the first place.
Hence, from the recent Parliament Session on 9 January 2018 (see the screen grab below from MediaCorp Channel 8 News), I am highly disturbed to see the lack of presence of MPs during a Parliament session, unless of course, the MPs (including the political office holders including PM and his Cabinet) has other parliamentary or official commitments or constituency work or parliamentary functions to attend to.
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MPs absenteeism record for 20 Parliament sessions in 2017 so far
This article has been updated to include the full 20 Votes and Proceedings records of Parliament in 2017 so far. Previously, the article published on Aug. 7 only accounted for 10 latter sessions. A statement from the Press Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs has been included at the end of the article to clarify Minister K Shanmugam’s four-day absence from Parliament in March 2017.
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Netizens thank Sylvia Lim for standing up against “intimidation tactics” in Parliament
Lim faced off with Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam over the timing of the GST hike announcement. Lim had said earlier that the Government had floated “trial balloons” on a possible tax hike but possibly backed down after the public noted Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s comments in 2015 that the Government has enough revenue for the next decade.
Taking the opposition party chief to task, the Minister asked Lim to retract her statement: “Can I invite her to agree that this is a thoroughly hypocritical and dishonest statement and typical of the statements she makes in this House?” Lim responded: “I can understand why he wants to accuse me of various things because he probably was not happy about past debates where I had disagreed with some of his legislative changes and in typical fashion, he always accuses me of dishonesty when as far as I am concerned I’ve acted honestly.”
When pressed to withdraw her statement, Lim jumped up and asserted: “I clearly said that it was my suspicion…it’s my honest suspicion, am I not entitled to have a view?” She added: “This is what we as MPs have to do, to get better clarity on matters of public interest. Of course, the Government can rebut our speeches robustly – that’s fine. But I don’t think I’m disentitled to come to Parliament to advance honestly held beliefs or suspicions.”
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Distasteful clash over what should have been a sensible debate on GST hike
(In regards to the exchange between Minister of Law and Home Affairs, K Shanmugam and MP for Aljunied GRC, Sylvia Lim on 1 March) – My take as a Concerned Senior Citizen who has eaten more salt than any of the Members of Parliament.
t reinforces an already ugly perception of elitism, arrogance and rudeness that has been the hallmark of Senior Ministers, in particular K Shanmugam, Chan Chun Sing, Khaw Boon Wan, Dr Balakrishnan, who behave as if they are disciplinary school masters waving a cane, pointing fingers and picking on students they dislike (for little or no reason) in a publicly televised “classroom”.
They forget that people like Sylvia Lim are Elected Representatives of their constituency and act as the voice of the voters they represent. Is it so difficult to behave and act in a gracious, considerate and gentlemanly manner?
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Nine reasons why the Parliament refuses to stream its session live for public consumption
On Wednesday, we looked at what the Minister of State for Ministry of Communication and Information (MCI), Chee Hong Tat, got it wrong on his response on the videos available for the Parliamentary sittings in Singapore.
Thankfully, Gov.sg, the official FB page of the Singapore government corrected one of the points highlighted in the article that there were no videos on the Question and Answer segment of the sitting on Channel News Asia (CNA)'s microsite.
Several IB websites have used that to attack former Members of Parliament from Workers' Party but frankly, I didn't realise that the full recordings are now available as I have been asking since 2014 about the videos from CNA, Parliament and MCI, with no response on that matter.
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related:
#SG Budget 2018
Shanmugam and Sylvia: the Clash of the Nemesis
The 'GST Float Balloon' Saga
Budget 2018: A big sorry non-debate
MPs absenteeism in Parliament sessions
WP's arguments "pure theatrics with no substance, calculated to mislead"
Law to combat fake news to be introduced next year
"You're not going to get angels in power all the time"
Decision On Spore’s 1st Elected President Was Decided By Gov, Not AGC
No excuse for “bitter” Dr Tan CB to engage in “elaborate charades”
K Shanmugam says will continue engaging with online community
'Pervasive' lapses in WP town council
Town Councils Graded On Corporate Governance
From Gan Ng Phua to Shan
Sylvia Lim: "Is NEA Playing Politics?"
From Desmond Lawrence Sylvia to AHPETC
