Singapore leader-in-waiting Heng Swee Keat turns heat up on opposition over financial scandal as polls loom

Singapore’s prime minister-designate Heng Swee Keat on Tuesday delivered a withering attack on the country’s sole opposition party over a financial scandal involving the mismanagement of S$33.7 million (US$24.8 million) in municipal funds.

Heng, employing a tried and tested strategy from the playbook of his ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), kicked off a four-hour parliamentary debate by urging the rival Workers’ Party (WP) to “take action” against “dishonest conduct” within its ranks.

His highly charged comments came almost a month after Singapore’s High Court ruled that the WP’s top three leaders – Pritam Singh, Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim – were liable for damages in a civil lawsuit over the handling of the money.

The amount the trio will have to hand over has yet to be decided, and court dates for the second stage of their trial have not been made public.

The scandal is likely to cloud the WP’s prospects ahead of Singapore’s next general election, which under the law must take place before April 2021 and is expected to be called next year.

The high-profile case has dominated political discussion in the Lion City, with some PAP critics questioning what effect the case will have on the WP’s poll performance, and whether the heavyweights found liable will even be eligible to stand as candidates.

“They have not apologised for the shortcomings that the courts – and before the courts, the AGO [Auditor General’s Office] and KPMG – have established,” Heng said. “They have not accounted for their dishonesties and untruths.”

Heng, who is currently Singapore’s finance minister, added: “Nor have they said whether they intend to put right the many wrongs that the court has uncovered, and if so, how.”

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He then went on to move a parliamentary motion that called on opposition leaders Lim and Low to recuse themselves from all financial matters at the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council, at which Lim is vice-chairman.

The motion was passed with the support of 52 MPs and nine against, with two abstentions.

In response, Lim, the WP’s chairwoman, said she and co-defendants Pritam and Low had reviewed the court judgment and would appeal.

WP leader Pritam described the motion as “hurried and premature”.

But Heng said he had moved the motion because “integrity is of the utmost importance in elected officials”.

He said: “All that this house is asking is for Ms Sylvia Lim and Mr Low Thia Khiang to recuse themselves from dealing with or having oversight over financial matters until the court case is concluded.

“If nothing is done from now until the appeal is concluded, we will be forced to conclude that the Workers’ Party, by its inaction, in fact endorses the dishonest conduct and the breach of the fiduciary duties that has already occurred, and is complicit in the wrongdoing.”

During his speech, Heng took several questions from Lim and fellow WP parliamentarian Png Eng Huat but midway sought an adjournment from the speaker of the house to deliberate before responding further. After the break, minister of state for law Edwin Tong stepped in to respond to the remaining questions, local media reported.

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The ruling party’s latest salvo is in line with analysts’ predictions that the financial saga would be used as a tactic to discredit the opposition.

The PAP, which has dominated the country’s political landscape since it came to power in 1959 elections, has been accused of stifling dissent and limiting the space for opposition parties. However, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last year that opposition parties kept Singapore politics “contestable”. The Lion City’s leader also said the PAP did not have “a monopoly of power” or the right to rule the nation indefinitely.

Heng, who is expected to take over from Lee sometime after the impending polls, pulled no punches during his hour-long speech, at one point asking: “Will they at long last be conducting their own investigation? Or will they continue to duck, dodge and deny?”