Singaporeans weigh morality in politics as adultery and corruption sagas ‘blow up’
- Ordinary Singaporeans have been hit with whiplash by the week’s events, in a political culture built around ‘heroic personalities’
- But can a romantic affair really be equated with a high-profile corruption probe to prove standards of probity in the country’s politics have slipped?
The PAP’s top rival, the Workers’ Party (WP), also suddenly found itself in the climate of intrigue when on Monday a video surfaced of popular MP Leon Perera and youth wing chair Nicole Seah – both married with children – appearing to behave in an intimate manner.
Ordinary Singaporeans, too, have been trying to make sense of the week of political whiplash.
Gary Haris, a 48-year-old business development manager, said recent events had him questioning if Singapore was headed down the path of some of its Southeast Asian neighbours, where government sleaze and scandal are par for the course. “We do not want that to happen to Singapore one day,” he said.
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Singapore’s political scandal deepens as 2 MPs resign amid separate high-profile corruption probe
False equivalence?
Others argued that equating the high-profile corruption investigation of Minister Iswaran with this week’s resignations encouraged misleading chatter about a sudden, drastic decline in the country’s political integrity.
Both men were arrested and were released on bail pending investigations, with the prime minister instructing Iswaran to take a leave of absence from official duties.
“I wasn’t expecting so many scandals to blow up concurrently, but across all the different events the corruption probe is much more concerning,” said Sim Kwang Wei, a start-up founder, 32. “The other personal issues are just good for lunchtime gossip but beyond that, I don’t think there’s any real detriment.”
The orthodoxy remains, however, that the political establishment should not turn a blind eye to peccadilloes within its ranks – even if the consequences are not as severe as that for corruption or other criminal wrongdoing.
Prime Minister Lee, who held a press conference with local media editors to announce the resignations of Cheng and Tan, said it was “completely inappropriate” for a parliamentary speaker to have an affair with an MP.
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WP chief Singh, meanwhile, said it was Perera and Seah’s decision to lie when they were first asked by senior party officials about their affair some time after 2020 that was egregious.
Jusmin Tan, 38, said it was important to note that the politicians in question were “not people holding regular jobs or working in the private sector”.
“They are the face of Singapore and these are the people we look to [for leadership],” said Tan, who works in marketing.
Chong Ja Ian, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, suggested this attitude was down to a political culture entrenched by the late Lee Kuan Yew and his peers.
I wasn’t expecting so many scandals to blow up concurrently, but across all the different events the corruption probe is much more concerning
Lee is widely credited for the PAP’s insistence that everyone within its ranks needed to be not just incorruptible, but also morally unimpeachable.
In the last decade, two other PAP MPs, Michael Palmer and David Ong, have resigned over extramarital affairs. Yaw Shin Leong, a WP MP, also resigned.
Chong said a political culture built around “heroic personalities who embody every virtue people aspire toward” was incongruent with the reality that politicians are not immune to human frailty.
As a result, “there is perhaps an unwillingness to listen, learn and empathise before judging” in the case of extramarital affairs or other such personal indiscretions, he said.
Sociologist Tan Ern Ser said the prevailing attitude towards the family as the country’s core social institution also accounted for why the affairs were seen as serious transgressions.
“Given the importance of the family as a key pillar in our society, there is every reason to expect elected officials to uphold family values and honour their wedding vows,” he said.
Other observers suggested that attitudes may yet shift.
“It would also seem that the boundaries around corrupt practices are encased in stone; but the boundaries around personal morality may shift over the years, especially as a new generation of Singaporeans comes of age,” wrote veteran Straits Times columnist Chua Mui Hoong.
Attention is expected to next shift to how both sides handled misdeeds within their ranks.
On social media, there has been criticism of both Prime Minister Lee and WP chief Singh for not taking firmer action against the transgressing MPs from their camps when they first got word of the respective affairs.
Both affairs are alleged to have taken place during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prime Minister Lee had sought to counsel Tan and Cheng to end their relationship – having first been told about it after a general election in 2020. He said both failed to heed his direction to end the affair when they last spoke in February.
In WP’s case, Singh and other party leaders questioned Perera and Seah after hearing allegations of their affair from Perera’s driver, but the matter was dropped following denials.
Singh and Lee are likely to face questions over the matter when parliament next convenes in August.
“I can see that both the PAP and WP are trying to manage these personal issues and human failures, which are bound to happen though are not institutionally condoned … but people still want a swift response,” said political observer Zulkifli Baharudin.
