Foreign Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam developed a man-crush on Opposition MP Chen Show Mao yesterday.

In his stinging rebuke to Workers' Party (WP) over the lapses uncovered by the Auditor-General's Office in its audit of the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council's (AHPETC) accounts, Minister Shanmugam mentioned Chen ten times.

This is a bit strange because WP MPs Sylvia Lim and Png Eng Huat are the Chairman and Vice-chairman of the AHPETC.

Not Chen.

Below is an excerpt of the Minister's speech where Chen was mentioned:

1st and 2nd mentions:

"I heard with some interest Mr Chen (Show Mao), who has considerable experience, saying there are no standards. I think Mr Chen has overlooked the FRS (Financial Reporting Standards). The FRS sets out what ought to be disclosed. The only difference is that Aljunied acted in breach of the FRS. Everybody else complied with the FRS".

3rd mention:

"The wife was then approving, on behalf of the Town Council, the cheques for payment to their own companies; and the husband was then signing the Town Council cheques, for payments to themselves. I think Mr Chen will accept this is unacceptable. You don’t need an FRS to know this is contrary to the law"

4th mention:

That was in breach of the Singapore Financial Reporting Standards. Again Mr Chen, the rules are all there, you just need to comply with them.

5th, 6th, 7th and 8th mentions:

"[I] is now time for each Town Councillor to come clean before this Parliament, and before the people of Singapore.

Mr Chen Show Mao

Let me start with Mr Chen. Mr Chen has said that they will take a “rational and responsible approach” to Town Council management, with the interests of the residents “high” on their minds.

Mr Chen should tell us:

(1) Did you know that Loh, Ms How and Yeo owned FMSS and FMSI?

If you did, when did you know?

(2) Why was there no discussion at the Town Council of their ownership of these companies?

And why is there no record in the Minutes of any such discussion?

(3) Did you know that Loh, Ms How and Yeo were going to be allowed to supervise themselves and pay themselves as set out in Annex 1? Did you know the process?

(4) Did you know that the amounts involved ran into millions of dollars?

9th mention

"Mr Chen: as a lawyer, you will know: every Town Councillor owes fiduciary duties. And you know what fiduciary duties mean.

It will be a gross breach of those fiduciary duties to have allowed Loh, Ms How and Yeo to act as they did."

10th mention

"Mr Chen: Now that all these details are out – what are you going to do? How are you going to explain to your residents?"

Maybe Minister Shanmugam is following the advice of Mr Lee Kuan Yew?

In his latest book, One Man’s View of the World, Lee said that “Chen, however, has not turned out to be so brilliant. In Parliament, he makes good prepared speeches, with a written script, but in the follow-up, he is all over the place.”

Judging from his recent parliamentary performance, WP's star candidate has now appeared as its weakest link.

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