Tan Cheng Bock slams choice of Parliament as venue to settle Lee family dispute

Better to take it to court.

Belmont Lay | June 20, 2017, 12:40 PM

Ex-PAP member of parliament and presidential hopeful Tan Cheng Bock has hit out at the choice of using Parliament as the venue for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to shed light and clarify issues related to the Lee family feud.

Tan's opposition lies with the fact that going to court would allow all sides to be heard, whereas in parliament, MPs cannot ask the right questions without the full facts on hand.

This is his post:

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This is what he wrote:

Parliament is not the right place to settle family disputes.It is an institution to make laws and debate national issues.Family disputes should be settled in courts.In parliament MPs have no details of the case and only hear PM telling his side of the case.Wrong platform.

Tan, who was the MP for Ayer Rajah, was known to speak out in the past and for his independent take on issues.

In May 1992, he was the sole voice of dissent as he said “no” when the House debated whether it should have Nominated MPs, on the rare occasion the Party Whip was lifted.

“The Prime Minister (Goh Chok Tong) has kept his word. He knew that some of us had very fundamental reservations on this. He respected our views and introduced a clause allowing future Parliaments a say on whether we want Nominated MPs or not. And as he said, he is prepared to lift the Whip. These are very generous concessions.

His generosity and personal style make it more painful for me to vote against. But my own feeling on this fundamental democratic principle of having only elected Members of Parliament in this House is too strong to be compromised….

I cannot support this motion.”

 

Related articles:

PM Lee lifting Party Whip to ensure full airing of family tussle. That’s a rarity.

5 observations from PM Lee’s rare 3 min 40 sec public apology

 

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