Yesterday afternoon in parliament was not just a Low Thia Khiang show.

Besides Low, four Workers' Party (WP) parliamentarians also spoke up in parliament, asking some hard questions on issues related to conflict of interests and seeking reasons on why PM Lee is not adopting the court as a platform to resolve the dispute.

Perhaps they were responding to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's call to ask more specific questions. In PM Lee's speech, he noted that the questions by WP MPs were "general" and urged them to raise "specific allegations or facts about any wrongdoing or impropriety" if they come across such allegations.

Here are the summaries of their speeches:

1. WP Chairman Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC) - "Defend our organs of state, before it’s too late"

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- Lim noted that the Lee siblings have stated that they "feared the use of the Organs of State against them" by PM Lee Hsien Loong, saying that the charges are "serious and deeply troubling".

- Lim urged Singaporeans to "protect the Organs of State as professional bodies with a national mission". Lim highlighted the example of the Attorney-General’s Chambers. The AGC is the principal legal adviser to the Government, and plays an important role in upholding the rule of law in Singapore.

- Lim noted that "past Law Ministers had expressly endorsed the need for there to be distance between the government and the AGC". She cited former Law Minister Professor S Jayakumar's quote in the AGC's 150th Anniversary as an example. As a Minister of State for Law in 1981 who was given an office located at the AGC, Jayakumar said, 'I told the then Attorney-General Tan Boon Teik that it was not proper for a minister of state for law to be housed in the AGC because it would raise all sorts of questions about the AGC’s autonomy'.

- Lim said that it was "well-known" that the current AG (Lucien Wong) had been a senior partner in the same firm as the Law Minister (K Shanmugam) for a long time, adding that "they probably understand each other intimately". She said that she "now learn from the Lee siblings that the AG also happened to be PM Lee’s personal lawyer, and that he had advised the PM specifically on the matters relating to the Lee estate".

- Lim is concerned about the conflict of interest between the AGC and the Oxley Road saga. She said that while there is no legal prohibition on appointing the government’s close friends and former party comrades as the AG or Deputy AG, she wondered whether these appointments will instill public confidence from a system point of view if the AGC will act independently in matters where the government or the PM has an interest in the outcomes.

2. WP Assistant Secretary General Pritam Singh (Aljunied GRC) "Singapore’s Political Culture and Allegations of Abuse of Power by the Prime Minister in the matter of 38 Oxley Road"

- Pritam said that Singapore has a "back up your allegations (against the government) or be sued" political culture. He said that the anomaly for the Oxley Road saga is in the "decision taken by the Prime Minister not to sue in spite of serious allegations of abuse of power, much to the surprise of many Singaporeans".

- Pritam used the 1996 Hotel Properties Limited saga as a reference point, where allegations were made against key government leaders for unfairly receiving discounts in their purchase of properties from the developer HPL. He felt that the parties involved should find a way (using the media/press conferences or going to court) to clear the air. In the current case, Pritam felt that Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Wei Ling were not fully heard in parliament.

- Pritam said that "Parliament can be a platform to look into and address the matter, but the choice of the appropriate Parliamentary forum is crucial".

- Pritam's proposal is to appoint a Select Committee of Parliament to investigate.

3. Png Eng Huat (Hougang SMC) - "Debate on PM, DPM Statements"

- Png questions why the ministers were taking sides in a private dispute on a house that is still legally in the hands of a private individual. He added that one can infer from the tone set by these ministers that the government is tending towards the option of preserving the house.

- Png argued that "the fate of the house is really a family affair and it should not be outsourced to the government to decide". He concluded that he did not support the effort or intention of the government to gazette 38 Oxley Road for whatever reason.

- Like Lim, Png asked about the commercial relationship between Lucien Wong and PM, before Wong became the AG. Png also asked whether there were safeguards to prevent family members of government leaders from abusing their positions of influence in their engagement with the Civil Service.

4. Leon Perera (NCMP) - "Abuse of Power: Debate on PM, DPM Statements"

- Perera said that the "abuse of power and the integrity of our public institutions are serious issues" and "the crux of the matter", "not the house, not the will, not the affairs of one family".

- He said that DPM Teo Chee Hean mentioned that the Ministerial Committee on No 38 Oxley Road was convened to explore options. Perera asked why the established channels were not used in this case, since "there is an established process for gazetting a building as a national monument".

- Perera concluded by "suggesting a Parliamentary Select Committee process with televised hearings on the issues of abuse of power, or some other form of public, interrogative fact-finding with the accusers present, to finally put this matter to bed".

Top photo is a photo collage taken from gov.sg.