Unless you have been living under a rock, you probably have heard of Yang Yin, the 40-year-old former grassroots leader/tour-guide/tenant of a $30 million bungalow.

The Chinese national was arrested for taking advantage of an elderly Singaporean widow to gain access to her wealth worth $40 million.

So which constituency was Yang volunteering at? Ang Mo Kio GRC, where Intan Azura Mokhtar is the MP.

The Internet was abuzz at first with the fact that Yang was working at the grassroots in Ang Mo Kio GRC, and subsequently eyebrows were raised when Intan first said she did not know Yang was volunteering under her constituency. The brouhaha increased when some websites online alleged that Intan helped Yang gain his PR status.

After a week of silence, the seemingly reluctant politician has finally emerged to respond to the queries on her role in Yang's PR status.

Socio-political news site The Online Citizen have asked valid questions about Yang Yin's role in Intan's constituency.

Here we juxatapose four key TOC questions with Intan's reply in Straits Times:

1. TOC: "[T]his is where Ms Intan also needs to be more transparent – if she indeed made recommendations to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to support Mr Yang’s PR application"

Intan: "She [Madam Chung] first came to see me and sought my help in May 2011.. for her grandson."

2. TOC: "As such, an MP has a responsibility to make sure that who and what he or she is supporting is worthy and credible. It is thus not unreasonable for members of the public to question if Ms Intan was hoodwinked by Mr Yang into lending support to his PR application."

Intan: Madam Chung was "a resident of my constituency and a Singaporean. If Mr Yang had come to me, I wouldn't be able to help him because he's not a Singaporean".

3. TOC: "The question of due diligence is especially relevant because news reports say that Mr Yang’s neighbours had informed their MP of their concerns of Mr Yang’s behaviour in the neighbourhood earlier."

Intan: She received a piece of "feedback" on Mr Yang and forwarded to the authorities the same day.

4. TOC: "She (Intan) might also perhaps want to explain too how Mr Yang became a grassroots leader in a rather short period of time after being given his permanent residency “sometime after 2011”.

Intan: She considers all grassroots volunteers "grassroots leaders", reiterating that Mr Yang "did not hold a key position.. he was just an ordinary member".

Alright, we thank TOC for asking these questions online and for Intan in responding to the online questions offline. We also thank Intan for admitting that she does not know what "Internet hiding" is.

Anyway, Mothership.sg would like to provide four tips for future local politicians who may be facing such online controversies in future.

1. Not addressing the questions online is "Internet hiding".

This, ladies and gentlemen, is "Internet hiding".

Notice the eerie silence projected by Intan for not commenting on the barrage of questions? With that deafening silence, she single-handedly turn an innocuous kids reading event into a political one.

2. Making your personal Facebook page private is "hiding".

It is of course Intan's prerogative to make her own Facebook page private.

But to do so during this period? It gives people the perception that her preference is not to engage Singaporeans, even when speculations are spreading. This is unfair to her and her grassroots volunteers/leaders.

3. Do not delete comments from your Facebook page

In the Straits Times interview, Intan said that "the staff administering the site may have done so".

Maybe she can follow the FB house rules provided by her party leader?

Source: Lee Hsien Loong Facebook

I mean, why have a Facebook page when you don't respond or delete comments?

Might as well be off social media for good, just like Minister Lim Hng Kiang.

4. It shows when a ship is not run tightly

She said she considers all grassroots volunteers "grassroots leaders", reiterating that Mr Yang "did not hold a key position...he was just an ordinary member".

Did she just redefine the definition of 'Grassroots leaders' willy-nilly? Does this apply only to her constituency? What if her grassroots volunteers goes around claiming they are grassroots leaders when the rest of the population has a different definition?

Of course no one is accusing Intan of any “cover-up”.

But it speaks a lot about her appreciation of the work of her volunteers when she said she did not recognise Yang Yin when the media first put him in the spotlight. Yang was a volunteer in her constituency who, on several occasions, took photographs with her. Even if you don't know a volunteer by name, you should recognise his face. Intan apparently did not know either.

It also showed that Intan is not running a tight ship at her constituency. Her grassroots leaders on the ground either did not tell her that Yang was indeed a volunteer, or they gave her the wrong information, or worse, they did not even keep track of the people helping out at the constituency.

If Yang was a "phantom" volunteer who appeared only at important events, why was he accorded a position at all - by Intan's definition he would be a 'grassroots leader'?

It is important to be authentic.

As the MP of the constituency, she is the captain of the ship.

It is not cool for her to not recognise her own volunteers or let the public think that it is her volunteers' fault for deleting the comments on her own page.

Top photo from Intan Mohktar Facebook page.

 

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