Progress Singapore Party's (PSP) Leong Mun Wai expressed his support for Workers' Party (WP) Secretary-General Pritam Singh who was charged in court on Mar. 19.

Singh faces two charges under the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act.

He allegedly lied while under oath before the Committee of Privileges when it was looking into a lying controversy involving former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan.

In a Facebook post on Mar. 19, Leong said he will support Singh as "he continues to serve Singaporeans as Leader of the Opposition".

He wished Singh all the best as the latter "seeks to clear his name in court".

Clarified his stance

In the comments section, some Facebook users claimed that Leong was exercising "double standards".

Last September, he and fellow Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Hazel Poa filed a motion for Parliament to suspend former Minister for Transport S. Iswaran as a Member of Parliament (MP) when the latter was being investigated for corruption.

Leong responded to the Facebook comments on Mar. 20, clarifying that the PSP's stance is that an MP or minister under investigation for corruption and who is suspended from official duties should be placed on no-pay leave until the investigation or criminal case is concluded.

Leong pointed out that Singh has not been charged with corruption. Neither has he been suspended from his official duties by the Workers' Party.

"If the MP or minister subsequently resumes their official duties after being cleared by the investigation or criminal case, they should be entitled to full back-pay for the period during which they were on leave of absence."

PSP's motion to suspend Iswaran

Poa announced on Sep. 8, 2023, that she filed a motion for Parliament to suspend Iswaran from his MP duties.

At that time, Iswaran was still an MP with West Coast GRC but did not undertake any MP duties while the CPIB probe was ongoing.

He also received his MP allowance of S$192,500 a year while he was under investigation.

The motion was rejected in Parliament on Sep. 10, 2023, with all WP and People's Action Party (PAP) MPs voting against Poa's motion.

The PAP and WP MPs voted for the Leader of the House Indranee Rajah's motion, which asked for Parliament to:

1. Affirm the need for Members of Parliament to uphold the highest standards of integrity and conduct themselves in accordance with the law;
2. Affirm the need to deal firmly and fairly with any Member of Parliament who is being investigated for possible wrongdoing; and
3. Resolve to consider the matter regarding Member of Parliament S Iswaran when the outcome of the ongoing investigations against him is known.

When speaking on her motion, Indranee questioned the principles that led Poa to propose suspending Iswaran "at this point of time".

If it's because of Iswaran's CPIB probe, Indranee asked if Poa's proposal should cover "all MPs being investigated".

She pointed out that other than Iswaran, Singh and WP vice-chairman Faisal Manap had been referred to the public prosecutor following the Committee of Privileges' report on former WP MP Raeesah Khan.

@mothershipsg Indranee: "If not, then why not?" #sgnews #tiktoksg #sgparliament ♬ original sound - Mothership

Iswaran was subsequently charged with corruption on Jan. 18, 2024, and has since resigned as the Minister for Transport, MP and PAP member.

PAP not seeking to suspend Singh

On Mar. 19, the PAP's Organising Secretary Grace Fu said that PAP MPs "will not be seeking Mr Singh's suspension as an MP while legal proceedings are pending".

"This is in line with Parliament’s resolution to defer any sanctions in respect of Mr Singh’s, Ms Sylvia Lim’s, and Mr Faisal’s respective roles in the matter of former MP Raeesah Khan’s untruth, until after the conclusion of the investigations and criminal proceedings (if any) against Mr Singh."

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Top photos via Leong Mun Wai/Facebook & MCI/YouTube