Leong Mun Wai, Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP), clarified that a recent remark he made on a podcast was not intended to cast aspersions on the impartiality of the Speaker of Parliament.

Instead, his remark was intended to be a "tongue-in-cheek" and "light-hearted" comment, Leong said in a Facebook post on Jun. 25, 2024.

Leong, the former Secretary-General of the Progress Singapore Party, made a guest appearance on the "Yah Lah But" podcast, which was shared on May 14.

Near the beginning of the episode, host Haresh said, "I mean, at least for [the debates] that we were there, whenever the Speaker says, okay, any questions, you're one of the first to put your hands up."

After chuckling for a while, Leong responded, "And one of the last to be called."

You can view the exchange here:

&t=98s

Did not mean to question impartiality

In his Facebook post, Leong said that Speaker Seah Kian Peng has since brought to his attention that his quip "may be construed as casting aspersions on [the Speaker's] impartiality in calling MPs".

Leong explained:

"I would like to clarify that my comment was a tongue-in-cheek response to Haresh’s comment (“one of the first to put your hands up” and “one of the last to be called”), a response that was meant to be a light-hearted one made at the start of the interview to lighten the mood in the context of a podcast.

This was in no way meant to be a comment on Speaker’s impartiality.

Speaker has, on various occasions, called me ahead of other members."

You can see his full post here:

Previous debate over the role of the Speaker

Previously in 2023, the PSP filed a motion for an "independent and impartial Speaker", following a hot mic incident involving former Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin.

In his speech, Leong proposed having a "non-partisan" Speaker, or at least someone not from the ruling party's core leadership, i.e. the People's Action Party (PAP) Central Executive Committee (CEC).

However, PAP MP Vikram Nair disagreed and proposed amendments to PSP's motion, saying that Speakers do not automatically lack independence when performing their duties just because they belong to a party or its leadership.

The Leader of the House, Indranee Rajah, agreed that the Speaker must be independent and impartial but disagreed with Leong's definition of "independent" as "non-partisan".

Top image from PSP