He Ting Ru explains Workers' Party's abstentions in Bill to block Income-Allianz deal at Punggol rally

The Workers' Party (WP) candidate for Sengkang GRC He Ting Ru rounded off the night at the party's general election rally in Punggol on Apr. 28.

It was the first time He Ting Ru was the last speaker. WP Sec-Gen Pritam Singh was the final speaker for WP's rallies on Apr. 24 and Apr. 26.

He Ting Ru responded to Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong's remark that the WP had abstained from the passing of an Amendment Bill that sought to block the Income-Allianz deal.

The night before, SM Lee had said at People's Action Party's Jalan Kayu SMC rally that if the WP had been the government, the deal would have gone through as they had not opposed it.

He Ting Ru explained that, in her view, existing Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) powers would have allowed the government to block the acquisition without new legislation, and had explained this in Parliament during its Oct. 16, 2024 sitting.

He Ting Ru had then said that while the WP supported the government's blocking of the proposed acquisition of Income, and therefore would not be rejecting the bill, WP had concerns about the bill being "rushed and retrospective legislation making", thus registering their abstention instead.

During the rally, He Ting Ru went on:

"That is why the WP did what any responsible opposition should do: agree with the outcome, but not oppose the rushed legislation, for the sake of opposing.

Overreacting and passing new legislation to give the government new powers it doesn't need, is bad for the rule of law."

Background

At the Jalan Kayu SMC rally, SM Lee said that the the Income-Allianz deal was a serious matter because the labour movement had made an arrangement to sell a share of Income to Allianz.

Income felt it was a reasonable deal and they supported it.

The deal met all legal requirements and MAS regulations, and Income made it clear that its social mission focus would not change, so the government supported the deal.

However, the deal was blocked by the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong after the ministry studied the post-transaction details, which it was not made aware of prior to the Aug. 6 parliamentary debates.

"...taken together with the proposed capital extraction and the lack of structural protections in the deal to ensure the continuation of Income’s social mission, cumulatively, they pose a risk that MCCY judges not to be acceptable," Tong said in his ministerial statement in October 2024.

The legislation has to be changed as there is no provision in the Insurance Act for MAS to consider the views of MCCY.

The Bill was eventually amended so that MAS will have to consider the views of MCCY when an application for regulatory approval involves an insurer that is either a cooperative or linked to one.

Prior to this, there was no legal provision for the authority to do so in such cases.

Back then, WP then-Sengkang MP Jamus Lim questioned if the government entities are working in silos.

MAS deputy chairman and Second Minister for Finance Chee Hong Tat replied that there is a need to strike a balance between effective government functioning through information sharing and preserving commercial confidentiality to maintain investor confidence.

Chee also explained that the amendments had to be made on an urgent basis because the deal was under "active consideration" by Income shareholders.

Top image from Workers' Party/YouTube