PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke on the first sitting day of Parliament in the month of August, expanding on two scandals that hit the government and the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) in recent weeks.

In his ministerial statement, he responded to 18 questions filed by Members of Parliament (MPs) on the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau’s (CPIB) ongoing probe on Transport Minister S Iswaran. There were also four questions filed on billionaire Ong Beng Seng, who was arrested on the same day as Iswaran in relation to the same case.

Minister-in-charge of the Public Service Chan Chun Sing also rose to address questions from MPs relating to more specific details and circumstances of Iswaran’s arrest and investigation.

PM Lee devoted substantial time in his speech to the resignations of former Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin, as well as former PAP MP Cheng Li Hui, with whom he was having an extramarital affair.

Here’s our summary of what was said:

1) Outlining facts of Iswaran’s CPIB investigation

• May 29, 2023: CPIB alerts PM Lee to information concerning Iswaran it discovered while investigating another case that “merited investigation”.

• Jul 5: CPIB’s director returns to share his findings, as well as to seek PM Lee’s concurrence to open a formal investigation and interview Iswaran.

• Jul 6: PM Lee agrees.

• Jul 11: Iswaran arrested by CPIB and released on bail. PM Lee instructs him to take leave of absence until the investigation was complete.

• Jul 12: CPIB discloses that Iswaran was assisting in investigations into a case it uncovered. It does not disclose that he was arrested because “it wanted first to establish more facts of the case, including hearing his side of the story”.

• PM Lee then interdicts Iswaran from duty with a docked monthly pay of S$8,500.

• Jul 14: Hotel Properties Limited announces that its founder and managing director Ong was arrested by CPIB. By this point, the agency made the call to confirm that both Ong and Iswaran had been arrested.

PM Lee said there is no rule or precedent on how to effect an interdiction on a political office holder, so he used current civil service practice as a reference point. Still, the decisions on what to do specifically were made by him as prime minister.

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CPIB will submit its findings to the Attorney-General’s Chambers for a decision on further action, if any. Chan also stressed that Iswaran has not been charged with any crime yet.

He added that CPIB is “functionally independent” of the prime minister even though it reports to him, and so does not require his approval to conduct investigations. It did so in this case because its investigation concerned a cabinet minister, he added.

“Whichever way the facts come out, the case will be taken to its logical conclusion. That has always been our way,” PM Lee said.

2) On the affair that led to the resignations of Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin and MP Cheng Li Hui

First, the facts:

• November 2020: PM Lee learns of the affair between Tan and Cheng. Both are spoken to, counselled separately, and agree to stop their relationship, but do not.

• February 2023: PM Lee speaks once again to them separately. Tan admits he did wrong, and offers to resign. PM Lee agrees, but tells him residents in his ward and GRC need to be taken care of first, and that they must end their affair.

• A few weeks ago: PM Lee comes across information that “strongly suggested” the affair was still ongoing. He decides Tan “had to go forthwith”, and that Cheng had to leave too, because she had not ended the affair either.

Why did PM Lee take so long – more than two years – to act?

He agreed he should have “forced the issue” earlier, but explained:

• What is done when “these sorts of” relationships happen from time to time depends on circumstances, including how scandalous the behaviour is and family situations.

• There are three situations: Individuals are spoken to and they stop, the matter ends there; one party has supervisory power over the other, and immediate action has to be taken; and where the relationship raises “questions of propriety” beyond it being an affair.

• Tan and Cheng’s affair, PM Lee said, falls into the third category, because there was no direct reporting line, and so immediate action did not need to be taken, but the Speaker has official capacity relating to MPs, so a relationship is “problematic”.

• PM Lee said he took Tan’s word in November 2020 that their affair would end, and felt there was leeway to decide further steps, such as getting Tan to step down as Speaker sometime later to reduce public embarrassment to him and his family. He did say both would “quite likely” have to leave “at some point”, but would have preferred a “softer” exit for them both. “I placed much weight on protecting their families – perhaps too much.”

3) Explaining how the PAP deals with “such issues”

PM Lee touched on the Ridout Road bungalow rentals, noting that the two ministers involved were “thoroughly investigated”, including by CPIB and were fully exonerated, with the reports tabled in Parliament and questions from MPs responded to.

Why were Ministers Vivian Balakrishnan and K Shanmugam not put on leave of absence during Ridout Road investigations?

Chan said PM Lee could have asked them to do so if evidence surfaced during the investigations that warranted it, but he “had no reason to believe that” they had committed any wrongdoing then.

On the matter involving Iswaran, PM Lee said: “CPIB discovered on its own that it had reason to arrest and interview a minister… Nobody tipped the agency off. There had been no public scandal. CPIB… proceeded to do its job.”

On the affair between Tan and Cheng, PM Lee reiterated: “We took some time to sort it out, probably longer than we should have. But we did what we needed to do, and put the situation right.”

He also acknowledged that the ruling party “has taken a hit”, but that it would show Singaporeans that the party would “uphold standards and do the right thing”, so that “trust is maintained, and the Singapore system continues to work well”.