COMMENT: Singapore MPs must be tough in questioning PM Lee about family feud on 3 July

The defender has turned aggressor as the Lee family soap opera, with its rapid twists and turns, is either turning off Singaporeans or confusing them. Lee Hsien Loong’s high-powered team of ministers have turned their firepower on the original aggressor – the prime minister’s younger brother Lee Hsien Yang.

If their strategy were to turn off Singaporeans, it seems to be working brilliantly. In her three Facebook posts, Senior Minister of State for Law and Finance Indranee Rajah has narrowed the debate to the late Lee Kuan Yew’s last and seventh will and his 38 Oxley Road house. And Hsien Yang has been forced to do battle inside the borders drawn by her.

But she is doing Singapore a great injustice as the fight between the first prime minister’s children goes well beyond that. That is why PM Lee has called for a debate on 3 July 2017 in Parliament where the MPs can question him about one of the saddest and darkest days in Singapore’s history.

The bombs lobbed by Hsien Yang have exploded with a ferocity never seen before and go to the heart of the edifice that the late Lee had painstakingly built and nurtured for decades – a fair and super clean government that has become a political oasis and an economic miracle in this part of the world. Two weeks ago, his younger son smashed that utopia into smithereens when he accused PM Lee of, among other things, abusing his power, allowing his wife Ho Ching to overstep her boundaries, and being involved in a conflict of interest in the government’s appointment of the Attorney-General (AG).

It is now up to the 89 elected Members of Parliament and three Non-Constituency MPs to bring the issue back to the basics on 3 July. This is no ordinary Parliamentary setting – it is in fact a Parliamentary inquisition of the top man of the land. That is the mental switch our MPs have to make if they believe this embarrassing episode needs to be put to rest once and for all.

For that to happen, the MPs must:

IMAGINE that the 3 July sitting is happening in a court room, not a law-making chamber, and they are there as lawyers and representatives of the people, not lawmakers or party affiliates.

TELL yourself that you are responsible only to Singaporeans and by extension to Singapore.

DON’T make speeches, there is very little time for that. Instead, ask questions. Make the questions snappy and pointed.

REMEMBER to ask follow-up questions after the PM and his ministers have replied. The best responses come when you follow up with a question if you feel the PM or the ministers have not responded adequately or have given only half-answers. Spend some time watching how BBC and CNN journalists perform when they interview newsmakers.

Here is a sampling of the questions that can be asked:

Did you abuse your power? He is likely to say No. Jump in by asking pointedly: Is it true that you wanted the house preserved against Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s wishes for your own political gain? I know you have denied this accusation, but can you be more specific?

Why did your wife take items from the home without seeking the executors’ permission and why did she send them to the National Heritage Board under the name of Prime Minister’s Office? Isn’t this something she should not have done?

Can you tell us the circumstances under which Lucien Wong, who acted for you in the property dispute, was made the AG? Isn’t this a conflict of interest?

You said the accusations from your siblings are “mostly inaccurate”, which means some are accurate. What are these?

It is not just PM Lee and his siblings who are on trial. Singapore is also on trial. Now that the people and the country have been put through this harrowing experience, they need answers. They need closure. The burden is on the MPs to get to the truth. That is the least they can do for the nation.

P N Balji is a veteran Singaporean journalist who was formerly chief editor of Today, as well as an editor at The New Paper. He is currently a media consultant. The views expressed are his own.

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