Suspension of Indian-origin Minister from Singapore Parliament demanded

An opposition Member of Parliament on Friday announced that she has filed a motion requesting the suspension of the Indian-origin Transport Minister of Singapore, S Iswaran, who is being probed by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau.

The demand for Iswaran’s suspension comes 10 days ahead of the 14th session of the Parliament that is to begin on September 18.

The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) arrested Iswaran on July 11 this year. He is currently out on bail and has been placed on a leave of absence.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Hazel Poa, Progress Singapore Party’s (PSP) Non-Constituency Member of Parliament, said that she has filed the motion on Thursday to suspend Iswaran “for the remainder of the current session of the 14th Parliament.”

This is so that he “no longer receives his MP allowance of SGD 192,500 ($141,152) per year while he has been requested by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to not perform any official duties during his investigation by CPIB,” she added.

Earlier, Prime Minister Lee had said in a ministerial statement delivered in the Parliament on August 2 that Iswaran was currently interdicted with a reduced pay of SGD 8,500 a month until further notice.

This sum works out to be about 15 per cent of the benchmark level of a minister’s monthly salary at SGD 55,000, according to the Public Service Division.

In addition to that, Iswaran is still allowed to draw the annual MP allowance of SGD 192,500, according to a report by TODAY newspaper.

Responding to a question by Workers’ Party MP Dennis Tan, Lee had said that Iswaran can continue to draw an MP’s allowance because it differs from a minister’s pay and does not come under the Prime Minister’s discretion.

Lee added that to remove the MP’s allowance, the Parliament has to move a motion to interdict the MP as an MP. “Parliament has not done that. Neither in previous cases has the Parliament done that,” Lee said, referring to past cases where ministers had been investigated for corruption.

Poa’s Friday post on Facebook said that the motion was filed for the next Parliament sitting and the debate on the motion is likely to be slated on or after September 19.

She also added that she will introduce a Private Member’s Bill to amend the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act to ensure that Iswaran is rightly reimbursed, should he subsequently be cleared of any wrongdoing by the CPIB.

The law sets out the privileges, immunities and powers of the Speaker, Members and Committees in Parliament and also regulates the conduct of MPs.

Although there are no details of the nature of the investigation in the public domain, CPIB’s probe into Iswaran also involves billionaire Ong Beng Seng, the man widely credited with bringing F1 racing to Singapore.

The F1 event will be held from September 15 to 17.