Singapore Parliament Speaker Apologizes to Opposition MP

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Singapore Parliament Speaker Tan-Chuan-jin apologized to the opposition member of Parliament on Tuesday. It is alleged that in April this year after an Indian-origin MP was called upon to speak, he used unparliamentary language to insult a member of parliament from the opposition party. He called James a ‘populist’.

According to reports, the incident happened on April 17 this year when ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) MP Vikram Nair was called to speak after opposition Workers’ Party MP James Lim’s speech. During his speech, James voiced his support for President Halimah Yacob’s call to reform Singapore’s social contract. He said that Singapore has not yet set an ‘official poverty line’. This is astonishing and disturbing.

Tan wrote in a Facebook post, ‘A recording of a meeting of Parliament in April this year is being circulated. I had to listen to that recording as I did not remember the occasion.’ Reports quoted him as saying that after watching the clip, it appears that this was his reaction to the speech delivered in the chamber. He said that whatever he said was his personal opinion. He didn’t say these things to anyone but himself.

Apologizing for this, he further wrote, ‘However, I should not have expressed them loudly or in unparliamentary language. I apologize for this. He also told that he has also spoken to James and apologized to him.