Singapore’s PM Lee Hsien Loong on MPs’ affair: ‘I should have forced issue sooner’

Lee said he considered ‘many factors’ in his handling of the affair between ex-speaker Tan Chuan-jin and MP Cheng Li Hui, including the impact on families and children

He said the ruling PAP had ‘taken a hit’ from both the affair and a graft probe involving Transport Minister S. Iswaran, and it would work to ‘uphold standards’ and ‘maintain trust’

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Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he first learned about the matter in November 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 1:40pm, 2 Aug 2023Updated: 3:10pm, 2 Aug 2023

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Wednesday said the ruling party had “taken a hit” following the high-profile sagas involving key politicians but remained committed to accountability.

Lee, who has been the subject of rare criticism over a perceived foot-dragging in dealing with an extramarital affair between two MPs, also conceded he should have acted sooner.

The former speaker Tan Chuan-Jin and fellow People’s Action’s Party (PAP) MP Cheng Li Hui resigned on July 17 over a yearslong affair which they refused to end despite being asked to do so by Lee as far back as November 2020.

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Singapore’s political scandal deepens as 2 MPs resign amid separate high-profile corruption probe

The members’ shock departures followed a separate corruption investigation into the Transport Minister S. Iswaran, and has raised questions about whether the PAP’s much-vaunted high standards of probity had slipped.

Speaking to lawmakers in parliament on Wednesday, Lee acknowledged questions over why he had taken more than two years to act in the matter involving Tan and Cheng.

He repeated an accounting of how he handled the matter when he first announced the duo’s resignations on July 17, this time revealing that he heard about the affair for the first time in November 2020.

He previously said he could not recall when he was first alerted to the matter, but that it was after the 2020 general election.