Senior Singapore Minister Caught in Scandal

Red meat for the opposition

By: Andy Wong Ming Jun

Singapore’s Transport Minister, S Iswaran, a senior member of the governing people’s Action Party leadership, is apparently under investigation for unspecified corrupt acts, according to a statement released earlier today July 12 by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB). CPIB’s statement didn’t elaborate further, only saying Iswaran is “assisting” in the probe.

Shortly afterwards, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong confirmed the CPIB statement on his social media channels, saying he had been notified by them since July 5 and had instructed Iswaran to take a leave of absence until the investigations are completed.

Iswaran, 62, is a 22-year veteran lawmaker for the ruling People’s Action Party who has served as Transport Minister since 2021 and Minister of trade relations since 2018. He has held a long list of other leadership posts including Minister of Communications and Information, Minister for Trade and Industry and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office from 2011 to 2014. Prior to entering politics, he worked in both the public and private sectors, including with the government’s sovereign investment fund Temasek Holdings and the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

“Singapore adopts a strict zero-tolerance approach toward corruption,” the CPIB said in its July 12 statement. “CPIB investigates all cases without fear or favor and will not hesitate to take action against all parties involved in corrupt activities.” Beyond that, there was no indication of what the agency is investigating and whether it is directed against Iswaran or other individuals.

With a presidential election looming in September, and a possible snap national parliamentary election expected well before the November 2025 deadline, the latest political scandal raises the question of whether a usually cowed opposition will rise to the occasion to exploit its chances. In the past, the opposition has been unable to capitalize on governmental missteps out of fear of being hit with defamation suits or accusations of violations of parliamentary rules by the overwhelming PAP majority, which holds an 83-11 advantage in the unicameral House, with nine nonpartisan members.

Political analysts believe early polls are in the cards because of growing economic headwinds that resulted in Singapore’s GDP growth forecast to slow to 1.8 percent in 2023, after growing at 3.6 percent in 2022 and with momentum clearly fading. Stubbornly high inflation has continued to dog the economy, hardly the government’s fault, as it has much of the industrialized world, from the holdover of the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis. There are also widespread complaints about housing prices, with unaffordability driving some renters across the Causeway to the Malaysian state of Johor.

In June, Prime Minister Lee directed Singapore’s Registration Officer to revise the Registers of Electors on or before July 31 to bring them up to date, ostensibly in preparation for the country’s presidential election, whose six-year term ends in September, separately from the parliamentary elections. 

However, speeches in parliament by Lee and his designated successor, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, and growing district activity on the part of rank-and-file PAP MPs are being taken as cues for general polls before the end of the year, if not concurrent with the presidential one.

The announcement of the corruption probe into Iswaran’s activities is the latest shockwave to hit the PAP’s otherwise scandal-free public image. The CPIB was also involved in June with investigations into two other PAP heavyweight cabinet ministers, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Home and Law Minister K Shanmugam over a months-long controversy regarding the circumstances and finances surrounding their rentals of magnificent state-owned colonial bungalows on exclusive Ridout Road and whose grounds were renovated at state expense.

Although the two were exonerated from wrongdoing, competition to rent any property in land-scarce Singapore is enormous, raising public irritation and unprecedented questions as to how two civil servants – albeit some of the best-paid civil servants on the planet – got into them. 

Singapore has from its modern founding by Lee Kuan Yew cultivated an image of ruthless concentration on rooting out public corruption, along with scrupulous attention to governmental efficiency. This is an image that is unique across Asia and one that has benefited the country as a home for investment by multinationals and turned it into a major global financial hub.

The last time a PAP minister was investigated for corruption, in 1987, Teh Cheang Wan, then Minister for National Development and one of then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s close comrades in the founding of the country, killed himself rather than face charges of corruption. Kuan Yew read Teh’s suicide note – addressed to him – on the floor of parliament, revealing that Teh was under CPIB investigation and saying corruption would not be tolerated.

The PAP suffered another public image setback earlier this week when a clip surfaced on social media of Tan Chuan Jin, the parliamentary speaker of the house and a concurrent PAP MP, calling the opposition Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim a “fucking populist” on a hot microphone during an April 17 speech.

Lim had been calling for the government to provide more help to Singapore’s urban poor, including the possible implementation of an official poverty line to facilitate effective targeted aid to those who needed it most. Following the viral spread of the muttered epithet on social media, Tan was forced to issue a general apology on Facebook for using “unparliamentary language.” Tan also privately apologized to Lim.

The probe of Iswaran’s affairs, coupled with the earlier embarrassments involving the three other PAP politicians, have thus dented the government’s carefully curated political image of stability and control at a time when the country is clearly gearing up for national elections far in advance of the end of the parliamentary term.