Last week, Singapore’s Minister of Transport, S. Iswaran, was arrested on corruption charges, the first corruption case involving a minister in the country’s 40-year history. Two MPs also resigned on Monday after it was revealed they had affairs with married people, in violation of strict codes of conduct imposed on members of the Popular Action Party (PAP), which has been in power since 1965. The two are Tan Chuan-Jin, Speaker of Parliament (54, married, who has also been discussed as a possible prime minister in the past) and Cheng Li Hui (47, single).
The news has been widely picked up in Singapore, where similar scandals are very rare, especially within the Pap. Now, several commentators are wondering whether these two stories could impact Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s control over the party and the popular consensus towards the Pope, who now commands a large majority in Parliament.
Hotel entrepreneur Ong Beng Seng was also arrested as part of the same investigation that led to the arrest of the transport minister. In the past, the minister had had various relationships with Ong: for example, the two had helped found the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix in 2008. Further information is not yet available: All that is known is that both were arrested on corruption charges and Ong was released on bail of 68,000 euros.
From left: Former CEO of Singapore Sports Hub Lionel Yeo, former Secretary of Transport S. Iswaran, former Formula 1 President and CEO Chase Carey and entrepreneur Ong Beng Seng during a press conference ahead of Formula 1’s Singapore race in September 2017 (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
The Popular Action Party has always been at the center of Singaporean politics since 1965, when Singapore was expelled from the Federation of Malaysia over political and economic disagreements with the Malaysian central government. One of the founders of the party was Lee Kuan Yew, father of the current prime minister and head of government until 1990: Lee Kuan Yew is still held in high esteem today because he is regarded as the political leader who brought prosperity to Singapore.
The scandals within the Pap are considered so serious because the party has always built part of its reputation on the principle of “honesty” demanded of its members, which remains fundamental today. After each election, it is customary for the prime minister to send his MPs a letter explaining the code of conduct they are asking for: “Integrity, honesty and incorruptibility” are the necessary requirements.
The rules were created to protect the Pope’s reputation, but also because Singapore lacks solid systems for monitoring the various branches of the state. The system is in fact based on citizens’ trust in the political class, which must prove itself worthy of remaining in government by ensuring efficiency and honesty. In addition, the generous allowances for members of parliament and members of the government must be justified: they are among the highest in the world and have been reduced in the past, precisely because of the sometimes violent controversy of the opposition.
It is also the very high salaries paid to civil servants that explain why corruption is so rare and dishonorable in Singapore. For ministers, the base salary is S$715,000 (Singapore dollars) per year, which is equivalent to €483,000. Thanks to the many bonuses, the annual salary often exceeds one million Singapore dollars, i.e. 680,000 euros. MPs, on the other hand, receive an expense allowance of over S$ 192,000, about 130,000 euros. According to the Corruption Perceptions Index, an annual study by the NGO Transparency International that ranks countries by the level of perceived corruption, Singapore is the fifth-least corrupt country in the world.
Former Singapore Parliament Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin (Photo by Yong Teck Lim/Getty Images)
There is something else to consider: Singapore is very difficult to oppose for a number of institutional reasons. Any candidate who wants to stand in the elections must pay an amount equal to the last allowance paid to the then-elected MPs in Parliament, rounded up to US$500: for the 2020 election, S$13,500, about 9,200 euros, had to be paid. In case of defeat, the amount will not be refunded. So in some constituencies each party is required to field four or five candidates (and therefore has to pay a lot of money), and given the electoral system where whoever wins the constituency gets all the seats, it’s often not beneficial for opposition parties to field many candidates.
The geographic definition of Singapore’s constituencies themselves is not done by an independent body and is carried out by a number of agencies reporting directly to the Prime Minister. For this reason, the government has been accused in the past of practicing gerrymandering, i.e. manipulating the geographic boundaries of constituencies near elections in order to gain an advantage.
The Constitution then provides for various cases in which a restriction of freedom of expression is possible, an instrument that Parliament has repeatedly resorted to. In 2019, the government passed a controversial law allowing it to remove online content it deems inaccurate.
The last time a Singaporean politician was embroiled in a corruption scandal was in 1986, when then Minister for National Development Teh Cheang Wan was arrested on charges of accepting bribes for the sale of state-owned land. Teh Cheang Wan committed suicide in prison later that year, before the trial began, leaving a letter to Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew apologizing for his behavior.
– Also read: Lee Kuan Yew, the man who built Singapore
Since 2018, the “transition to the fourth generation” has been underway in the Pap, which envisages the renewal of politicians in the most important government offices. Lawrence Wong, the current Treasury Secretary, is currently Lee’s most likely successor as Prime Minister. In April 2022, he was elected by the party leadership to head the “4G team” for the transition to the new generation of papal politicians. In June of the same year he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister, a position he still holds today. Singapore’s next political elections are in 2025, but it’s not yet clear whether Lee will give up his seat or run again as prime minister.