Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

PAP Nee Soon South branch clarifies resident’s claim that MP refused to discuss Section 377A

SINGAPORE — A man who wanted to hand in a petition to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code claimed that he and his companions were turned away by his constituency's Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah at her Meet-the-People Session on Monday night (Dec 3).

A resident who approached his constituency's Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah (pictured) to ask for her views on Section 377A of the Penal Code did not get answers from her, and later wrote on Facebook about the encounter.

A resident who approached his constituency's Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah (pictured) to ask for her views on Section 377A of the Penal Code did not get answers from her, and later wrote on Facebook about the encounter.

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

SINGAPORE — A man who wanted to hand in a petition to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code claimed that he and his companions were turned away by his constituency's Member of Parliament (MP) Lee Bee Wah at her Meet-the-People Session on Monday night (Dec 3).

However, the People’s Action Party’s Nee Soon South branch, located at Yishun Street 81, said on Tuesday evening that its volunteers at the session had attended to two residents in the man's group, just as they did other residents.

Dr Lee is an MP for the Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency (GRC). The man, Mr Edward Foo, volunteers with the Ready4Repeal movement, which is calling for the law criminalising sex between men to be overturned.

In a Facebook post on Monday night, Mr Foo said that he and several friends showed up at the session to pass Dr Lee a petition which contained the names of 859 residents in Nee Soon GRC.

Mr Foo, 21, a full-time national serviceman, wanted to speak to Dr Lee about the law and hand her a copy of the petition. Another member in the group of four was a resident in the constituency. They were given a queue number.

About half an hour later, they met a volunteer who helps residents write letters to government departments, Mr Foo said. Explaining that they were there for a “personal matter”, they asked to talk to Dr Lee in person.

Mr Foo said that Dr Lee greeted them with a handshake, and asked his companions who were not her residents to leave. The other Nee Soon resident in the group was asked to get a “separate queue number”, Mr Foo added.

After his companions left, Mr Foo asked Dr Lee for her views on Section 377A, but she “exited the room”.

When contacted, Dr Lee told TODAY that she did not leave the room, but “moved to another table in the same room where another resident was being seen”.

Mr Foo claimed that Dr Lee later avoided the table where he was seated, and spoke to other residents who were around him. He tried to hand her the petition, but Dr Lee “gestured her hand away and asked me to pass it to the volunteers instead”, Mr Foo wrote.

He eventually handed it to a volunteer who was helping residents write letters.

Dr Lee did not respond to other questions about what transpired on Monday night and how she planned to resolve the matter with Mr Foo, but referred TODAY to a clarification issued by her branch.

“We would like to clarify that both individuals who were residents of the GRC were seen by volunteer letter-writers, just like every other resident,” the branch said on Facebook.

“The male resident indicated there was no need to write an appeal letter for him. Our volunteer wrote an appeal letter for the female resident.”

The branch added that Dr Lee spoke to the duo briefly and moved on to talk to others about their issues.

Speaking to TODAY, Mr Foo said that he had not intended to detail his experience on social media, but felt that Dr Lee had rejected his attempt to voice his opinions and start a conversation about Section 377A.

He had gone to meet her as part of the Ready4Repeal team’s plan to have volunteers from each GRC approach their MPs and give them a petition specific to their constituency, in the hope that they could raise the issue in Parliament.  

“All I wanted to do was start a discussion and have a platform for people to discuss not only Section 377A, but what an MP is supposed to do, who they are supposed to represent, and how we as a society should raise questions about the law,” he said.

An Indian Supreme Court ruling in September striking down a similar law reignited the debate on repealing Section 377A here.

That month, Ready4Repeal launched an online petition and later submitted it to the Government with the signatures of 44,650 Singaporeans and permanent residents.

In response, the Home Affairs and Law ministries said that they received the petition, but there were no plans to repeal the law.

Another petition urging the Government to keep Section 377A attracted more than 109,000 signatures as of Sept 24, when it closed.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.