SINGAPORE — The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) was on Wednesday (July 5) asked to apologise and take down from Facebook a video on the Ridout Road debate in parliament.

Late on Tuesday night, PSP posted on its Facebook page a clip of its secretary-general as well as Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Leong Mun Wai asking questions in the House on Monday.

The video was captioned: "In what some online commenters are calling another 'sia suay' moment. The PSP's Leong Mun Wai & Hazel Poa Koon Koon are here to do whatever it takes to ensure that the voice of the people is heard."

"Sia suay" is a Hokkien dialect expression used in Singlish to indicate embarrassment or disgrace.

Text was also superimposed on the video, some of which read: "The Deputy Speaker reminded Mr Leong Mun Wai that he should not start a debate during a Ministerial Statement, after he urged the Deputy Speaker not to end the debate early because this is an important topic."

On Wednesday, Leader of the House Indranee Rajah said the video was a breach of parliamentary privileges and immunities.

"The difficulty is this: The video gives a false impression of what occurred in parliament," said Ms Indranee told the House.

The video made it seem that issues on Ridout Road — relating to the rental of state properties by ministers K Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan - could not be "fully ventilated".

It gives the impression that Deputy Speaker Christopher de Souza did not allow a debate despite a plea by Mr Leong, said Ms Indranee.

"If you think about it, it starts off with: 'In what some online commentators are calling another sia suay moment'. What is sia suay? Embarrassing.

"So there has to be something embarrassing. What is this embarrassing thing? It goes on to say that the PSP's Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa are here to do whatever it takes to ensure that the voices of people are heard," she added.

"And then you have that blurb which suggests that they were being shut down and a debate was not allowed to take place."

Ms Indranee said the video does not clarify that according to parliamentary procedure, MPs can ask questions or clarifications of ministerial statements.

The video also does not show what happened after the exchange that was highlighted, and gives the impression that Mr Leong was not allowed to ask questions, she said.

Mr De Souza, who was also chairing the sitting on Wednesday, clarified that he called on Mr Leong five times, and that the NCMP asked more than 10 questions on Monday.

Ms Indranee also said that contrary to the video claiming there was one hour for MPs to seek clarifications, the time to do so went on for nearly four hours.

The entire session lasted six hours, with ministerial statements taking about two hours.

"So there was ample time for questions to be asked and they were asked and they were answered. And the session ended at 6.22pm," said Ms Indranee.

"So we have here a situation where you have a video from PSP which gives rise to false, misleading impressions of what happened in parliament and it misrepresents the proceedings."

She pointed to sections in the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act which prohibit the defamation of any MP and the publication of any "false or perverted report" on parliament proceedings.

Breaches of these provisions constitute a contempt of parliament, she said. 

"The video coupled with the text and blurb... misrepresents what happened in parliament, misrepresents what the deputy speaker said or did," said Ms Indranee, who also pointed out that this was not Mr Leong's first time breaching parliamentary rules.

Responding to Ms Indranee, Mr Leong said the phrase "sia suay" referred to what some online commentators had said about him in the past.

"Did the minister assume that the 'sia suay' refers to the deputy speaker? We have no intention of saying that at all. The 'sia suay' is what people in the public has used to refer to me," he said.

He insisted that although the debate lasted six hours, not all the questions were asked nor did the replies clarify all the facts, which was why he "got a little excited" during the session and said he needed more time.

"I don't think I have conducted myself disrespectfully at all, and by showing this video, now, I hear from you about some of the interpretation that you have explained," said Mr Leong.

"I will request that you allow me to take this back and let us deliberate inside our party, and then we come out with a formal response."

Ms Indranee said she accepted that Mr Leong was not disrespectful in parliament and the phrase "sia suay" was meant to refer to him.

But she said it would still be appropriate for the video to be taken down and the PSP to apologise "in a form acceptable to parliament".

She asked Mr Leong to bring the matter back to his party and let parliament know by Thursday. He agreed.

The post on PSP's Facebook page was amended on Thursday morning to clarify that some online commentators are calling it a "sia suay" moment for Mr Leong. It added that the video was not representative of the entire parliamentary discussion on Ridout Road.

It now reads: "In what some online commenters are calling another 'sia suay' moment by our NCMP Leong Mun Wai — Our NCMP Leong Mun Wai was informed by the Deputy Speaker that Members were allowed to seek clarification but not debate about the ministerial statements concerning the Ridout Road incident.

"The PSP's Leong Mun Wai & Hazel Poa Koon Koon are here to do whatever it takes to ensure that the voice of the people is heard.

"This short video is an excerpt taken from the full parliamentary session and is not to be taken as a representation of the entire discussion that took place in the House on July 3, 2023."

It also included a link to the livestream of the parliamentary session. CNA