WP calls for clarification on potential conflicts of interest between PM Lee, AG

SINGAPORE — Members of Parliament (MPs) from the Workers’ Party yesterday urged the Government to address the potential conflicts of interest over the appointment of Mr Lucien Wong as Attorney-General (AG), and former People’s Action Party MP Hri Kumar Nair as Deputy AG.

Mr Low Thia Khiang and Ms Sylvia Lim also questioned Law Minister K Shanmugam’s involvement in the 38 Oxley Road Ministerial Committee, given that he had been a “close friend” of the Lee family.

Mr Low, who is chief of the opposition party, said that Mr Wong was acting as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s personal lawyer in his private dispute against his siblings over their family property, but now the AG is also in a position to advise the Government and the Cabinet on matters related to the house and their late father Lee Kuan Yew’s will.

Similarly, Mr Shanmugam, previously involved in giving personal advice relating to Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s will, is also now part of the Ministerial Committee looking into the issue of the house, he said.

“Is there also a conflict of interest here? Was this consideration taken into account when (Mr Wong) was appointed the AG? Can the PM clarify the role of the Law Minister and the AG in this matter, and explain to the House whether there’s any conflict of interest,” Mr Low asked.

“If so, how they are going to account to the public for this? Is their current position still tenable?”

Ms Lim, chairman of the Workers’ Party, stressed that the Government “should never seek to interfere with, or to influence those organs of state set up to ensure good governance”.

She said an instance of this is the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), a “fiercely powerful state actor, more powerful than our judges”, and noted that past Law Ministers had stressed “the need for there to be distance between the Government and the AGC”.

Given this, Ms Lim said that she had raised questions about the appointment of Mr Lucien Wong and his newest Deputy AG in earlier debates this year. “The role of the newest Deputy AG as an immediate past MP is well-known. As for the AG, it was also well-known that he had been a senior partner in the same firm as the Law Minister for a long time. They probably understand each other intimately,” Ms Lim said.

“Now, there is no legal prohibition on appointing the Government’s close friends and former party comrades as the AG or Deputy AG.

“But, from a system point of view, do these appointments instil public confidence that the AGC will act independently in matters where the Government, or worse, the PM, has an interest in the outcomes?” she asked. Tan Weizhen