MPs admit they can do better in debate

One says jibes may not go down well, newcomers feel there is much to learn

By Tessa Wong & Rachel Chang, The Straits Times, 17 Mar 2012

A WEEK after the marathon Budget debate, Members of Parliament have done a post-mortem of their performance and some have admitted candidly that they could have done better, especially in their sparring across party lines.

Among them is Sembawang GRC MP Vikram Nair, who has stood out for his eagerness to engage his Workers' Party (WP) counterparts.

He said that he has learnt that wry or sarcastic jibes might not go down as well and he plans to be more 'straightforward' when he questions the opposition in future.

Two first-term WP MPs said newcomers are on a learning curve. Non-Constituency MP Gerald Giam acknowledged that 'there's always more room for improvement' while Aljunied GRC MP Pritam Singh said 'it is still early days yet and there is much more to learn'.

Both Mr Nair and Mr Singh were widely criticised online for what they said during the Budget debate which ended last week.

Mr Nair was taken to task for his exchange with Aljunied GRC MP Chen Show Mao on Feb 29.

The PAP MP had described Mr Chen's call for the Government to invest more in vulnerable groups as better than a 'Nigerian e-mail scam' because it seemed to suggest that 'you don't have to put in any money at all, and you get more than money in return'.

Mr Chen did not respond to the remark, beyond saying he had no doubts about the content of his speech.

Said Mr Nair on yesterday: 'I had thought since Mr Chen was a lawyer and also knew economics, he would respond in an equally vigorous fashion. But he did not, and only said that he did not have anything else to clarify. I felt very bad at that point so I did not press further.'

As for Mr Singh, netizens accused him of plagiarism because he failed to attribute his speech calling for an ombudsman, to a blogger's post first written in 2008.

In his reply to the WP MP during the debate on the budget for the Prime Minister's Office, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said he was 'struck by how remarkably similar' the WP MP's speech was to the original blog post.

Mr Singh has since sought to explain on his Facebook that he had permission from the blogger to quote him liberally.

Mr Giam earned rebuttals from Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and several PAP MPs for saying that homes here are so expensive that young Singaporeans will not be able to afford them. Mr Tharman urged Mr Giam to keep up with the Government's moves in the last five years, including recognising that there were generous housing grants to ensure that even those on low incomes can buy their own homes.

With the tripling of opposition representation in the House from three to nine following last May's General Election, political observer Derek da Cunha said it is clear all MPs, especially new ones, 'feel that they are under pressure to perform'.

Based on recent exchanges, it seemed that some PAP MPs were seizing on unfortunate missteps by the opposition and trying to magnify them, he said. On the other hand, the opposition MPs had drawn fire outside the House for not appearing to have done rigorous research.

New MPs must realise that they were under intense scrutiny, he said, and 'the best thing to do is not to immediately take so high a profile unless one is very well prepared'.

'To do otherwise is to make one a highly visible target.'

But both he and former Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong believe it is too early to pass judgment on the quality of debate in the House, as this Parliament has only been in session since last October.

'We need to give new MPs on both sides more time to find their feet. An assessment of the level of debate at the end of this year would be much fairer,' Mr Siew said.

But some commentators could recall occasions in the past when PAP MPs were far more robust in their questioning of the front bench than the opposition had been.

Veteran PAP backbenchers like Wang Kai Yuen and Tan Soo Khoon, for example, issued sharp challenges to ministers on sensitive topics such as transport fare hikes and the use of returns from investing the national reserves.

Commentators said if the past is any indication, doing one's homework and knowing one's facts is key.

Several seasoned MPs also weighed in. Nee Soon GRC MP Lim Wee Kiak said that the opposition seemed to be engaging the PAP at the margins, rather than on the big issues. 'The debate in this Parliament has been about nitty-gritty things,' he said.

Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, an MP for Nee Soon GRC, said that 'even as each side wants to score political points, they must be responsible... and not try to mislead them'.

Agreeing, Tanjong Pagar GRC MP Indranee Rajah said MPs should stay focused on the issue.

'At the end of the day, it's whether or not you are able to articulate your point of view on a particular issue, and whether it's convincing. That's what it is, a platform to debate, not a platform to fight,' she said.