Unhappy with WP MP Sylvia Lim winning a debate against 3 Ministers, Minister of State Indranee Rajah joined the foray attacking the opposition MP of being dishonourable. In a lengthy Facebook post, the PAP Minister demanded that WP MP Sylvia Lim apologise.
WP MP Sylvia Lim has pointed out that economists and the state media reports were speculating about a GST increase after last year’s Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally speech. The ruling party government then did not refute any of these speculations, which MP Sylvia poignantly described them as “float balloons” by the government to test ground reactions.
Minister Indranee Rajah however claimed that her explanation does not square with her “facts”:
“Ms Lim gave an extended explanation of why events prior to the Budget Statement had led her to the suspicions she voiced in Parliament last week on Thursday. Her explanation doesn’t really square with the facts, but let’s put that aside for the moment, and focus on what happened after she spoke last week.”
The PAP Minister then jumped conclusion stating that MP Sylvia Lim’s suspicions are wrong and without reasonable basis. Minister Indranee Rajah then called her “dishonourable” for not apologising to the government:
“On Tuesday Ms Fu, as Leader of the House, reiterated the facts and invited a withdrawal and apology. Ms Lim may originally have been under a mistaken impression. Fair enough. But after the facts have been made clear by four ministers, after it had been shown that her suspicion was wrong, after she herself admitted that she may have been wrong, and after her own leader Mr Low said it is clear now the Government had no intention to raise GST immediately, shouldn’t she have withdrawn the allegation and apologised? Yet Ms Lim did neither. That is why the Leader of the House said this was not the honourable conduct expected of MPs.”