Always the first to bark at any criticism coming his way, Law Minister K Shanmugam appeared to have been muzzled over the corruption news in his Home Affairs ministry. According to the recent Auditor General report, his Immigration Checkpoint Authority and the Singapore Civil Defence Force were found to engaged in corrupted contract dealings amounting to S$6.1 million and the falsification of documents respectively.
Also under his charge, the Traffic Police was also revealed to have spent over S$2.4 million purchasing German luxury car model BMW for patrol vehicles. Where was the hard truth-talking K Shanmugam?
The foul-mouthed millionaire Minister drawing S$1.1 million-a-year earned his notoriety earlier this year for his confronting posture at the Select Committee for Deliberate Online Falsehoods. Like a snake, Minister K Shanmugam fork-tongued his agenda onto gullible activists who took in his lies that they were being listened to. The public hearings revealed the petty side of K Shanmugam, who engaged in hitting below the belt and passing distasteful remarks to express his dissatisfaction over what he did not like to hear.
Singapore is currently at a crossroad where major national issues are lacking depth, direction and even a decision. In the front with Malaysia, the High Speed Rail contract and water price negotiations are urgent and costly, with over S$11 billion at stake. The self-righteous Minister who always preached about the rule of law surprising kept his silence and did not lecture Malaysia on a “code of conduct”.
Law Minister K Shanmugam is supposedly the “best brain” of the PAP government, holding two major ministries – Law and Home Affairs – while the 4G newbies play with auto-pilot ministries like Education, Trade and Manpower. At 59 year old, K Shanmugam has only less than 4 years left in dictatorship power. While many would celebrate his demise, the corrupted usually find a way to circumvent their situation to ensure they remain in power. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has signalled that he would be remaining as a “Mentor Minister” like his father, and the same would go for K Shanmugam who will likely sit on drawing his millionaire ministerial salaries as a “Senior Minister of State” or in a newly-created position just for himself.
Malaysia’s Najib Razak government was considered by many as brazenly corrupted, Singapore’s incumbents would then fit in as legally corrupted.
Alex Tan
STR Editor