Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam has started poison tonguing his opponents calling the opposition Progress Singapore Party “half-hearted” for contesting in his Nee Soon constituency.
The millionaire PAP minister was unhappy he did not get a walkover in Nee Soon GRC:
“The opposition attempt on Nee Soon GRC this election seems to be a half-hearted one. I don’t want to speculate why PSP has come, but it seems to have been very half-hearted about it. As you will recall, a week ago it was offering to trade Nee Soon for some other constituency.”
The PAP minister who invented POFMA also poured praises for outgoing MP Lee Bee Wah, whom he claimed is “loved by residents”. K Shanmugam claimed that she is “retiring”:
“She was a once-in-a-generation type of MP – she was sui generis. It’s sad to see someone like that retiring, but renewal is part of the PAP’s DNA.”
Lee Bee Wah had earlier said she wanted to continue contesting in GE2020, but she was forced to retire by Lee Hsien Loong. The former PAP MP had to change her tune and cited “looking after my 80-year-old mother” as a reason to step down.
Minister K Shanmugam is one of the most unpopular politicians in Singapore due to his role in creating the POFMA censorship. He proposed the POFMA Bill, sat on a sham committee for a “public hearing” and then passed his own law using the PAP majority in Parliament.