Singapore Media Watch: Your Views: Parliament to convene Commission of Inquiry on Shin purchase?

8 Nov 2006

I would like to ask if it is appropriate for the Parliament to convene a Commission of Inquiry into the whole Shin Corp transaction to get to the bottom of it all, and if so, how can such be initiated? Can the public initiate it or must it be initiated by MPs/NCMP?

Since this Temasek transaction involves both huge potential losses of citizens' hard-earned money (in billions) and newspapers' allegations of breaches and so on, shouldn't it be equally important for such citizens' concerns be cleared through the democratic Parliamentary process?

If it can only be initiated by MPs, then I would urge the Opposition MPs/NCMP to initiate one since I would not expect the PAP MPs to do it.

If it can be done, I would like Temasek's Chairman and ex-minister/MP, Mr S Dhanabalan, its CEO, Mdm Ho Ching (wife of PM Lee), and the then MD of Temasek involved in the transaction, Mr S Iswaran (now promoted to Minister of State and MP) to be called in for cross examination.

Thank you for your kind consideration.

KAYE POH

2 Comments:

PAP will not allow it because it is too sensitive, not just the internal working of GIC/GLC but also all the consulting firms and international partners will be drag into it.

There is just no politicak force of any sort to make them do it.

By Anonymous, at 6:51 PM
C'mon, nobody takes responsibility as can be seen over as many years as we have been governed under the present banner.

We should know by now that none of them has the ethics, integrity nor courage to admit mistakes [perhaps another "Consensus Decision" as in the case of Micropolis"]. They always think they are as almighty as god and therefore cannot be doubted.

We have seen some CEOs and Senior Managers in MNCs taking responsibility and resigned for non performance, Ministers in countries such as Japan and Europe graciously stepped down for issues that may not even have been directly caused by them. These are people with Integrity and Dignity. We will be asking too much of our top ranks to do the same and is something hard for them to comprehend since these qualities do not exist in them.

By Anonymous, at 9:37 PM