4 Ministers Speaking About the Ridout Road Saga on Monday’s Parliament Sitting

The Ridout Road Saga (which really isn’t a Wild West TV series) has now begun to reach its final episode. Now that all the shots have been fired, it is time for this string of events to be wrapped up once and for all.

For those who have unfortunately missed out on the good, the bad and the ugly proceedings of the saga, here is a brief recap, and here’s the conclusion.

You can also watch this video if you’ve only three minutes to spare:

Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean, Second Minister of Law Edwin Tong, K. Shanmugan and Vivian Balakrishnan to Release Individual Statements in Parliament

Following the results of CPIB’s probe that there was no evidence of corruption or criminal misdoing, it was announced that four ministers would be giving statements at Monday’s parliament session.

Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean, who released a separate report from CPIB dealing with wider potential processes surrounding the Ridout Road Saga, would speak on his review of the rentals for No. 26 and No. 31 bungalows.  

In his report, he concluded that the two ministers followed the Singapore Land Authority’s guidelines when renting the two state properties and that K. Shanmugan took measures to prevent any conflict of interest (which means that he did not use his position as Minister of Law to influence the rental proceedings of his No. 26 Ridout Road Bungalow).

Second Minister of Law, Edwin Tong, will speak on the rental of state properties. The two bungalows that were rented were considered to be state buildings managed by SLA, which is under the Minister of Law.

Meanwhile, Minister of Law K. Shanmugan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan will release separate statements because, well, they’re the main characters in the saga.

But if the CPIB probe has already declared the innocence of K. Shanmugan and Vivian Balakrishnan, why do additional statements need to be made in Parliament?

If there is one keyword that the Singaporean Government prides itself on, it is the word “Transparency”. 

Transparency refers to the Government being as open and honest as possible to its citizens by providing access to information about government proceedings. 

In this case, transparency also involves adequately addressing any doubts that may lead citizens or fellow MPs to question whether the rental procedures were really done with no strings attached.  

Because there are many questions.

Statements by the Four Ministers to Address 23 Questions filed by MPs

Most of the questions that will be addressed during the session in Parliament have a strong focus on the fairness and transparency of the bidding process for renting state properties. 

Mr Sitoh Yih Pin (Potong Pasir) asked for clarification on SLA’s standard tenancy operating procedures, and Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim (Chua Chu Kang GRC) asked how the properties were marketed to potential renters. 

Leader of the Opposition and Chief of Workers’ Party (WP) Pritam Singh also asked how the Government will assure the public that both Shanmugan and Balakrishnan did not receive any privileged information about their leases (due to their positions as big ministers) and what was the guide rent set by SLA for each of the properties when they were leased out to both ministers.

Some questions got quite spicy, with Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai asking why SM Teo was tasked to review the ministers’ tenancy instead of someone from another branch of Government such as a Supreme Court Judge.

Monday’s going to be exciting; you can watch the livestream at MCI’s YouTube channel.