Singapore’s parliamentary debates may lack the fireworks seen in other legislatures, but that reflects the city state’s pragmatic culture, according to opposition leader Pritam Singh.
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In his first-ever radio interview, the Workers’ Party (WP) chief said the tone of debate mirrored the national character – serious, results-oriented and not prone to theatrics.
“When you come in from that perspective, you’re really not there to throw things around, but you want to see certain outcomes,” Singh said on Monday during an appearance on Kiss92’s morning show.
“Like society, we’re all quite pragmatic, so we want the thing to work … and part of making the thing work is to make sure that you have a real debate in terms of real issues being brought up, and there being an exchange.”
Singh was responding to co-hosts Glenn Ong and Angelique Teo, who noted that parliamentary sessions in Britain and Taiwan were often rowdy and contrasted that with Singapore’s more subdued proceedings.
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Ong also recalled spirited debates in earlier decades between founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and opposition stalwarts such as J. B. Jeyaretnam and Chiam See Tong, asking Singh whether he felt parliament had “lost a little bit of that”.