If you want to be a politician in Singapore, you better learn to keep your dick in check.
Two elected MPs, Yaw Shin Leong and Michael Palmer learned their lesson the hard way in 2012. One is from the white camp and the other from the blue camp. Yaw’s alleged affair surfaced at the beginning of the year while Palmer’s affair surfaced now at the end of the year.
Here’s a comparision between the two:
| Name | Michael Palmer | Yaw Shin Leong (饶欣龙) |
| Political Party | People’s Action Party | Workers’ Party |
| Date of Birth | born 14 July 1968 | born 2 June 1976 |
| In Parliament | 12 October 2011 – 12 December 2012 | 7 May 2011 – 14 February 2012 |
| Former Speaker of the House in the Parliament of Singapore and elected MP for Punggol East Single Member Constituency from October 2011 till December 2012, where he resigned due to an affair with a member of the People’s Association. | Former Treasurer of The Workers’ Party of Singapore, and was a Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Hougang after the 2011 Singapore General Elections until he was expelled by the Worker’s Party in February 2012. | |
| Political Mentor | Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Home Affairs, Co-ordinating Minister for National Security and Minister-in-charge of the Civil Service, Rear-Admiral Teo Chee Hean | Leader of the Workers’ Party and MP for Aljunied GRC, Low Thia Khiang |
| Naughty Business | Had an affair with a member of the People’s Association. | Allegedly had an extramarital affair with a fellow member of the Workers’ Party though Yaw neither confirmed nor denied the rumour to date. |
| Party’s Action | Press Conference on 12 December 2012 to announce Palmer’s resignation. | On 15 February 2012, the Workers’ Party announced that Yaw has been expelled with immediate effect, citing ‘indiscretions in personal life’ as reasons for expulsion. |
| By-Election | ??? | Yes, seat was won by Png Eng Huat from Workers’ Party |
Regardless if a by-election is called, some of the PAP’s moral attacks at the WP during the Hougang by-election is definitely going to come back and haunt them…
What are your thoughts over Michael Palmer’s sudden resignation?
Personally, I do not see a link between the two men’s personal indiscretion and their work integrity. It is not that I support men having affairs, but it is their own personal lives and responsibility to their family. Nonetheless, I am getting my popcorn ready to watch show.
Here’s a video recording of the PAP press conference earlier this afternoon to announce Palmer’s resignation:
[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bP3O1YNMEQ”]
Michael Palmer is now trending on Google, Twitter and other social media channels. To get your latest update on news related to Mr Palmer, do visit omy.sg or Go Social. 🙂
This is reality i hope that personal affair be kept in the bedroom. However if you are rep for the people you serve you must restrain. Every successful man will have many women waiting. What I really mean is dont condemn others when you cant keep house in place. I like a blog where someone say you must how to keep your chicks.
The best part of it all is that PAP should not insist that it has the high moral grounds to dictate to others when in reality it also has all the shit going on behind them in closed doors. And then they should not resort to making use of their laws to make scapegoats of others, effectively destroying the careers of those who are most vulnerable and at their mercy just to maintain their fake facade of having a clean non-aldulterous image.
I WONDER IF THEY BOTH KNEW EACH OTHER
Palmer was elected in 2006 when PGL East was still part of PSR-PGL GRC, wasn’t he?
You made an incorrect statement. Yaw was not expelled for “indiscretions in personal life”. He was expelled for not accounting for those accusations.
Mr Teo, please bite back the bullet you have thrown to Yaw Shin Leong.
Mr Teo, even until today, I do not have any idea why were you promoted as the DPM? What have been your track records in building Singapore? I would certainly like to hear form you.
Dear Alvin,
this is Kennedy Oung from Raffles Institution. Me and a team of 3 others are currently doing a Social Studies project that discusses if politicians should be fired because of mistakes made in their private lives, particularly marital infidelity, even if they have made significant contributions to society.
I have recently read your blog post, titled Yaw Shin Leong vs Michael Palmer. I find your viewpoint that a Minister of State’s personal life should be separated from his private life one that is unique. As such, we would like to interview you, to ask some more questions pertaining to this subject. It would be best if we could interview anytime from 21st to 23rd of March. We have sent an email attachment with the interview questions that we would like to ask you.
If you cannot find the time to let us interview you, you can give us your replies to the questions as an email. Please reply as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Kennedy Oung
Aaron Chou
Choo Ze Yuan
Sean Lim