Weighing in on the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) probe into Transport Minister S Iswaran, presidential hopeful Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Saturday (Jul 15) expressed his faith in the "Singapore system" to deal with setbacks and to emerge stronger from it.

"Singapore goes through ups and downs. Each time we hit a difficult patch, the good thing about Singapore is that we'll make our way out of it. It will strengthen our system and we will become a better place," he said. 

Mr Tharman, who was responding to journalists' questions on the sidelines of a visit to Teck Whye Shopping Centre, was also asked whether the matter will affect the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) government. "That's for the PAP to consider, I'm not in the PAP anymore. That's a political question for the PAP to consider," he said.

Mr Iswaran and Hotel Properties Limited managing director Ong Beng Seng were arrested by the CPIB on Tuesday. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has instructed Mr Iswaran to take a leave of absence.

As part of their bail conditions, both Mr Iswaran and Mr Ong's passports were impounded. Mr Ong was granted a request to travel overseas with his bail quantum increased to S$100,000.

"Each time there's a setback, treat the setback as an opportunity to strengthen the system to display full transparency," said Mr Tharman.

Adding that the Singapore system "is set up to ensure that there's no compromise when it comes to integrity", he reiterated: "Every time the question comes up, anything to do with integrity, anything to do with incorruptibility, we take it seriously, the CPIB is given full rein, it does its work."

The former Senior Minister also noted that there has never been a prime minister who prevented the CPIB from doing its work but added that "if ever the day should come, the President will be there".

Calling himself an optimist, Mr Tharman said that he thinks Singapore will get past the case and the focus can then be shifted to "the issues that really matter to ordinary people".

Nevertheless, he stressed that having confidence in the Singapore system is critical to the country's future. This is "critical domestically" because it is what builds trust - trust between government and people, and also people's trust in each other, he said.

It is also what builds trust in Singapore internationally, he added.

"It may not matter to some other countries, but Singapore is different and Singapore has to be different, because we don’t have much else," he said.  “We’ve got our people with our skills and talents, much more now than when we started, but ultimately it’s the Singapore system.”

'NOT THE END' FOR ISWARAN

Mr Tharman said he has known Mr Iswaran "for a long time" and cautioned against making judgments at this point.

He said: "It's not the end of his life or end of his future. He will go through with this. But let's let the investigations take their course ... The system works and it must work."

Mr Tharman, who was also Coordinating Minister for Social Policies, last month informed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of his decision to retire from politics and all positions in government, in order to contest Singapore's presidential election.

His last sitting day in parliament was on Jul 6.

SINDA APPRECIATION CEREMONY

Later on Saturday, Mr Tharman spoke at the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) appreciation ceremony for volunteers and partners about the importance of strengthening collaboration between self-help groups on similar programmes, and doubling down on outreach efforts to the most vulnerable.

Mr Tharman, who is the chairman of SINDA, highlighted that it is “in the interest of all Singaporeans that every community progresses and succeeds”.

“If we can create programmes by pooling expertise, pooling resources, pooling efforts that are the highest quality and provide access to students of all races to those programmes, we are better off,” the former Coordinating Minister for Social Policies said.

Mr Tharman also noted that children should "mix as much as possible” as they grow up. This is a task for schools especially, he said, including during early childhood education.

But what children do outside school also counts, as it’s how they “develop friendships, a sense of comfort with each other, and at very least, we prevent distances from growing between the communities”, he added.

Illustrating how collaborative efforts across the self-help groups have grown, Mr Tharman pointed out that about 43 per cent of students from the individual self-help groups’ education programmes also participated in joint education programmes.

Such efforts are carried out in various ways, including a joint entity set up by the self-help groups dedicated to student care. This entity oversees 30 primary school-based centres.

There are also 175 collaborative tuition programme centres across the island – jointly run by the self-help groups – providing heavily subsidised tuition for students of all races.

Finally, there are “hubs” for joint self-help group activities reaching out to beneficiaries of all races, such as Vibrance@Yishun.

Beyond educational programmes, Mr Tharman added, self-help groups are also co-organising Forward SG dialogues to bring together youths from different backgrounds who want to make a positive difference in society.

“There are many advantages, in fact, in bringing them together in those dialogues," he said.

A total of 236 awards were given out on Saturday to recognise SINDA volunteers and partners for their efforts.

Mr Tharman, Second Minister for Finance and president of SINDA Indranee Rajah, and Member of Parliament and SINDA’s executive committee member Murali Pillai handed out these awards.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by Today Online

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