Prof Jayakumar reprimanded Sylvia Lim for conspiracy theory

By: robertteh

I am surprised as a lawyer, Prof Jayakumar does not seem to know or attach sufficient weight to the fact that under the constitution, courts and parliament are two places where elected MPs are officially granted the right to speak up on any issues, right;y or wrongly believed, factual or false, substantiated or unsubstantiated with immunity from any prosecution of any nature without fear or favor or threat of sanction.

Yet prof Jaya keeps forgetting this fact that MP Sylvia Lim was speaking with immunity from any threats or prosecution and it is wrong for him to threaten her with any commission of inquiry just because she raised certain issues not to the liking of the ruling party. As an elected representative she has the higher duty than ruling party's need to save face to ask questions conscientiously without being subjected to such threats or admonishing for resurrecting the past conspiracy theory raised by former MP Jeyaretnam.

Does MP Sylvia Lim not having the right to speak on relevant issues like independence of the judiciary free from any influence by the ruling party especially in a country widely known and even admitted to be practising autocracy or top-down system.

Has MP Sylvia Lim not the duty to ask questions in parliament so as to get facts from ministers. If Jayakumar is so sure that the judiciary is fully free from influence by the executive directly or indirectly, he is the one who should produce full facts to address issues of concern expressed in the past or now.

For example Jayakumar should clear the air himself to many unanswered issues from the past as well as to whether the decision to transfer judges like Michael Khoo was made independently without influence by the executive since such transfer seemed to happen to judges after favorable verdict was given to opposition leader being sued for speaking in the course of electioneering process.

All that Jayakumar needs to do is to understand that in an age of globalisation, ministers should globalize and not continue to work like ostriches with faces buried under the sand and refusing to answer question of MP with objective facts by countering her with convening commission of inquiry to put her down for truly speaking up on people's utmost issues.