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| Not the "Gentleman" move |
In June 1992, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, then Administrative Service Officer, was in the center of the storm concerning a leaked flash estimate of economic growth for the second quarter of 1992. The subsequent Official Secrets Act (OSA) investigation finding prepared by the ISD put the blame squarely on Tharman as the originating source, with recommendations that could torpedo his high flying civil service career. Kingmaker Lee Ek Tieng, then Managing Director of MAS, gathered support from other power brokers like Goh Keng Swee, J.Y. Pillay and Lim Kim San to neuter the ISD report. The complete list of those lobbied reads like a name dropper's wet dream, all spelt out in delicious detail in Ross Worthington's "Governance In Singapore," starting from page 155.
Twenty two long months after the publication of the flash estimate in the Business Times, the case was finally prosecuted, with an apriori arrangement that a non-custodial sentence would be considered. Tharman would be fined only $1,500, an amount that would ensure him free from impediment to stand for election.
Teo is not Tharman of course, but the stakes are also high. The last headache they need is another by-election.
Workers’ Party chairman Sylvia Lim is doing her job by filing an adjournment motion on the town councils review for the next Parliamentary sitting on 13 May 2013. The initiative will give her at least 20 minutes to air the public's perspective , “... time to articulate what we think are critical aspects of the review of town councils, and in particular the transactions MND was looking at as well." Let's hope she's a fast speaker, as the spectrum of shenanigans in the AIM transaction can easily fill a whole book. George Bush had a shoe thrown at him, the Gangnam Style dancer deserves to be whacked with a hefty volume.