Shanmugam refutes The Online Citizen's 'false' suggestion that he tipped media off to Leon Perera's ex-driver
SINGAPORE: Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Wednesday (Jul 19) said it was "false" to suggest that he had tipped off a media outlet and provided information on the ex-driver of former Workers' Party (WP) member Leon Perera.
Mr Perera was a Member of Parliament for Aljunied before he and fellow party member Nicole Seah resigned from the opposition bloc on Wednesday, in the wake of revelations that they were having an extramarital affair.
After a video showing Mr Perera caressing the hands of Ms Seah surfaced on Facebook on Monday, local digital platform AsiaOne posted an interview with Mr Perera's former personal driver the next day.
The Online Citizen Asia (TOCA) blog then put up an article on Wednesday with the headline: AsiaOne’s quick access to Leon Perera’s former driver: Coincidence or calculated move?
The article questioned the timeliness of AsiaOne's post and claimed that an AsiaOne employee, Edmund Chua, had been in contact with Mr Perera's former driver for more than a year.
TOCA also said Mr Chua worked for "Chong Pang Grassroots Organizations" headed by Mr Shanmugam, and that the latter had visited AsiaOne's new office days before the video made its rounds on social media.
Mr Shanmugam wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday night that TOCA's article was "false in relation" to him.
"First there is a suggestion that an employee of AsiaOne, Edmund Chua used to work in my constituency. That is so. The innuendo is that I must have tipped off Edmund to contact the ex-driver of Mr Perera, and that is how AsiaOne managed to get him," said the minister.
"This is false. I do not know the ex-driver, I do not have his contact or name, and I did not tip off or give any information on the ex-driver to anyone including AsiaOne."
Mr Shanmugam said he had no such information and and had not dealt with or spoken with Mr Chua on the matter.
He also said his visit to AsiaOne's office "was not days before the video surfaced" and that he was not in Singapore until Monday evening.
"I visited AsiaOne on Jun 13, to speak with its journalists. I also visited Mothership, in the same period, on Jun 22. This is part of my regular engagement with a broad section of society, including ... journalists from mainstream and online media and so on," said Mr Shanmugam.
"TOCA continues to publish recklessly, without any regard for the truth."
Workers' Party MP Leon Perera and party member Nicole Seah resign over affair
• Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) Member of Parliament Leon Perera and senior Workers' Party (WP) member Nicole Seah were seen in a leaked video holding hands over a candlelit dinner
• They had both resigned since the video was leaked on Monday (July 17), said Workers' Party Secretary-General Pritam Singh
• The duo had resigned not solely because of the affair, but also because they had first lied to party members when asked about it earlier, he added
• The party has an article in its constitution that it holds 'very, very close to its heart', and that is being frank and honest, said Mr Singh
SINGAPORE — Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) Member of Parliament Leon Perera and senior Workers' Party (WP) member Nicole Seah have resigned from their positions within the party, it was revealed at a press conference at the party's headquarters on Wednesday (July 19).
WP's Secretary-General Pritam Singh said that the duo had resigned not solely because of the affair, but also because they had first lied to party members when asked about it earlier when initial evidence presented itself, which falls afoul of the party's constitution.
It was only when a video clip on social media that appeared to show Mr Perera and Ms Seah holding hands and having a conversation over a candlelit dinner that Mr Singh spoke to the pair again. That was when they admitted to the affair, he said.
Mr Singh added that the affair had started after the 2020 General Elections and had stopped "some time ago".
Mr Singh said that had Mr Perera not resigned, he would have been expelled from the party. He later said that this was due to Mr Perera being untruthful to party leaders.
Mr Perera, 53, is married with two children.
Ms Seah, 36, got married in 2015 and gave birth to her second daughter last year.
She had contested in the East Coast GRC in the 2020 General Election and was part of the WP team that lost to the People's Action Party (PAP) team led by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat.
WHAT TRANSPIRED
Mr Singh said that he was first informed of the affair by Mr Perera's ex-driver through WhatsApp. The driver had informed him that Mr Perera and Ms Seah were "meeting very often at restaurants and hotels, and have been seen hugging each other and holding hands".
"There was no evidence of corroborative information to support the allegation. I do not know Leon’s driver personally, upon receipt of this information I asked Leon whether anything was going on between him and Nicole," said Mr Singh.
He said that Mr Perera had confirmed that the allegations of his driver were untrue, and that he was in an ongoing dispute with this driver and was about to terminate his services and had sought legal advice on the driver's allegations.
The driver also shared similar information with other members of the party, including party chair Sylvia Lim, Aljunied GRC MP Gerald Giam, Hougang MP Dennis Tan, and Sengkang GRC MP Jamus Lim. These members had all sought to verify the allegations with Mr Perera.
"Leon told them that there was no truth to these allegations," said Mr Singh.
Other members of the party's central executive committee (CEC) also approached Ms Seah after being informed of the same allegation, but she likewise confirmed with them that there was no truth to the allegation.
Both Mr Perera and Ms Seah were in the WP's CEC, which is the party's top decision-making body.
"When the video of Nicole and Leon emerged on Monday, that was the first time all of us saw it," said Mr Singh.
BOTH MEMBERS RESIGNED, WOULD HAVE BEEN EXPELLED OTHERWISE
Mr Singh said that upon viewing the video for the first time on Monday, he immediately contacted Mr Perera and Ms Seah to meet them separately that afternoon.
"Both of them admitted that they had an affair, which started after the General Elections in 2020, but that it had stopped some time ago," said Mr Singh. He did not give details on when the affair stopped.
Mr Singh said Mr Perera had acknowledged that he should have been "more forthcoming when I and other party members first approached him about the allegations made by his driver".
He said that the party's CEC met on Monday evening to discuss this matter and to come to a decision. On Tuesday, Mr Singh received Ms Seah's letter of resignation from the party.
In the letter, Ms Seah acknowledged that her actions were "selfish and reckless" and that in "pursuing impropriety", she had caused "grave disappointment" to voters in the East Coast GRC.
Mr Singh added that he had received Mr Perera's resignation letter on Wednesday, and that Mr Perera had also informed the acting Speaker of Parliament that he was resigning his seat in Parliament.
In his letter to Mr Singh, Mr Perera said that he had fallen short of the standards expected of him, and also apologised for "not being forthcoming with information" when the issue first came up within the party.
Mr Singh said that the Constitution of the WP requires candidates to be honest and frank in their dealings with the party and the people of Singapore.
"Leon’s conduct of not being truthful when asked by the party leadership about the allegations fell short of the standards expected of workers party MPs," he said. "This is unacceptable."
"Had not offered his resignation, I would have recommended to the CEC that he be expelled from the party," he added.
DID PAP RESIGNATIONS PRESSURE WP?
When asked by TODAY about whether PAP's resignations over their affair influenced WP to do the same, Mr Singh said that the reason why Mr Perera and Ms Seah had to resign was not solely due to the affair, but their lack of honesty.
Following the recent incidents involving politicians in affairs, political pundits had weighed in that the shock resignations of Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin and Tampines MP Cheng Li Hui from the PAP likely put pressure on Mr Perera and Ms Seah to do the same should they be involved in an inappropriate relationship.
"The reason (for the resignations) is not because of what happened, because of the affair, the reason was because the party has an article in its constitution that it holds very, very close to its heart, and that is being frank and honest," said Mr Singh.
"If you fall afoul of that, then the consequences are severe."
Mr Singh said he is not referring to Mr Tan Chuan-Jin's affair, but about the two WP members "not being upfront with the party leadership" when asked about the allegations.
He added that party members have a duty to be honest, which is then how Singaporeans will have faith and confidence of the party.
And while Mr Singh said that he regards Mr Perera as a "highly effective MP" and an important member of the WP team, there are also "other things" that cannot be ignored.
"The standard (has) to be kept and party discipline is incredibly important if you want to see us in advancing the interests of Singapore and Singaporeans... So that's how the decision was made," he said.
'UNCANNY COINCIDENCE'
When asked for his take of the close timing of the incidents involving WP's and PAP's MPs, Mr Singh said that any comment he makes will be "speculative".
"I don't really enjoy a speculative narrative given my position, and I don't want to encourage speculative statements in public from any of my party members," he said.
"But the fact that you are asking the question suggests that it is on your mind, and I think it's on a lot of people's minds, and I leave you to draw your own conclusion on this uncanny coincidence."
In full: Nicole Seah's resignation letter and the reply from Workers' Party chief Pritam Singh
SINGAPORE: Workers' Party (WP) member Nicole Seah on Tuesday (Jul 18) informed Secretary-General Pritam Singh of her decision to resign from the party due to an affair with fellow party member Leon Perera.
She said she is sorry for bringing disrepute to the party's standing.
Read Ms Seah's letter to Mr Singh, in full:
Dear Pritam,
I offer my resignation as a member of The Workers' Party with immediate effect, owing to my personal misconduct with another member of the Party. I am grateful to the Party for the numerous opportunities and responsibilities given to me over the last few years, which I have carried out with fullest diligence. I am deeply sorry for bringing disrepute to the Party's standing and the hard work of its members and volunteers.
My actions were selfish and reckless. In pursuing impropriety, I have caused grave disappointment to the voters of East Coast GRC, and a significant base of members and volunteers who have sacrificed their personal time and resources to support the extensive groundwork we have done over the last few years. I am deeply saddened with regret to leave my running mates Kenneth Foo and Abdul Shariff, alongside a group of dedicated members and volunteers who now face the herculean task of winning back the trust of the constituents, vote by vote.
I am also mindful that my public standing means I should have been a better role model towards younger Singaporeans and youth members of the Party. I am very sorry that I am unable to carry on the good work of engaging the youth. I am confident that the Youth Wing exco will continue to flourish with enthusiasm and pride in the events and initiatives they will create throughout the course of their term.
Finally, I apologise to my loved ones for any embarrassment this might have caused, in particular my husband and my mother. Throughout this episode, I would like to humbly request that the privacy of my family be respected, as we seek to move ahead.
This is Mr Singh's letter to Ms Seah, in full:
Dear Nicole,
I acknowledge your letter of resignation from The Workers' Party (WP) dated 18 Jul 2023. You acknowledged therein that you fell short of the standards expected of the party.
Your resignation was deliberated by the Central Executive Committee the same evening. It was accepted as the requirement to be frank and honest in our dealings with the party and the people of Singapore is exacting and non-negotiable.
You made significant contributions to the WP. Your consistent commitment to the party's outreach efforts in East Coast GRC after the 2020 General Elections was but one example of your dedication and willingness to work hard for the party's cause. Your leadership of the WP Youth Wing was also greatly appreciated by the party.
I thank you for your valued service.
I was comforted to learn from you that you started the process of healing with your family last year. You have my full support in this regard, and I wish you all the very best in all your future endeavours.
Leon has been completely scrubbed from Aljunied GRC's NDP poster....
At least she can take comfort in the fact her resignation letter received an A+ grade heh
Nicole ah Nicole.....
Shanmugam refutes The Online Citizen's 'false' suggestion that he tipped media off to Leon Perera's ex-driver
SINGAPORE: Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Wednesday (Jul 19) said it was "false" to suggest that he had tipped off a media outlet and provided information on the ex-driver of former Workers' Party (WP) member Leon Perera.
Mr Perera was a Member of Parliament for Aljunied before he and fellow party member Nicole Seah resigned from the opposition bloc on Wednesday, in the wake of revelations that they were having an extramarital affair.
After a video showing Mr Perera caressing the hands of Ms Seah surfaced on Facebook on Monday, local digital platform AsiaOne posted an interview with Mr Perera's former personal driver the next day.
The Online Citizen Asia (TOCA) blog then put up an article on Wednesday with the headline: AsiaOne’s quick access to Leon Perera’s former driver: Coincidence or calculated move?
The article questioned the timeliness of AsiaOne's post and claimed that an AsiaOne employee, Edmund Chua, had been in contact with Mr Perera's former driver for more than a year.
TOCA also said Mr Chua worked for "Chong Pang Grassroots Organizations" headed by Mr Shanmugam, and that the latter had visited AsiaOne's new office days before the video made its rounds on social media.
Mr Shanmugam wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday night that TOCA's article was "false in relation" to him.
"First there is a suggestion that an employee of AsiaOne, Edmund Chua used to work in my constituency. That is so. The innuendo is that I must have tipped off Edmund to contact the ex-driver of Mr Perera, and that is how AsiaOne managed to get him," said the minister.
"This is false. I do not know the ex-driver, I do not have his contact or name, and I did not tip off or give any information on the ex-driver to anyone including AsiaOne."
Mr Shanmugam said he had no such information and and had not dealt with or spoken with Mr Chua on the matter.
He also said his visit to AsiaOne's office "was not days before the video surfaced" and that he was not in Singapore until Monday evening.
"I visited AsiaOne on Jun 13, to speak with its journalists. I also visited Mothership, in the same period, on Jun 22. This is part of my regular engagement with a broad section of society, including ... journalists from mainstream and online media and so on," said Mr Shanmugam.
"TOCA continues to publish recklessly, without any regard for the truth."
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/k-shanmugam-online-citizen-asiaone-leon-perera-driver-nicole-seah-workers-party-3640156
Yo Nicole, BBC ho jiak bo?
宁教人打子,莫叫人分妻
Hell yeah, ditch the unfaithful bitch already!
From Nicole Seah to Nicole Slut, guess it's true when folks say demure-looking girls are the most cock hungry
Workers' Party MP Leon Perera and party member Nicole Seah resign over affair
• Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) Member of Parliament Leon Perera and senior Workers' Party (WP) member Nicole Seah were seen in a leaked video holding hands over a candlelit dinner
• They had both resigned since the video was leaked on Monday (July 17), said Workers' Party Secretary-General Pritam Singh
• The duo had resigned not solely because of the affair, but also because they had first lied to party members when asked about it earlier, he added
• The party has an article in its constitution that it holds 'very, very close to its heart', and that is being frank and honest, said Mr Singh
SINGAPORE — Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) Member of Parliament Leon Perera and senior Workers' Party (WP) member Nicole Seah have resigned from their positions within the party, it was revealed at a press conference at the party's headquarters on Wednesday (July 19).
WP's Secretary-General Pritam Singh said that the duo had resigned not solely because of the affair, but also because they had first lied to party members when asked about it earlier when initial evidence presented itself, which falls afoul of the party's constitution.
It was only when a video clip on social media that appeared to show Mr Perera and Ms Seah holding hands and having a conversation over a candlelit dinner that Mr Singh spoke to the pair again. That was when they admitted to the affair, he said.
Mr Singh added that the affair had started after the 2020 General Elections and had stopped "some time ago".
Mr Singh said that had Mr Perera not resigned, he would have been expelled from the party. He later said that this was due to Mr Perera being untruthful to party leaders.
Mr Perera, 53, is married with two children.
Ms Seah, 36, got married in 2015 and gave birth to her second daughter last year.
She had contested in the East Coast GRC in the 2020 General Election and was part of the WP team that lost to the People's Action Party (PAP) team led by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat.
WHAT TRANSPIRED
Mr Singh said that he was first informed of the affair by Mr Perera's ex-driver through WhatsApp. The driver had informed him that Mr Perera and Ms Seah were "meeting very often at restaurants and hotels, and have been seen hugging each other and holding hands".
"There was no evidence of corroborative information to support the allegation. I do not know Leon’s driver personally, upon receipt of this information I asked Leon whether anything was going on between him and Nicole," said Mr Singh.
He said that Mr Perera had confirmed that the allegations of his driver were untrue, and that he was in an ongoing dispute with this driver and was about to terminate his services and had sought legal advice on the driver's allegations.
The driver also shared similar information with other members of the party, including party chair Sylvia Lim, Aljunied GRC MP Gerald Giam, Hougang MP Dennis Tan, and Sengkang GRC MP Jamus Lim. These members had all sought to verify the allegations with Mr Perera.
"Leon told them that there was no truth to these allegations," said Mr Singh.
Other members of the party's central executive committee (CEC) also approached Ms Seah after being informed of the same allegation, but she likewise confirmed with them that there was no truth to the allegation.
Both Mr Perera and Ms Seah were in the WP's CEC, which is the party's top decision-making body.
"When the video of Nicole and Leon emerged on Monday, that was the first time all of us saw it," said Mr Singh.
BOTH MEMBERS RESIGNED, WOULD HAVE BEEN EXPELLED OTHERWISE
Mr Singh said that upon viewing the video for the first time on Monday, he immediately contacted Mr Perera and Ms Seah to meet them separately that afternoon.
"Both of them admitted that they had an affair, which started after the General Elections in 2020, but that it had stopped some time ago," said Mr Singh. He did not give details on when the affair stopped.
Mr Singh said Mr Perera had acknowledged that he should have been "more forthcoming when I and other party members first approached him about the allegations made by his driver".
He said that the party's CEC met on Monday evening to discuss this matter and to come to a decision. On Tuesday, Mr Singh received Ms Seah's letter of resignation from the party.
In the letter, Ms Seah acknowledged that her actions were "selfish and reckless" and that in "pursuing impropriety", she had caused "grave disappointment" to voters in the East Coast GRC.
Mr Singh added that he had received Mr Perera's resignation letter on Wednesday, and that Mr Perera had also informed the acting Speaker of Parliament that he was resigning his seat in Parliament.
In his letter to Mr Singh, Mr Perera said that he had fallen short of the standards expected of him, and also apologised for "not being forthcoming with information" when the issue first came up within the party.
Mr Singh said that the Constitution of the WP requires candidates to be honest and frank in their dealings with the party and the people of Singapore.
"Leon’s conduct of not being truthful when asked by the party leadership about the allegations fell short of the standards expected of workers party MPs," he said. "This is unacceptable."
"Had not offered his resignation, I would have recommended to the CEC that he be expelled from the party," he added.
DID PAP RESIGNATIONS PRESSURE WP?
When asked by TODAY about whether PAP's resignations over their affair influenced WP to do the same, Mr Singh said that the reason why Mr Perera and Ms Seah had to resign was not solely due to the affair, but their lack of honesty.
Following the recent incidents involving politicians in affairs, political pundits had weighed in that the shock resignations of Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin and Tampines MP Cheng Li Hui from the PAP likely put pressure on Mr Perera and Ms Seah to do the same should they be involved in an inappropriate relationship.
"The reason (for the resignations) is not because of what happened, because of the affair, the reason was because the party has an article in its constitution that it holds very, very close to its heart, and that is being frank and honest," said Mr Singh.
"If you fall afoul of that, then the consequences are severe."
Mr Singh said he is not referring to Mr Tan Chuan-Jin's affair, but about the two WP members "not being upfront with the party leadership" when asked about the allegations.
He added that party members have a duty to be honest, which is then how Singaporeans will have faith and confidence of the party.
And while Mr Singh said that he regards Mr Perera as a "highly effective MP" and an important member of the WP team, there are also "other things" that cannot be ignored.
"The standard (has) to be kept and party discipline is incredibly important if you want to see us in advancing the interests of Singapore and Singaporeans... So that's how the decision was made," he said.
'UNCANNY COINCIDENCE'
When asked for his take of the close timing of the incidents involving WP's and PAP's MPs, Mr Singh said that any comment he makes will be "speculative".
"I don't really enjoy a speculative narrative given my position, and I don't want to encourage speculative statements in public from any of my party members," he said.
"But the fact that you are asking the question suggests that it is on your mind, and I think it's on a lot of people's minds, and I leave you to draw your own conclusion on this uncanny coincidence."
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/workers-party-mp-leon-perera-and-party-member-nicole-seah-resign-over-affair-2214311
他戴的绿帽好大哦