SINGAPORE: Although it has been two weeks since veteran journalist Bertha Henson was interviewed as part of the Inconvenient Questions series by ex-Nominated MP Viswa Sadasivan, some of her remarks are still receiving interest and fresh circulation online.
The concerns she raised about how the government dealt with last year’s scandals has, especially, caught the attention of people online. A one-minute and 35-second clip from Ms Henson’s interview with the series’ host, former Nominated Member of Parliament Viswa Sadasivan, was shared last week on r/SingaporeRaw, titled simply “Bertha is upset.”
When asked by the host what upsets her, the former Straits Times and New Paper editor right away answered “So many things. Where do I start?”
She first talked about the timeline of the corruption case against former Minister for Transport S Iswaran. “I can’t get it. To me it was the openness, you know?”
Ms Henson followed this up with the extramarital affair of former House Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin, saying, “I cannot fathom how an MP can say, ‘I don’t care what you, my secretary-general says to me, or my Prime Minister says to me, I’ll just carry on’.”
She also said it was unfair for voters to have watched these incidents go on while being totally unaware of their undercurrents.
The issue, for her, was one of “being frank with the people who voted you in.”
Asking why Mr Tan was still allowed to stay in his position for a time “as though everything was ok,” even though officials had known for months about the issue involving him, Ms Henson noted that “that is not frank, not honest.”
Former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that he had spoken to Mr Tan about his relationship with Cheng Li Hui, his fellow MP in February 2023. The former Speaker admitted his wrongdoing and offered to resign, but Mr Tan was asked to ensure first that the residents in his ward were taken care of.
On July 17, 2023, Mr Tan and Ms Cheng stepped down and their relationship was made public.
Ms Henson directness appeared to lead some commenters to wish for more of this type of discussions.
“I miss political commentaries/ op-ed,” wrote one. “We need more people like Bertha Henson, Dr Cherian and Dr Donald Low and many others. Being pro Singapore, we should welcome civil discourse. We are in a bubble. Not a good place tbh.”
Another wrote, “It’s the little voices like hers that we need to the gears in our heads turning.”
Commenters on YouTube, where the interview was published, also agreed.
One wrote, “She is right about transparency issues,” while another opined, “Without openness and transparency in government cannot really say what is good.”
Another appealed to Inconvenient Questions to “Please do more of this kind of interview. We need more constructive interviews and eye-opening ideas that can develop for our nation.” /TISG
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