Singapore's prime minister pledges 'zero tolerance' after recent wave of political scandals

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A general view of the Central Business District and the Merlion, illuminated with a projection during the iLight Marina Bay on March 29, 2018 in Singapore. Singapore's prime minister Lee Hsien Loong vowed Wednesday to uphold "zero tolerance" toward any wrongdoing by government officials. His comments came after a wave of political scandals rocked the Southeast Asian nation in recent weeks, tarnishing the pristine image that underpins its standing as a global financial center. "The founding generation built up Singapore and entrusted it to our generation in good shape," Lee said in a parliamentary address Wednesday. "It is incumbent on us to protect and uphold this system, to keep it incorruptible and clean, and maintain high standards of propriety." Transport Minister S. Iswaran was arrested last month, alongside property tycoon Ong Beng Seng, in relation to a probe by Singapore's anti-graft agency, marking the first time in nearly four decades a cabinet official has been involved in corruption. Days later, the former House Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin resigned after failing to end an extra-marital affair with Cheng Li Hui, a female member of parliament from the ruling People's Action Party. These incidents were preceded by an investigation into two other cabinet ministers about their rentals of state-owned colonial bungalows, which eventually exonerated Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam and Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan of any wrongdoing. Lee said actions taken after these scandals showed two aspects of how his PAP government works. "One, when there is a suspicion or allegation of wrongdoing in the discharge of official duties, especially possible corruption, there is zero tolerance," he said in the first parliamentary session after these events,. "Two, when people slip in their personal lives, the PAP will look at the facts of each case carefully, and deal with the matter as humanely and sensitively as possible, according to the principles the Party has established," Lee added.