SINGAPORE - Two women confronted Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam at his Meet-the-People Session (MPS) on March 12, causing a commotion outside his Chong Pang branch office that was caught on camera.
In a seven-minute video posted on Facebook by Mr Shanmugam, the pair are seen wearing shirts with “Press” in front, and the names of journalists killed in Gaza at the back. They approach him to talk about the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma).
The video shows them questioning him in a confrontational tone as residents and volunteers look on. At one point, they show onlookers the middle finger, and eventually shout at the minister when he walks away to attend to his duties.
In his Facebook post, the Nee Soon GRC MP said both women, who are sisters, were not residents in his constituency, and belong to a small group that has gone to different PAP MPS sessions in the last few months to be “deliberately confrontational, create incidents, try and provoke”.
They typically put out their version of events afterwards, painting the MP and his or her team in as negative a light as possible, he said.
ST understands the women belong to an activist group called Monday of Palestine Solidarity. The group has visited at least 10 MPS sessions, including National Development Minister Desmond Lee’s in West Coast GRC and Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo’s in Jalan Besar GRC.
Mr Shanmugam said MPS sessions are not places for protests.
“I understand that people may feel strongly about some issues. But MPS… is where residents go to their MPs to seek help. Many have acute concerns — housing, jobs, medical needs, family issues, and would wait patiently, often for hours, to speak with their MP,” he wrote.
“Hijacking these sessions is unfair to residents. There are appropriate avenues for advocacy - but disrupting sessions meant to help residents who are struggling with everyday challenges crosses a line.”
In the video, Mr Shanmugam is seen explaining to the women that he only sees his residents, after one of them said she lives in Punggol.
She asks for proof that MPs cannot attend to non-residents at MPS sessions, to which he responds that he will speak with them after attending to his own residents, if they do not mind waiting.
Initially, the pair agree. However, one woman then states that Mr Shanmugam’s explanation is “not true”, as other MPs have met with non-residents.
In his post, Mr Shanmugam said MPs can exercise discretion in seeing non-residents, even if the branch decides that only residents will be attended to. Most people understand this and would not accuse the MP of lying, he added.
The minister said the women accused him of lying, more than once, during the night.
“Their accusation, that I was lying, was typical of the way the engagement proceeded, through the night,” he noted.
Added Mr Shanmugam: “The antagonistic way in which they spoke, behaved, interrupted, threw accusations of lying, suggested that they wanted to make a scene, get some material to put out, rather than engage in a genuine discussion,” he noted.
In the video, one woman is seen getting agitated after being told that the conversation is being filmed. She demands that the video be deleted, adding that she did not consent to being filmed. Mr Shanmugam responds that as it is a public area, his volunteers have a right to record it.
“I told them that sometimes, my volunteers will follow me on my rounds, including at MPS, video my interactions, take photos,” he added in his post.
Reiterating that MPS sessions are for residents, Mr Shanmugam said he informed the women that he would be happy to discuss Pofma with them, if there is time.
“If there is no time, then they would be given a time for either me or someone else to see them, discuss Pofma,” he wrote. “I also had to step out for a while to join my Malay community leaders, to launch a Hari Raya light-up in my constituency. I explained to them that it was a busy night, I had a lot of office work pending as well – so they had to understand if I was not able to see them that night.”
In the video, when Mr Shanmugam turns to go back into the branch office, the two women, joined by another man, shout at him and call him a “coward”.
Mr Shanmugam said in his post: “I went back to them to tell them off for behaving in this way – I was quite unhappy with the disruption they were causing.
“They can’t, as non-residents, come to (an) MPS and insist that their political discussion take priority over the needs of the waiting residents,” he said.
He added that he spoke with the women, along with two others, for 30 to 45 minutes towards the end of the MPS session.
“I told them that we were recording the discussion – because I know what had happened in other MPS sessions,” he said. He added that the group told him they were not recording their discussion.
Said Mr Shanmugam: “I treat discussions at MPS as confidential, so won’t go into what was discussed.”
In a separate Facebook post, Nee Soon GRC MP Louis Ng stated his view that advocacy is important.
Citing his own experiences in advocating for different issues, he said: “But we must remain civil and respectful to get the change we want. That is part of advocacy as well.”
The Straits Times has contacted the PAP for more information.
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