A POFMA direction has been issued to “Political Sophistry” with respect to a post that questioned why PM and DPM did not disclose the arrest of Minister Iswaran right from the beginning.
When I read the post, I did not see any allegation that PM or DPM is concealing the truth, but questions asking why there was no full disclosure initially. Do read it and reach your own conclusions.
Since HPL was not stopped from releasing the information that OBS has been arrested as part of its regulatory disclosure, presumably the disclosure does not compromise CPIB’s investigations.
So why did PM and DPM not do the same for Minister Iswaran? Isn’t this a matter of greater public interest?
The article on Factually website gave the reason that “it is CPIB’s operational judgement when and whether to make public that a person has been arrested in connection with their investigations.”
But when the person concerned is a Minister and the matter is one of great public interest, then, in my opinion, it should NOT be just a matter of operational judgement on the part of CPIB. CPIB should of course independently decide on their own course of action. But the political leaders should also exercise their judgement on what and when to disclose information on one of their own members.
The political judgement exercised here is rather difficult to understand.
https://www.gov.sg/article/factually200723-a
https://www.pofmaoffice.gov.sg/files/media-releases/pofma-pr-pmo-20july2023-01.pdf