Singapore, Known for Clean Government, Rocked by Graft Probe, Resignations

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By Chun Han Wong

(The Wall Street Journal) — It has been a tough month for the party that has ruled Singapore since it became a nation nearly six decades ago.

A high-level corruption probe and the resignations of two ruling-party lawmakers over an extramarital affair have rocked the Southeast Asian city-state, where the political elite have built their legitimacy on a reputation for clean government and moral rectitude.

On Monday, Singapore’s prime minister said two lawmakers from his People’s Action Party, including the speaker of parliament, resigned from the legislature and the party because of an “inappropriate relationship” between the pair. The prime minister’s office released the two lawmakers’ resignation letters, in which they apologized. They didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

A week earlier, Singapore’s anticorruption agency arrested the transport minister and a well-connected billionaire for questioning in the country’s most high-profile graft investigation in nearly four decades.