Law professor Eugene Tan said that regardless of the outcome of the investigation, it leaves Mr Iswaran’s political career “in grave doubt”.
“His political standing will be severely impacted. The ruling party will have to decide whether to field him in the next General Election, even if he is cleared by CPIB and AGC (Attorney-General’s Chambers),” he said.
LEAVE OF ABSENCE
Dr Eugene Tan, who is an associate professor of law from the Singapore Management University, added that being put on a leave of absence suggests that there is “preliminary credible evidence that laws may have been broken”.
“To avoid investigations being compromised should Mr Iswaran continue to exercise his powers and duties, it is proper for PM Lee to put him on leave of absence to uphold the integrity of the ongoing investigations,” he said.
Dr Gillian Koh, deputy director of research at the Institute of Policy Studies, pointed out a few differences between this CPIB investigation and the recently concluded one on Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam and Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan for renting state property.
One is that the CPIB had uncovered this case, unlike the Ridout Road matter, where the Prime Minister had asked the anti-corruption agency to establish if there was any wrongdoing.
“If there had been anything to the latter, and CPIB felt there was a prima facie case after initial investigations, we can be confident that it would escalate to the status with the current case of Minister Iswaran,” said Dr Koh. “In the event, CPIB found no wrongdoing in the Ridout one.”