Former Singapore Transport Minister S Iswaran has pleaded guilty to accepting gifts worth thousands of dollars while in office, reducing the charges from an initial 25 to just five. Iswaran, who resigned in January, admitted to four charges of breaching the Penal Code and one charge of obstruction of justice. The gifts included tickets to West End shows, flights, bottles of whisky, English Premier League match tickets, and a Brompton bicycle. Iswaran was the first political officeholder in Singapore in almost four decades to face trial for corruption.
He paid back 380,000 Singapore dollars to the state and will forfeit the items he received. The case comes as Singapore, ranked the fifth least corrupt country in 2023 by Transparency International, has seen a rare corruption trial involving a senior politician. The last corruption investigation involving a minister was in 1986 when former Minister for National Development Teh Cheang Wan was accused of accepting bribes. Tan Chuan Jin, the former Speaker of Parliament, also resigned recently after admitting to an extramarital affair with a fellow party lawmaker who also stepped down.
Iswaran’s guilty plea marks a significant moment in Singapore’s political landscape, with senior officials facing accountability for corruption. The trial sheds light on the challenges in maintaining integrity and ethics in government, despite the country’s reputation for low levels of corruption. The case highlights the importance of upholding strict standards of conduct among public servants and political officeholders to ensure transparency and accountability in Singapore’s governance.
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