Meet-the-People Session not a protest venue: Shanmugam

Sessions are meant to help residents, says minister after two sisters cause commotion

- Aqil Hamzah

Two women confronted Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam at his Meet-the-People Session 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 two are seen wearing shirts with the word "Press" in front, and the names of journalists killed in Gaza on the back. They approached 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 looked on.

At one point, they showed onlookers the middle finger and shouted at the minister when he walked 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 belonged to a small group that has gone to different PAP Meet-the-People 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.

The women belong to an activist group called Monday of Palestine Solidarity, said the People's Action Party in a statement.

The group has visited more than 10 Meet-the-People 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.

The PAP said the group would create a ruckus in the waiting area and disrupt the queue system while also filming and raising their voices, affecting residents who were at the sessions to speak to their MPs and volunteers.

The volunteers would also be subject to heckling by members of the activist group.

The PAP said: "It is not right that our volunteers are subject to taunts and accusations about their motives and character."