Does Shin Leong have a legal recourse?

~by: Kumaran Pillai~

The Workers' Party (WP) has summarily expelled an elected Member of Parliament Yaw Shin Leong with immediate effect for refusing to attend internal Party hearings to account for the alleged indiscretions in his private life. This is the first time the Party has taken such a drastic step on any member according to its Party's chief Low Thia Khiang.

WP's chairman Sylvia Lim at the media conference held to announce the dismissal of the Hougang MP from the Party, said that the party CEC has the powers to remove any member from the party. When asked about the alleged indiscretions, Ms Lim said that Mr Yaw has failed “to account to the party and the people.”

Mr Yaw however, can appeal to be reinstated into the membership of the Party.

Mr Yaw failed to ‘show-up' at the party meeting held on Tuesday 14^th of February 2012 to account to the CEC about his personal life. Since then, the party has not been able to contact him but has however informed Mrs Yaw of the party’s decision to expel him.

Mr Yaw could not be reached at the time of reporting and based on his last statement; the allegations were ‘nothing but rumours.’

The Hougang MP has several options of either appealing to the party and/or commencing legal action for unfair dismissal on account that WP’s decision to expel him was merely based on rumours of his extramarital affairs and the lack of accountability.

It remains unclear at the time of publishing this article if WP hadn’t formerly notified Mr Yaw of its decision. Mr Yaw Shin Leong has a case for legal recourse.