On Monday, a Mr Edward Foo shared on Facebook the encounter he had with his constituency’s MP Dr Lee Bee Wah at her Meet The People session on Monday night. He had intended on handing her a petition containing over 800 signatures of residents in the area who are in support of the Ready4Repeal movement that wants Section 377A repealed from the Penal Code.
His story painted a bleak picture of Dr Lee avoiding his request for a conversation and dismissing his offer of the petition, leaving him to hand it over to a volunteer instead of the MP personally as he had intended.
Mr Foo told TODAY that the Ready4Repeal team had planned to have volunteers from each GRC approach their MPs and hand them a petition specific to their constituency. They were hoping that their MPs would then raise the issue in Parliament. However, Mr Foo said he felt that Dr Lee had rejected his attempt to voice his opinions and start a conversation about Section 377A.
He added, “All I wanted to do was start a discussion and have a platform for people to discuss not only Section 377A, but what an MP is supposed to do, who they are supposed to represent, and how we as a society should raise questions about the law.”
In response to the Mr Foo’s version of events on Facebook which picked up steam on social media, Dr Lee had apparently clarified with TODAY that she didn’t leave the room but instead “moved to another table in the same room where another resident was being seen”.
Apart from that, she referred them to a clarification posted on the PAP Nee Soon Branch Facebook page:
Their post was short and only noted that Mr Foo and his friend were attended to by volunteer letter-writers like every other resident and that Dr Lee spoke to them briefly before moving on.
That doesn’t sound like much a clarification to me at all. They’re merely repeating a small part of what Mr Foo had already described in his post, with even fewer words.
They didn’t clarify if Dr Lee had actually said “I have other residents with real problems” when Mr Foo said he wanted to talk about 377A. They didn’t clarify if Dr Lee refused to accept the petition from Mr Foo directly. They didn’t clarify is Dr Lee’s interactions with Mr Foo were as hostile as he claimed it was.
If Mr Foo’s version of events were untruthful or inaccurate, why aren’t Dr Lee and the PAP Nee Soon South Branch refuting his claim? Why are they not offering actual clarification on the specifics of what happened at that Meet The People session on Monday night?
