Parliament to discuss new laws for President, disruption to public hospitals' websites

File photo of the Parliament House in Singapore. (Photo: CNA/Syamil Sapari)

SINGAPORE: Members of Parliament will debate on Wednesday (Nov 22) amendments to Singapore's Constitution that will allow the President to accept appointments in foreign and international organisations.

In tabling the amendments earlier this month, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said that accepting such positions can enhance Singapore's international standing and help advance national interests. 

The Constitution currently does not empower the President to take up public roles where he acts in his private capacity. 

President Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who was sworn in on Sep 14, resigned from all positions in the government and the People’s Action Party to stand in the presidential election.

He currently holds various positions on international bodies, including chairman of the board of trustees of the Group of Thirty (G30), an independent global council of economic and financial leaders, and co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. 

Mr Tharman also sits on the advisory board for the UN Human Development Report and on the board of trustees for the World Economic Forum.

The Constitution of the RepuAlso, for the President to take up such roles, they must not be prohibited under the Constitution from performing the functions of that office. 

For example, Article 19A(1) bans the President from actively engaging in any commercial enterprise.

During its proposal, the PMO said that the Cabinet may also advise the President against saying or doing anything in performing the functions of such an office. The President must also relinquish an office if the Cabinet advises him or her to do so.

HOSPITAL WEBSITE OUTAGE

MPs will also discuss the hours-long disruption on Nov 1 that affected the websites of Singapore's public healthcare institutions, including all hospitals and polyclinics.

Health tech agency Synapxe has attributed the outage to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, in which online services or sites are overwhelmed by unusually high volumes of data traffic.

blic of Singapore (Amendment No. 3) Bill, if passed, will enable the President to perform such roles when the Cabinet advises that it is in the national interest to accept and hold that role. 

Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh asked about the remedial measures taken to mitigate future disruptions, as did MP Poh Li San (PAP-Sembawang), who also asked about the impact on users. 

MP Sylvia Lim (WP-Aljunied) wanted to know when the authorities would make public the report of the event, while MP Jessica Tan (PAP-East Coast) asked if the Health Ministry had any insight into the motive for the attack.

SPH ACQUISITION

Earlier this month, SPH Media entered into an agreement to acquire technology media company Tech in Asia (TIA) as part of "broader transformation efforts". The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

MP Louis Chua (WP-Sengkang) asked whether the government specifies restrictions on the use of the S$180 million annual funding to SPH Media Trust (SMT), such as transactions involving mergers and acquisitions. 

He also wanted to know if the government was aware of the price of SMT's acquisition of Tech in Asia and if there are measures in place to prevent "agglomeration risks" in the local media industry. 

SCAMSHIELD'S EFFECTIVENESS

MPs at Wednesday's sitting will also discuss the effectiveness of the government's ScamShield app, which checks incoming SMS messages and calls against a list of known scam numbers and filters them if there is a match.

MP Yip Hon Weng (PAP-Yio Chu Kang) asked if the ministry has been able to track its effectiveness in preventing scams and the percentage of the population who have downloaded the app. 

He also wanted to know if ScamShield or similar measures will be introduced to identify and block scammers from using social media and e-commerce platforms. 

MP Derrick Goh (PAP-Nee Soon) asked if the app complements malware detection apps used by banking customers. 

UDEMY BUSINESS, TELEGRAM

Based on the order paper released on Tuesday, other questions that MPs filed included one from MP Hany Soh (PAP-Marsiling-Yew Tee), who asked if the Ministry of Communications and Information had considered solutions to defray costs that would allow the National Library Board (NLB) to continue its subscription to Udemy Business.

The NLB announced earlier this month that it would stop offering access to the e-learning platform from Dec 15, citing a "significant" cost increase as one of the reasons. Udemy offers courses on topics such as software development, leadership, marketing, sales and programming.

MP Nadia Ahmad Samdin (PAP-Ang Mo Kio) filed a question on the use of the messaging app Telegram for selling and distributing sexually explicit material.

She asked the Minister for Home Affairs about the current measures to tackle the rising number of such Telegram channels, in light of the chat group SG Nasi Lemak. At its peak, more than 44,000 members were able to access pornographic material that was shared non-consensually.

This article was originally published on ChannelNewsAsia. Its inclusion on this website is solely for education purposes.