Did PM Lee's speech mend the 'reputational crisis of a generation'? PR players weigh in

Yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke in parliament on the People’s Action Party (PAP) recent string of scandals with members of its parliament (MP) that has happened over the last few weeks. Most recently, an affair between members of parliament Tan Chuan-Jin and PAP MP Cheng Li Hui was uncovered, forcing the two ministers to resign and step away from duties in the government.

Just days before this, Singapore's transport minister S Iswaran was arrested and then released on bail after the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) stated that he was assisting with an investigation into an undisclosed case that was uncovered by the agency.

Don't miss: Will PAP's slew of incidents shake public trust?

In the parliament session, which lasted over an afternoon, PM Lee answered questions posed by the opposition party as well as questions that the public might have.

In his comments, PM Lee revealed that Iswaran has been interdicted from duty with a reduced pay of SG$8,500 a month till he is cleared of all charges. He also explained that news of Iswaran's arrest was not made public till much later due to the fact that full investigations were not complete. Lee also admitted that he should have acted faster when he first found out about the affair between Tan and Cheng and that he simply hoped to protect the families of all parties involved. 

The opposition party, particularly Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh, came at PAP hard with questions regarding both cases and accused the government of being "slow to clear the air" or "less than upfront" with Singaporeans when it came to dealing with these potentially embarrassing issues. 

Singh also said that the recent political scandals revealed a “a pattern of behaviour” with PAP and accused them of “engaging in half-truths on matters of significant public interest”.

Since then, PM Lee's speech as well as the party's response to questions posed have been dissected by local media and netizens alike, many of whom have pointed out issues and either criticised or praised PAP's handling of the issues. This was particularly important considering that MP Tan Wu Meng called PAP's recent events a "reputational crisis of a generation for Singapore".

In fact, Truescope Singapore’s managing director Kelvin Koh shared that the overall sentiments towards PAP after yesterday’s parliamentary discussions were negative. 

"Most of the conversations directed towards the PAP was following Singh's accusation against PAP for the perceived pattern of engaging in 'half-truths'. This is supported by our sentiment analysis chart over the last 24hrs, broken down by the hour," he said. 

Koh pointed out that a majority of netizens analysed expressed approval towards Worker's Party. They commended Singh for the questions posed as well as his delivery of the statements. Some netizens added that parliament needed more members from the opposition.

Notably, Koh also said that netizens criticised the PAP and claimed that they have already lost their trust in the party, stemming from perceived “double standards” and “lack of transparency”.

Looking at the discourse, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE decided to speak to public relations professionals in the industry to break down how effective PM Lee's speech was in assuaging the fears of the public, answering questions and restoring trust.

Edwin Yeo, the general manager at Strategic Public Relations Group noted that while PM Lee did well in terms of damage control and transparency, there is still a long way to go when it comes to restoring public trust. 

Maintaining public trust

"PM Lee did well under the circumstances. That said, there was a fine line he had to balance," said Yeo. "The minister and all involved are not, at this point, guilty of any crime, and no matter what the outrage of the public is, he cannot come across as though the verdict has already been reached."

That said, Yeo noted that public trust is not restored based on one speech in parliament or just on talk alone. "There must be some soul searching done with regards to whether governance within the party has been falling short," he said, adding:

If you're going to 'ownself check ownself', then voters do need to be convinced that your standards of governance are robust.

True enough, this will take time and the public will need to see if the actions taken by PAP in the coming months will do enough to convince the voting public that these were exceptions to the rule, rather than symptomatic of a larger culture issue within the ruling party, Yeo said. 

In a prior conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE in the wake of the revelation of Tan and Cheng's affair, communications professionals noted that considering that the news comes on the heels of the very public Ridout Road bungalow rental matter, there is a lot of damage control PAP needs to get ahead of.

Jose Raymond, the director of strategic advisory at PRecious Communications said at the time that it is never smooth sailing for any government of the day. He said:

The current issue at hand will definitely damage the PAP's 'whiter than white' brand, locally and globally. The only unknown would be the extent of the impact.

Raymond explained that the extent of the impact of these various incidents will largely remain unknown and that it will only be revealed at the next general elections. 

Agreeing with him, Charu Srivastava, the chief strategy officer at TriOn & Co noted that the compounding effect of all these issues will very likely to result in people in the party doing some self-reflection and evaluation and that to mitigate a stain on its reputation globally and locally will all come down to the way the matter continues to be handled and the eventual outcome, which is what PM Lee is attempting to do now. 

Adding on, Srivastava noted at the time that while the resignations by Tan and Cheng are a "clear action" by the party as a result of breach of party ethics and values, PAP needs to be honest and transparent.

"PAP needs to be honest and transparent in its handling of the ongoing CPIB case. A quick Google search will show that people have many valid questions but there is little clarity from the PAP," Srivastava explained.

She said that it will be good for PAP to remain clear about consequences of misconduct - be it corruption or unparliamentary language. Mere apologies or generic holding statements are not enough, she said, adding:

Action speaks louder than words, and the PAP needs to show that it walks the talk of being just and fair without bias.

Considering that the impact of these scandals will likely only be felt in the coming months, was the timing right in PM Lee's speech considering how crucial his transparency was or was it just a little too late?

Was the timing right?

Tarun Deo, the founder and managing director of Progressive Communications noted that it is never easy to get timing right when it comes to communicating bad news. 

"It’s a fine line to tread and this is why having a playbook or template that’s not rigid helps," he explained. "This is where not just political parties, but corporations need to make changes."

He noted that every scenario presents its own unique challenges and so assessing them specifically is key to getting it right hopefully more times than less and in that build a trust “surplus”. It’s impossible to get it right all the time but most stakeholders look at this over the long term.

"Generally, PM Lee has a good track record of being forthcoming and overall, PAP’s integrity has been tied into Singapore’s integrity and identity which we all know has served us well. But this is something to that has to be earned every day," Deo said. 

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