{"id":85908,"date":"2026-09-18T12:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T04:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85908"},"modified":"2026-09-18T12:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T04:52:16","slug":"speaker-seah-kian-peng-apologises-for-nodding-off-in-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85908","title":{"rendered":"Speaker Seah Kian Peng apologises for nodding off in Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"text-primary article-summary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013 Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng has apologised for nodding off while chairing proceedings in the House on Sept 9.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In a Facebook post on Sept 18, Seah said he had been feeling unwell that day and taken medication, but added that that does not excuse what happened.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cThis should not have happened, and I take full responsibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Seah was seen nodding off during a debate on a Bill to consolidate health regulatory functions under the Health Sciences Authority (HSA).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Speaker Seah Kian Peng apologises for nodding off while chairing parliamentary proceedings\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oWD_LYS-oJI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">After Hougang MP Dennis Tan finished his speech, the Speaker was supposed to call on the next MP to speak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">There was a pause of about 20 seconds that was caught on the live feed, and Seah did so after he was roused by a parliamentary staff member.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In his Facebook post, Seah added that he should have called for a break earlier rather than continuing, and that he normally does so after four to six hours of parliamentary proceedings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He had fallen asleep after the four-hour mark on that day\u2019s sitting, which began at 10.30am.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Seah added that over the past three years as Speaker, he has sought to discharge his duties conscientiously and to uphold the standards expected of the office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cThis incident fell short of those standards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He apologised for the lapse and said he will learn from it and take steps to ensure it does not happen again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cI remain fully committed to serving Parliament and Singaporeans to the best of my ability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Sept 9 incident took place on the second day of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/live-singapore-parliament-september-2026?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\">a three-day parliamentary sitting<\/span><\/a> that saw MPs debate the Government\u2019s response to a review of the salaries of political office-holders and MPs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On Sept 8, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Coordinating Minister for Public Services Chan Chun Sing delivered ministerial statements that said the Government had accepted recommendations by a salary review committee, and would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/politics\/ministerial-pay-to-rise-by-up-to-9-per-cent-in-first-adjustment-since-2011?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\">raise the benchmark annual salary for a minister at the entry-level MR4 grade to $1.8 million from $1.1 million<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">However, political salaries would not be moved to the new benchmark immediately. Instead, existing political officeholders will on Oct 15 get a one-off increment of up to 9 per cent, depending on their performance, said PM Wong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">This will bring the salary of a minister at MR4 grade to close to $1.2 million. The Prime Minister said he expects most ministers at MR4 to earn about $1.35 million by the end of this term of government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On Sept 10, the House debated the revised salary structure, which included the tightening of three of the four indicators used to determine the variable component of political officeholders\u2019 pay: unemployment rate, as well as the real income growth rate of Singaporeans at the 50th percentile and 20th percentile.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The fourth indicator, real GDP growth rate, will be revised down from Jan 1, 2027, given Singapore\u2019s maturing economy, said the Government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The sitting also saw Parliament debate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/politics\/singapores-food-resilience-not-about-guaranteeing-every-food-product-remains-available-grace-fu?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\">a motion on Singapore\u2019s food resilience<\/span><\/a> and pass four sets of laws, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/politics\/public-can-approach-health-sciences-authority-with-various-health-concerns-as-agency-widens-scope?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\">including the Bill on the HSA\u2019s powers<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/politics\/speaker-seah-kian-peng-apologises-for-nodding-off-while-chairing-parliamentary-proceedings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE \u2013 Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng has apologised for nodding off while chairing proceedings in the House on Sept 9. In a Facebook&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}