Why are there hardly any politicians in this photo of Singapore's parliament?

This article is more than one year old.
Published on May 2, 2019 at 09:30
3 min read
By AFP Singapore

An image of Singapore’s parliament in which only a few people can be seen has been shared hundreds of times in a Facebook post which asks why “nobody” is there. The image actually shows Singapore's parliamentary proceedings just after politicians returned from a break. According to official records, only six parliamentarians out of the 100 who sit in the house were absent that day.

A Facebook post here that has been shared hundreds of times contains a photo of the Singapore parliament in which most of the seats are empty. The image has text written across it which says: “Where’s everybody? Why nobody?”

The post also contains multiple other photographs of other parliaments around the world, including Australia, the United Kingdom, and Japan, which appear to have more people present.

The post’s caption says: “Spot the difference”.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

Screenshot of Facebook post

Google reverse image searches found that the photo of the Singaporean parliament used in the post had been taken from this April 1, 2019 Channel News Asia broadcast.

The footage on the CNA website has the headline: “Pritam Singh on restricting hate speech to maintain racial, religious harmony”.

The exact image that is used in the Facebook post appears at 00:17 of the CNA footage. The CNA logo can be seen in the top right hand corner of the image.

Below is a screenshot of the original CNA footage:

Screenshot of video

According to official parliamentary records which can be seen here, on the day the photo was taken, April 1, 2019, there were only six parliamentarians absent out of a total 100 lawmakers who sit in Singapore’s parliament.

According to the timestamp on the original CNA footage, the screenshot used in the Facebook post was taken just after the parliamentary session resumed at 4.40pm, according to this Hansard. The sitting had been suspended at 4.17pm for a break.

Below is a screenshot of the relevant section of the transcript, available in the parliamentary Hansard:

Screenshot of Singapore hansard

During the speech by the leader of the opposition, Pritam Singh, after the session on April 1, 2019 resumed at 4:40pm, in the CNA original footage a member of parliament could be observed returning to her seat behind him.

By 7.28pm, the time recorded here when Law Minister K Shanmugam begins his speech, which can be seen in full on CNA’s YouTube channel here, more seats have filled up as members of parliament return to the chamber.

According to Singapore’s parliamentary procedures which can be seen here on their official website, the first hour and a half of a parliamentary session is reserved for question time.

On April 1, 2019, parliament was dealing with questions about the Tuaspring desalination plant, according to the official records here, with the debate posted online here.

A screenshot below shows that there were more people present in the chamber during the question time:

Screenshot of video

On March 1, 2018, at the budget debate, 99 members of the house were in attendance, according to official records which can be seen here.

An official video of the debate can be seen here.

Below is a screenshot of the March 1, 2018 budget debate parliamentary session:

Screenshot of video

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