Hougang MP Yaw Shin Leong stays silent

UPDATED (28 Jan, 930am, add reax from WP party chief)

Member of Parliament for Hougang Yaw Shin Leong has gone dark.

The Worker's Party member has reportedly disappeared under the radar after being embroiled in an online storm over rumours of an extra-marital affair with a married female opposition party member.

According to The Straits Times, Yaw could not be contacted by phone, email or at his home. His weekly Meet-the-People session (MPS) earlier this week was also cancelled.

"You said yourself that these are rumours, why are you still asking me?" WP party chief Low Thia Kiang told the paper. 

Repeated attempts by Yahoo! Singapore attempted to contact Yaw and other members of the WP also failed to yield results.

Yaw’s alleged affair was made public in a report by socio-political blog site TR Emeritus, which said it received several tip-offs by reliable informants, some of whom attend the same church as Yaw. TRE said it ran the report after thorough research and verification.

When asked by The New Paper earlier this week about the allegations,  Yaw, 35, would only say: “I do not wish to comment on rumours.”

Yaw’s wife Madam Lau Wang Lin, though, posted a comment on her Facebook page earlier on Thursday morning, which appeared to refer to the incident.

“What’s the role of a journalist/editor? To sensationalise so as to create readership? Putting together piecemeal comments taken out of context such that it creates a picture of ‘reality’? Gutter journalism out on a prowl to create maximum damages. May God bless them,” she wrote.

According to TNP, the woman Yaw is alleged to have had an affair with said, “I hope you will not identify me or the other woman involved.”

It is unclear who “the other woman” mentioned was.

Yaw’s Facebook page has since been bombarded with comments from followers, calling for him to face the issue and apologise instead of deleting the offending comments. Others insist that the incident is a “PAP smear” campaign designed to kill support for the opposition.

He has also been compared to U.S. President Bill Clinton, who later admitted to having an “improper physical relationship” with 25-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky in 1998.