DEC 21, 2003
Is it over for Steve Chia?
Non-Constituency MP and maid pictures are hot topic on the Net
By Ben Nadarajan
THE man who calls himself the 'Internet MP' has got the Net all abuzz with talk about his political future.
More than 500 postings were made on Internet forums after The Straits Times reported yesterday that nude photos of Non-Constituency MP Steve Chia and his maid had been found in his home, and that his wife Doreen, 31, had found them and told the police.
Most said that Mr Chia was finished as a politician. But some said they would reserve judgment until more was known, while others thought that personal matters should be left private.
Mr Chia, 34, is secretary-general of the National Solidarity Party and its only representative in Parliament.
He and his wife, who is pregnant with their first child, run a bridal salon in Tanjong Pagar Road.
He refused to be interviewed yesterday. But in a series of SMS messages, he said that he and the maid were not in the same pictures, and that the Indonesian maid was not photographed nude.
'There are no naked photos of the maid and my photos are of myself alone, not with the maid. She is not in the picture,' he said in one message.
But informed sources had said earlier that both were pictured naked.
Several online forum postings said Mr Chia should not have left 'incriminating evidence' lying around.
An Internet user said in a posting on the Sammyboy Alfresco Coffee Shop forum: 'It's the end lah... how to go campaigning with this kind of albatross around your neck?'
Mr Chia was brought in as a Non-Constituency MP by the Government after he garnered the most votes among the losing opposition candidates in the 2001 General Election.
He has made his presence felt at Parliament seatings, most recently by raising the thorny issue of 'white horses' in the military, a code for sons of VIPs.
Several readers said that they wanted to hear Mr Chia's side of the story before passing judgment.
Mr Johnson Eng, 31, an engineer, e-mailed The Sunday Times: 'His ability to make political decisions should not be questioned just because he has personal problems.'
Mr Chia's NSP colleagues were keeping mum about the matter.
NSP first organising secretary Victor Foo Kok Wah would only say: 'The whole committee, including Steve Chia, will sit down at a later date to discuss the issue.'
Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said yesterday evening at a community event in Bishan that an MP's position would be affected only if the offence carries a sentence.
'It's his personal matter. He has to resolve his family problems. And if he has committed an offence, he will have to face the law.'
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Call me foolish, but I'd sooner vote for the politician who admits to making mistakes than for those who make mistakes anyway but covers them up (or at least tries to) with excuses that stretch the boundaries of credibility. Well, I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that the gahmen that cuts our CPF and raises our GST are at least 'whiter than white' and that none of them takes naughty pictures of themselves or their maids.
