Squeaky clean Singapore was rocked by two cheating scandals this week involving politicians from the ruling and main opposition parties. While it may be just another ordinary Monday in some countries, the last time a member of parliament had to step down for something like this here was back in 2016. The incident prior to that one was in 2012, so it doesn't happen often for sure.
Now, unlike Taiwan and South Korea where infidelity is / was a crime, cheating on your spouse isn't a crime here. So, does it matter if a politician cheats? Younger me would have said no. Give me a politician who is not corrupt and can make good decisions and I'll overlook his marital transgressions.
But as I get older, maybe it isn't that simple. There's an interesting study about how infidelity affects professional conduct. You can read more about it here. But here's the key takeaway:
Police officers and financial advisors who use the infidelity website are significantly more likely to engage in professional misconduct. Results are similar for US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defendants accused of white-collar crimes, and companies with chief executive officers (CEOs) or chief financial officers (CFOs) who use the website are more than twice as likely to engage in corporate misconduct.
Let's be real, power is an aphrodisiac. No one goes into politics to be poor. But having said that, I would like my politicians to be able to do a cost-benefit analysis. What if the other party had been a foreign agent or an executive trying to win contracts for their company? Not a good look.
But the main reason why many are visibly upset in my opinion is that they can picture themselves in this scenario. The ones most impacted by these two scandals are the family members. It's a small world out there.
Pictures are of the cheaters involved in the scandals