Are our MPs taking the job seriously?

Dear Mr. Tan,

I was shocked to read the following on the papers recently:

 

"The Land Transport Authority of Singapore (Amendment) Bill was not passed yesterday as fewer than a quarter of members were present in the House at the end of the debate. Mr Lui is expected to address the LTA's role in last December's train disruptions in Parliament today." Today 10 July 2012

 

How can there be fewer than 25% of the MPs be present in our Parliament at the end of a debate? A Parliament is in session and so many of them were absent or left midway? Less than 25% means 3 out of 4 MPs are absent. How effective is such a debate? And the session is an important one as it is with regard to the SMRT breakdown last year. Is it not ironic that so much time, effort and money were spent in a COI and yet when the issues were discussed and debated in Parliament less than 1 in 4 of our MPs were not even there!.

 

Do you find it healthy or even disturbing that there are so many MPs who were not present in Parliament? How can our MPs be expected to do their job when they are not even present in Parliament. There are so many of them who choose to attend to other supposedly more important matters. It is pretty sad. Regardless of what is been discussed in Parliament I think they are definitely important issues.