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https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/la...ive-powers

When posing supplementary questions, Mr Leong said that Mr Shanmugam has not explained the reasons for rushing to pass the law. He also questioned the effectiveness of the legislation in countering foreign interference and asked why a judicial review is not part of the process, unlike other countries. 

Mr Shanmugam again berated Mr Leong for his comments that people can be detained without trial and said that his “blood pressure went up” while listening to the NCMP. 

He also chastised Mr Leong for dismissing examples of influence operations in Australia and Taiwan as “jokes”. 

The PSP member had asked Mr Shanmugam to give examples of foreign agents influencing the politics of other Asian countries in a substantial manner and said that earlier examples given seemed to be like “jokes” since the foreign influence was discovered before any permanent damage was done. 

And as for why a judicial review is not conducted here while other countries do so, Mr Shanmugam said that there are trade-offs with each legislation. 

He raised the example of how New Zealand does not have an Internal Security Act. Thus, it was not able to act before a supporter of terrorist group Islamic State attacked members of the public at a supermarket, even though the authorities had information about him being a potential danger for years.