PUBLISHED ONSeptember 16, 2026 3:45 AMBYDana LeongWhile Parliament's role is to ensure accountability for Singapore's national reserves, it cannot serve as a "risk committee" for individual companies, said Minister of State for Trade and Industry Foo Cexiang.
In particular, Foo was referring to concerns that Workers' Party MP Kenneth Tiong raised in Parliament earlier this month about Singapore Airlines' (SIA) investment into Air India and whether if will affect the airline's capacity to provide essential transport services.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday (Sept 15), Foo rebutted Tiong's comments, saying that he made a "major leap of logic" and painted an "alarming narrative".
"Members of Parliament (MP) have every right to raise questions about the national reserves, including how they are safeguarded and stewarded," Foo said.
"But that does not make Parliament the risk committee for individual companies."
MPs, he said, "do not have the operational data, expertise, or mandate" to determine how much commercial risk companies should take.
He added that if Parliament were to take on that role of a risk committee, it would raise questions about the responsibility of the SIA Board, and the Boards of other Temasek Portfolio Companies.
The SIA Board and Temasek — a major shareholder in the national carrier — should be responsible for overseeing SIA's risks, and that subjecting commercial decisions to political direction will not only weaken governance but be a "recipe for failure", Foo said.
Foo also criticised Tiong for conflating net debt with financial distress, and that SIA's debt of $10.7 billion cannot be taken without context.
"Debt is not automatically a sign of financial weakness," he said, explaining that most of SIA's borrowings are long-term and that its liabilities within the next 12 months are "well within its cash reserves".
According to Foo, SIA has "one of the most conservative and low risk capital structures amongst major global airlines", and that it has more than $10 billion in cash reserves.
Foo said: "Having been a business analyst, Mr Tiong must know these accounting basics. But he disregarded them to paint an alarming narrative by juxtaposing SIA's physical cash available today against long-term liabilities that aren't due for a decade."
"As MPs, we can and should ask hard questions. But our aim should be to create greater clarity, not confusion; to improve outcomes, not make them worse," he added.
Prior to Tiong's parliamentary question on Sept 8, he also urged that state investor Temasek's money not be used to shore up Air India, after the airline posted record losses of US$2.33 billion (S$2.97 billion) and requested for $1.9 billion in fresh equity from shareholders Tata Sons and SIA.
SIA owns about 25 per cent of Air India, and Temasek in turn owns most of the Singapore carrier, "so this is not only a question for private shareholders", Tiong said in a Facebook post on Aug 26.
"I will not support, nor expect, any future use of Temasek's funds to prop up Air India via Singapore Airlines. If Singapore Airlines wants to continue its bet on Air India, it should do so on its own two feet, and not on Temasek's," he said.
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