The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) on Friday issued a clarification on an assertion in the statement from the estate of Mr Lee.
"The statement is incorrect in saying that the High Court decision that the estate holds a limited copyright to the oral history transcripts was a 'key point' that the Government had 'disagreed with' the estate on," said the AGC.
"On the contrary, the Government agreed that the estate had a limited copyright to the transcript under the interview agreement between Mr Lee Kuan Yew and the Government. In fact, the High Court’s finding that the estate held a copyright, 'but only for the purpose of ensuring the Government’s compliance with the terms' of the agreement, is identical with the argument that the Attorney-General submitted to the court on behalf of the Government on Jul 14, 2016," it said.
I think Rajah and Tann, the estate's lawyers, should have fought on the point that the transcripts were not covered under the OSA, as there was no govt agency that had classified it as a secret and that there was no written agreement between Old Fart and the oral history department that they were secret. As such, they need not be in govt custody, and that the judge has over stepped his boundary by ruling they were secrets under the OSA. Hence, the docs should be released to the estate.