Fixing the opposition

[LITTLEREDDOT]

EM Services cites manpower crunch for not putting in a bid in Sengkang Town Council tender​

The WP, which runs Sengkang Town Council, had said the tender exercise for a managing agent failed to attract any bids. PHOTO: ST FILE

Tham Yuen-C
Senior Political Correspondent

May 19, 2022

SINGAPORE - Sengkang Town Council's (SKTC) existing managing agent, EM Services, said on Thursday (May 19) that it did not put in a bid to continue in its role after its contract expires next year, because of a manpower crunch.
EM Services chief executive officer Tony Khoo, in response to queries from The Straits Times, said in an e-mail: "As you are aware, managing township requires many people.
"As labour market is very tight these days, it is not easy to find the right people who have the relevant skill sets. As such, we have decided to give it a miss for this tender."
On Tuesday (May 17), the Workers' Party-run SKTC - which comes under MPs He Ting Ru, Louis Chua and Jamus Lim - had said it would directly manage the entire town from next year after a three-week tender exercise in April for a managing agent failed to attract any bids.
The news had reignited debate among some quarters about the barriers that opposition-run town councils face, with some such as former WP Non-constituency MP Yee Jenn Jong saying in a Facebook post that the town council system had been designed to be political right from the start.
Asked about the perception that facilities management companies prefer not to work for opposition-run town councils and EM Services' experience managing SKTC, Mr Khoo declined to comment.
He said like any other managing agent tenders, factors that are considered before putting in a bid include "pricing, manpower, duration, technologies", among other things.

In the case of SKTC, it was manpower constraints that loomed large, he added.
He said EM Services is currently managing only a part of Sengkang town, but in the April tender, SKTC had been looking for a managing agent for the entire town.
SKTC was formed on July 30, 2020, to manage Sengkang GRC, a newly-formed constituency that was won by the WP at the general election that year, and had inherited managing agent contracts with EM Services and CPG Facilities Management.

The four-member constituency is made up of Buangkok, Compassvale and Rivervale divisions, formerly part of Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC and Punggol East SMC, as well as the Anchorvale division, formerly part of Sengkang West SMC.
The areas previously under Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC and Punggol East are managed by EM Services until its contract expires on Jan 31 next year, while the areas under Sengkang West SMC were previously managed by CPG Facilities Management.
The town council's contract with CPG ended on Oct 31 last year, and a tender exercise for a new managing agent received only one bid from a company that had no prior experience running a town council. SKTC then took over management of Anchorvale division.
ST has reached out to CPG for comment.
Another big player in the facilities management business, C&W Services, which manages Nee Soon Town Council, declined comment when asked if it had considered putting in a bid.

Mr Yee said on Wednesday (May 18): "Not at all surprised that there is zero bid to manage Sengkang Town Council. I had always believed that eventually, the town council had to be self managed whether we like it or not."
He had added that this political nature of town councils was a key argument in the Aljunied Hougang Town Council (AHTC) case, which is pending judgment by the Court of Appeal.
In 2017, AHTC had sued its own town councillors, including WP chief Pritam Singh, former WP chief Low Thia Khiang and WP chair Sylvia Lim over $33 million in improper payments that the town council had made under their watch.
Part of the case hinged on the hiring of AHTC's managing agent FM Solutions and Services, set up by a couple who were WP supporters. The WP leaders had awarded the job to the company without a tender after the WP won Aljunied GRC in the 2011 General Election.
Mr Low and Ms Lim had said during the court hearings that AHTC's then managing agent CPG was unwilling to continue in its role. They had also suggested that CPG, which they saw as being aligned with the People's Action Party, might "sabotage" matters.
On Tuesday, SKTC said as a matter of prudence, it had called for a tender for a managing agent in April this year, well in advance of next year's expiry of its contract with EM Services, but did not receive any bids.
SKTC did not respond to a request for comment.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

WP town councillors and AHTC employees did not owe fiduciary duties to AHTC: Court of Appeal​

The judgement said that the key fact that prevents fiduciary duties from applying to town councillors is that they were carrying out statutory duties under public law. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO

Lim Min Zhang
Assistant News Editor

Nov 9, 2022

SINGAPORE - The Workers’ Party MPs from Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) and other employees did not owe fiduciary duties to AHTC, the Court of Appeal said on Wednesday, reversing a finding from the High Court in 2019.
The main reason, said the five-member court in a written judgement, is that the relationship between a town council and its members and employees does not bear the characteristics of a fiduciary relationship.
However, the WP town councillors and employees owed a common law duty of care and skill to AHTC to carry out their duties in a non-negligent way, and they are not immune from claims against civil wrongs committed while executing the duties under the Town Councils Act if their actions were not carried out in good faith.
The judgement led by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said that the key fact that prevents fiduciary duties from applying to town councillors is that they were carrying out statutory duties under public law.
“Consequently, it is both unprincipled and inappropriate to ‘convert’ these statutory duties existing under public law into fiduciary duties existing under private law. To do so would completely erode the distinction between public law and private law.”
In his October 2019 judgement on the case, Justice Kannan Ramesh had said that town councillors must serve the interests of their Town Council with a “single-minded loyalty” and for proper purposes. They were therefore subject to both the standards of conduct imposed by public law, and to fiduciary duties imposed by private law.
“So far as the existence of a fiduciary relationship is concerned, I can see no principled distinction between a company and its directors, a management corporation and its council members, and a town council and its town councillors,” Justice Ramesh had said.

But the apex court ruled that the position of town councillors is distinct from that of a company’s directors, and that the nature of a fiduciary relationship being generally unsuited to the public law context has been recognised elsewhere, in the Supreme Court of Canada.
A fiduciary duty is one of the highest standards of care under the law. A breach of such duties results in “generous” financial remedies meant to prevent the abuse of such powers, the judges noted.
Wednesday’s judgement - the latest development in the long-running case that began in 2017 - sought to determine whether the town councillors’ and employees’ actions were done in good faith and in the execution of the Town Councils Act, and partially allowed the appeals from WP leaders and others involved in running the AHTC soon after the 2011 General Election.

The appeal judges said that none of the Parliamentary debates concerning the Town Councils Bill have indicated that a town council’s members and employees would owe fiduciary or equitable duties to it. It was “reasonably clear” from Parliament debates when the Town Councils Bill was introduced in 1988 that Parliament intended for town councils to serve both public and political functions.
Specifically, it was contemplated that, under the Town Councils Act, elected politicians would take on a greater role in managing estate and municipal governance, which had hitherto been the preserve of the Housing Board.
At the same time, the judges highlighted a previous judgement that said the Town Council scheme was “seen as a political measure that would deepen the connection between Members of Parliament… and the residents they were elected to serve in their constituency”.

“In this vein... this innately political dimension of the Town Council scheme also meant that the ultimate check against errant or ineffective Town Council members was thought to be at the ballot box.”
In short, the intention was for errant town council members to face political consequences, and bolsters the view that the relationship between a town council and its members and employees is not of a fiduciary nature, said the judges.
“Therefore, in our judgment, the Judge erred in finding that the town councillors and the employees owed fiduciary duties to AHTC,” they said.
“There is no principled basis on which fiduciary duties ought to be superimposed over and above the statutory duties which the town councillors and the employees were subject to.”

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

WP leaders displayed ‘grave neglect’ in allowing conflict of interest at AHTC to persist: Appeal Court​

The leaders had breached their duty of care by allowing “control failures” to exist in the payments process, the five-member court led by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said in a written judgment. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

Ng Wei Kai

Nov 9, 2022

SINGAPORE – The Workers’ Party leaders involved in running Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) were found to be grossly negligent in implementing a process to approve payments to their managing agent, the Court of Appeal said on Wednesday.
The leaders had breached their duty of care by allowing “control failures” to exist in the payments process, the five-member court led by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said in a written judgment.
The court said it appeared the town councillors, who included WP chairman Sylvia Lim, then-WP chief Low Thia Khiang, and current WP chief Pritam Singh, simply took it on faith that FM Solutions and Services (FMSS) was performing the work it was contracted for and being paid to do.
“There was no actual verification of whether work was done,” the court said. “Ms Lim, Mr Low and Mr Singh testified that their role was more to ensure that the cheque payments tallied with the invoices that they were presented with.”
“Furthermore, the supporting documents relied upon by the chairman and vice-chairman were prepared by FMSS’s personnel, which meant that the signatories were not independently informed other than by persons who were conflicted.”
“For completeness, even though Ms Lim gave evidence that she would, on occasion, take such supporting documents away with her to seek clarification instead of signing the cheque at the chairman’s meetings, it is not the town councillors’ pleaded case that this was the standard practice,” the court added.
FMSS was set up by Ms How Weng Fan and her husband Danny Loh, WP supporters who were later appointed deputy secretary and general manager, and secretary of AHTC, respectively.

The court said that while the town councillors and employees had acted in good faith in appointing FMSS as AHTC’s managing agent, they were also aware of the conflict of interest involved, but failed to address it properly.
“The risk of overpayment or at least improper payments to FMSS was clearly present in the town councillors’ minds,” the court said. “But... the payments process instituted was woefully inadequate.”
The court rejected arguments from the WP leaders that their contract making clear that payments to FMSS were to be in fixed monthly sums meant that there was no room for abuse.

It said: “Payments could have been made of fixed sums but the possibility of improperly certified works remained.”

A 2016 court-ordered audit of AHTC by accounting firm KPMG found “serious flaws” in the town council’s governance and highlighted improper payments of $33.7 million to FMSS.
The judgment said that the procedure of making monthly payments according to stipulated rates did not absolve the town councillors from having to see for themselves that the work was done, and such a process created an inherent risk of overpayment or payment for work which was not adequately completed.
The court also assessed a point made by the councillors that a set of standing instructions stipulating that cheques to FMSS had to be signed by the chairman or the vice-chairman constituted an independent check on the payments process. Ms Lim was the chairman of AHTC in 2011, and Mr Low its vice-chairman.
The town councillors had said these standing instructions were regarded as a sufficient check as the chairman or the vice-chairman had to satisfy themselves that the cheques they were signing were justified.
The court pointed to evidence submitted by KPMG forensic partner Owen Hawkes that said it was unlikely that either the chairman or the vice-chairman of AHTC would have been independently informed about whether FMSS’s invoices were appropriate or justified.
It also said that AHTC did not have the processes in place to independently and objectively assess the level of service provided by FMSS and Mr Loh’s related company FMSI.
It said: “Accordingly, the extent of this risk cannot be overstated. Yet this state of affairs was allowed to persist for at least three years.” The court noted that in that period of time, AHTC disbursed over $23 million under contracts with FMSS and FMSI.
“We are thus unable to see how such conduct that amounted to gross negligence can be said to have been done in good faith,” it added.

The judgment also examined AHTC’s dealings with third-party contractors.
It found that while the councillors acted in good faith in dealing with firms LST Architects, Titan and J Keart, they were negligent in dealing with engineering companies Red-Power, Digo and Terminal 9.
The court noted that AHTC had, in April 2012, called for a tender for some maintenance works, and Red-Power was the sole tenderer. On June 11, 2012, it was awarded a term contract for three years even though AHTC had the option to extend its existing contracts with Digo and Terminal 9 for the same services at significantly cheaper rates.
It said: “Ms Lim made no attempt to explain why she did not decide to renew the contracts with Digo and Terminal 9 for AHTC, despite the significantly cheaper rates, or even if she knew that the rates were cheaper.”
The court found that Ms Lim had failed to prove that she acted in good faith when she chose not to renew the contracts with Digo and Terminal 9. It said these actions constituted a breach of her duty of skill and care owed to AHTC, and that she is liable in negligence in this respect.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

WP leaders believed they had to find options as managing agents ‘disinclined’ to work with AHTC: Court​

WP leaders had acted in good faith when they decided to waive the tender for a managing agent and awarded the first contract for AHTC for one year to a company run by WP supporters, said the Court of Appeal. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Lim Min Zhang
Assistant News Editor

Nov 9, 2022

SINGAPORE - Workers’ Party leaders such as Mr Low Thia Khiang had sincerely believed that the managing agent (MA) for Aljunied GRC wanted out of its contract in the days after the May 2011 General Election, and that as the new MPs they had to find alternative options.
This view, together with their belief that none of the existing players in the MA industry were viable alternatives - given an unwillingness to work with the now opposition-held Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) - prompted the WP leaders to develop contingency plans to ensure that town management would not be disrupted, the Court of Appeal found in a written judgement on Wednesday.
As such, they had acted in good faith when they decided to waive the tender for an MA and awarded the first contract for one year to FM Solutions and Services (FMSS), a company run by WP supporters, given the looming deadline of Aug 1, 2011, by which reconstituted Town Councils had to assume responsibilities for the new areas under them.
This also means the WP leaders have immunity from personal liability under the Town Council Act for waiving this tender, said the apex court.
The long-running case centres on whether MA and essential maintenance service contracts awarded to FMSS in 2011 and 2012 followed the rules under the Town Council Act; on an allegedly flawed process by which payments were approved and made to FMSS; as well as claims on whether contracts awarded to third-party contractors were proper.
Former WP chief Mr Low, party chairman Sylvia Lim, and current party chief Pritam Singh are among the defendants in the case. They were elected as members of AHTC following the 2011 general election.
In its judgment, the Court of Appeal said High Court judge Kannan Ramesh had erred in his conclusions as to the intentions of WP town councillors and FMSS owner How Weng Fan.

Broadly, Justice Ramesh had found in his 2019 decision that WP leaders had engineered a plan to ensure that a company set up by their loyal supporters could be appointed by AHTC to be its MA without a tender being called.
The Appeal Court said Justice Ramesh had placed emphasis on some key statements made in correspondences between parties, but had overlooked that it was not open to him to draw inferences from these documents without very strong reasons.
“In our respectful view, the Judge drew a number of inferences which did not follow inexorably from the documentary evidence,” said the appeal judges on Wednesday.

Justice Ramesh had decided that for the WP town councillors to have complied with the requirements of the Town Council Financial Rules and acted in AHTC’s best interest, they should have done one of two things.
One, they should have retained Aljunied’s then-MA CPG Facilities Management until its contract expired on July 31, 2013. Two, they could have called a tender for a new MA services provider in 2011 and compelled CPG to stay on as MA for as long as was necessary for this to be done, and then awarded a new MA contract to the lowest bidder.
These findings and expectations are unrealistic and miscast the approach that a court should take in this context, said the appeal judges.
“It is emphatically not the place of the court to second-guess the judgments and decisions made honestly and in good faith by the Town Councillors based on the facts and circumstances that they were presented with at the time they had to make those judgments and decisions,” they said.
“This does not change even if those judgments may ultimately prove, with the benefit of hindsight, to have been wrongly made.”
MORE ON THIS TOPIC
WP leaders acted in good faith in waiving AHTC tender, but not when it came to payments: Court of Appeal
WP leaders displayed ‘grave neglect’ in allowing conflict of interest at AHTC to persist: Appeal Court
What is undisputed, said the judges, was that following the 2011 GE, CPG did not wish to serve as the MA of AHTC, even while it was still under contractual obligation to do so. CPG had also indicated to the town councillors at a May 30, 2011 meeting that it wished to cease its services.
Faced with the prospect of a reluctant or unwilling incumbent provider of MA services, the perceived difficulty of finding other experienced MA service providers willing to work with a WP-led town council, and running a large town council without a professional MA, the WP town councillors having wanted FMSS be set up “seemed to be a prudent, and even an obvious step to take,” said the appeal judges.
“Therefore, contrary to the view taken by the Judge, the establishment of FMSS does not in and of itself strike us as sinister,” wrote the five judges, headed by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon.
The 2019 decision also failed to appreciate that, to Mr Low and the other town councillors, the other two existing providers of MA services in the market were “plagued by the same difficulties that applied to CPG, when it came to working with a WP-led town council”, said the judges.
“There is an unmistakable political overtone that colours the way matters were seen by the (WP) town councillors,” they wrote. “Mr Low was adamant in his belief that all the major MA service providers were inclined to work with PAP-led Town Councils and disinclined to work with Town Councils led by other political parties.”
There was no evidence presented that suggested that such concerns that Mr Low and the other WP town councillors had about these providers’ reluctance to work with them had not been honestly held, the judges added.

There was also no evidence that the WP town councillors sole or main purpose in engaging FMSS was to financially benefit Ms How and her husband, or themselves, said the judges.
The town councillors, in particular Mr Low, had honestly believed FMSS to be keen and competent even if they lacked CPG’s experience, having worked with Ms How in Hougang for many years, the judges noted.
“In these circumstances, we find that the town councillors, as well as Ms How, acted in good faith in the execution of the TCA when they waived the requirement for a tender for the first contract for the provision of MA services to AHTC and awarded the First MA Contract to FMSS.
“It follows that Section 52 of the TCA (Town Council Act) would avail them and afford them immunity from personal liability.”

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

The way is now clear for PAP to hold the Presidential Elections

Lee Hsien Yang, Lee Suet Fern being investigated for lying under oath, have left country: Teo Chee Hean​

Mr Lee Hsien Yang and his wife Lee Suet Fern have left Singapore after refusing to go for a police interview which they had initially agreed to attend. PHOTOS: ST FILE, STAMFORD LAW

Tham Yuen-C
Senior Political Correspondent

March 2, 2023

SINGAPORE - The police have opened investigations into Mr Lee Hsien Yang and his wife Lee Suet Fern for potential offences of giving false evidence in judicial proceedings, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean told Parliament on Thursday.
The couple have left Singapore after refusing to go for a police interview which they had initially agreed to attend, Mr Teo said in a written reply.
The Court of Three Judges and a disciplinary tribunal had in 2020 found that the couple had lied under oath during disciplinary proceedings against Mrs Lee over her handling of Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s last will.
Mrs Lee had been referred to a disciplinary tribunal by the Law Society over her role in the preparation and execution of the last will of the late Mr Lee, her father-in-law, who died on March 23, 2015, at the age of 91.
His last will differed from his sixth and penultimate will in significant ways, and did not contain some changes he had wanted and discussed with his lawyer Kwa Kim Li four days earlier. Among the differences was a demolition clause – relating to the demolition of his 38 Oxley Road house after his death – which had not been in the sixth or penultimate will but was in the last.
This had sparked a complaint by the Attorney-General’s Chambers to the Law Society about possible professional misconduct on Mrs Lee’s part, and a disciplinary tribunal was convened to hear the case.
After finding her guilty of grossly improper professional conduct, the Tribunal referred the case to the Court of Three Judges, the highest disciplinary body to deal with lawyers’ misconduct.

Mr Teo noted on Thursday that both the Court and the Tribunal had found that Mr Lee and Mrs Lee lied under oath.
Quoting the Tribunal’s report, he said the couple had presented “an elaborate edifice of lies… both on oath… and through their public and other statements”, which had been referred to during the proceedings, and that their affidavits contained lies that “were quite blatant”.
As such, the police have commenced investigations into them for potential offences of giving false evidence in judicial proceedings, said Mr Teo.

He added that as part of the investigations, the Police requested an interview with Mr Lee and Mrs Lee, which they initially agreed to attend.
“However, (they) later had a change of heart and refused to attend. Their refusal is disappointing,” he said.
He also said that the Police have advised Mr Lee and Mrs Lee to reconsider participating in investigations, but they have since left Singapore and remain out of the country.
The Police have thus informed them that necessary steps would be taken to complete the investigations in their absence, added Mr Teo.
“Their refusal to participate raises questions. If they maintain their innocence, the investigation will give them the chance to vindicate themselves,” he said.
“They should participate, take the full opportunity to give their side of the story, and clear their names.”
Mr Teo was responding to a question by Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim (Chua Chu Kang GRC) on the accuracy of the events described by an e-book titled “The Battle Over Lee Kuan Yew’s Last Will”.
It was published in July 2022 by author Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh, who runs Jom, a weekly digital magazine covering arts, culture, politics, business, technology in Singapore.
Mr Zhulkarnain had asked if the book accurately represents the circumstances surrounding the signing of the late Mr Lee’s last will, as found by the Disciplinary Tribunal and the Court of Three Judges.
To this, Mr Teo said: “Many Singaporeans would prefer to put behind us questions about Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s last will. But there are continuing efforts to rewrite the facts.
“The e-book by Mr Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh... is one such example.”
He added: “Mr Thomas claims to have spent a year scrutinising the evidence to shine a light on the events. However, the book is not credible, as it totally ignores the facts and findings which had been established, after an objective and thorough examination of the case, by the Court of Three Judges in November 2020 and a Disciplinary Tribunal in February 2020.”
Besides finding that Mr Lee and Mrs Lee had lied under oath, the Court and the Tribunal had also found that the couple had misled the late Mr Lee in the context of the execution of his last will, added Mr Teo.
Given this, he said, the Court and the Tribunal had concluded that Mrs Lee was guilty of misconduct.
Mr Teo, citing the findings, said that Mrs Lee had “focused primarily on what her husband wanted done”, and “worked together with Mr Lee Hsien Yang, with a singular purpose, of getting (Mr Lee Kuan Yew) to execute the last will quickly”.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew “ended up signing a document which was in fact not that which he had indicated he wished to sign”, added Mr Teo, citing the findings.
Noting that Mrs Lee was suspended by the Court of Three Judges from practising as a lawyer for 15 months, Mr Teo said: “This is quite a serious penalty.”

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Lee Hsien Yang weighing presidential bid, lawyers say court findings affect his eligibility​

Mr Lee Hsien Yang said he had been approached to run for president and would consider it. PHOTO: ST FILE

Tham Yuen-C
Senior Political Correspondent

March 4, 2023

SINGAPORE - Mr Lee Hsien Yang, the younger brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, has said he would consider contesting the upcoming presidential election, which is expected to be called by September 2023.
A day after Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean told Parliament on Thursday that Mr Lee and his wife Lee Suet Fern are being investigated by the police for possible offences of lying under oath, Bloomberg News reported Mr Lee as saying he had been approached to run for president and would consider it.
Mr Lee told Bloomberg over the phone: “There is a view that depending on who they float, if I were to run, they would be in serious trouble and could lose.
“A lot of people have come to me. They really want me to run. It is something I would consider.”
While those who want to run for president in Singapore must not be from a political party, several past candidates have been former members of the ruling People’s Action Party, or have received the backing of the establishment.
The Straits Times has reached out to Mr Lee for comments.
News of Mr Lee being investigated by the police has sparked speculation among some quarters, who questioned if it was being done to keep him out of the presidential race.

While he had never publicly indicated his interest until his interview with Bloomberg, Mr Lee had joined the opposition Progress Singapore Party in 2020, and helped the party led by former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock campaign during the general election that year.
Since then, there has been speculation about whether Mr Lee would run for president or in a future general election.
Mr Lee was chief executive of telecommunications company Singtel from 1995 to 2007. This means he could meet the qualification criteria for candidates drawing on their private sector experience, which stipulates that a candidate must have, for at least three years in the past 20 years, been the most senior executive of a company with at least $500 million in shareholders’ equity.

However, lawyers who spoke to The Straits Times said the finding by the disciplinary tribunal and Court of Three Judges that Mr Lee had lied under oath may affect his chances of candidacy.
Singapore Management University law don Eugene Tan said Article 19(2)(e) of the Constitution requires a presidential hopeful to satisfy the Presidential Elections Committee, which issues certificates of eligibility, that he is a “person of integrity, good character and reputation”.
“Lying on oath is a serious offence and a finding of a high court that a hopeful had lied under oath would make it a high bar for the hopeful to clear in respect of his character and integrity,” said Associate Professor Tan, a public law expert who spoke when a constitutional commission was convened in 2016 to consider changes to the elected presidency.
Other lawyers and law academics interviewed told The Straits Times that regardless of the outcome of the police investigations, the court findings are clear, and it would be hard for the Presidential Elections Committee to ignore what the court had said.

SMU assistant professor Benjamin Joshua Ong, who specialises in constitutional law, said that given the disciplinary tribunal’s findings, the Presidential Elections Committee might take the view that he is not a “person of integrity, good character and reputation”.
He added that the committee might also deem that an individual is not a “person of integrity, good character and reputation” if he does not cooperate with police investigations, but added that this was ultimately a judgment call for the committee to make.
Mr Lee, who is the younger son of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, has also indicated that with the ongoing probe, he may not return to the country. He told Bloomberg that he was not sure “what the chances are that I will return to Singapore in the foreseeable future” with the ongoing investigation.
On Thursday, Mr Teo, in replying to a parliamentary question, disclosed that the police had opened a probe into Mr Lee and his wife, following the finding that they had lied under oath during judicial proceedings that they were involved in.
Mrs Lee, a senior lawyer, had been subject to disciplinary proceedings by a disciplinary tribunal and the Court of Three Judges in 2020 over her role in the preparation and execution of the last will of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who died on March 23, 2015, at the age of 91.
She was found guilty of misconduct and suspended for 15 months from practising as a lawyer, and the tribunal and the court had also found that Mrs Lee and Mr Lee had lied under oath.
The police said on Thursday that they commenced investigations into the couple for possible offences of lying under oath in judicial proceedings, following a referral in October 2021.
The police also said Mr Lee and Mrs Lee had left Singapore after refusing to go for a police interview that they had initially agreed to attend. Mr Lee told Bloomberg that he and his wife have lived in Europe for months, but declined to say where they were residing.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Lee Hsien Yang hints at never returning to Singapore, says he is unlikely to see his sister again​

Mr Lee Hsien Yang's latest comments comes after Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean told Parliament that the police have opened investigations into Mr Lee and his wife. PHOTO: ST FILE

Mar 8, 2023

SINGAPORE – Mr Lee Hsien Yang said on Tuesday that he may never return to Singapore amid an ongoing police investigation into him and his wife, Mrs Lee Suet Fern.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Mr Lee, the younger son of first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and the brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, also said his sister, Dr Lee Wei Ling, is now extremely unwell.
“It pains me beyond words that I am unlikely ever to be able to see my sister face to face again,” he wrote.
Dr Lee was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, she said in August 2020, describing it as a brain disease that slows physical movements and eventually leads to dementia with prominent behavioural changes.
Mr Lee’s latest comments come days after Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean told Parliament on Thursday that police have opened investigations into Mr Lee and his wife for the possible offences of lying under oath.
The couple left Singapore after refusing to go for a police interview that they had initially agreed to attend, Mr Teo said in a written reply.
Police later said they left Singapore after being engaged in June 2022, and have not returned since.

In 2020, the Court of Three Judges and a disciplinary tribunal found that the couple had lied under oath during disciplinary proceedings against Mrs Lee, a lawyer, over her handling of the last will of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who died on March 23, 2015, at the age of 91.
Mrs Lee had been referred to a disciplinary tribunal by the Law Society over her role in the preparation and execution of the last will, which differed from his sixth and penultimate will in significant ways, and did not contain some changes he had wanted and discussed with his lawyer, Ms Kwa Kim Li, days earlier.
Among the differences was a demolition clause – relating to the demolition of his 38 Oxley Road house after his death – which had not been in the sixth or penultimate will but was in the last.


This clause became a sticking point among the late Mr Lee’s children.
Mrs Lee’s role in the will had sparked a complaint by the Attorney-General’s Chambers to the Law Society about possible professional misconduct on her part.

A demolition clause for 38 Oxley Road, which was in Mr Lee Kuan Yew's last will but not the penultimate one, became a sticking point among his children. PHOTO: ST FILE
After the disciplinary tribunal found her guilty of grossly improper professional conduct, it referred the case to the Court of Three Judges, the highest disciplinary body to deal with lawyers’ misconduct.
Mrs Lee was suspended by the Court of Three Judges from practising as a lawyer for 15 months.

On Friday, Mr Lee Hsien Yang also told Bloomberg news agency in a phone interview from Europe that he had been approached by some to contest the upcoming presidential election, which is expected to be called by September 2023, and that he would consider doing so.
However, several lawyers and law academics said the finding by the disciplinary tribunal and Court of Three Judges that Mr Lee had lied under oath may affect his chances of candidacy.
In his Facebook post on Monday, Mr Lee reiterated the position he and his sister had held on their father’s house.
“Both of us have always accepted that the Singapore Government has the power to preserve our father’s house, but we reject the continued pretence that he had changed his mind, that he was somehow ‘ok’ with it,” he wrote.
Mr Lee also repeated allegations he had previously made on the matter, including of harassment, surveillance and smear campaigns.
He wrote: “After what I have been through, I have no confidence whatsoever in the system.”

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Probe into Lee Hsien Yang and wife made public as they had absconded, among other reasons: Shanmugam​

Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Mrs Lee Suet Fern had absconded after police opened investigations into them for lying during judicial proceedings. PHOTOS: ST FILE, STAMFORD LAW

Tham Yuen-C
Senior Political Correspondent

Mar 20, 2023

SINGAPORE - Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Mrs Lee Suet Fern had absconded after police began investigating them for lying during judicial proceedings, and it was in the public interest that the police released information about the matter, said Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam.
It was also a matter of public record that the court and a disciplinary tribunal had found that the couple had lied, so any prejudice to them from the disclosure would be marginal if any, he added.
The minister was responding to questions from two MPs who wanted to know why the police investigation had been made public and the couple named when Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean replied to a parliamentary question on March 3.
Non-constituency MP Leong Mun Wai asked if the police was applying double standards since six former management staff of Keppel Offshore & Marine Limited who were being investigated for corruption were not named, while Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied GRC) asked what measures are taken to ensure that such disclosures do not prejudice those being investigated.
To these questions, Mr Shanmugam said that while the general principle is that law enforcement agencies do not disclose the names of people under probe, there are a wide variety of situations when it may become necessary to do so.

In situations when those who are being investigated have absconded, the police has typically disclosed their names, he noted.
He cited the example of Pi Jiapeng and Pansuk Siriwipa, who fled Singapore last year while they were being investigated over a series of cheating cases involving luxury goods.

When there is some public interest involved, and when the people and the facts of the offences under probe are already publicly known, the police have also made public their investigations, he added.
One example is when Mr Karl Liew was investigated by the police for giving false evidence during a case involving his family’s former helper Parti Liyani. This had come about following a High Court judgement that had cast doubt on his testimony.
The circumstances relating to Mr Lee and Mrs Lee straddle these two examples, said Mr Shanmugam.

The couple had absconded after the police contacted them to assist in investigations, he said.
This came after a disciplinary tribunal and the Court of Three Judges found in 2020 that they had lied under oath during disciplinary proceedings against Mrs Lee over her handling of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s last will.
The findings of the tribunal and the court, that the couple were not telling the truth and were dishonest, are also already matters of public record, and so disclosing the police investigation in Parliament will not “materially add to any cloud the couple may already be under”, added Mr Shanmugam.

Mr Teo had made known the police investigations in early March when responding to a question by Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim (Chua Chu Kang GRC). The MP had asked about the accuracy of the events described by an e-book titled The Battle Over Lee Kuan Yew’s Last Will, which delved into what the late Mr Lee wanted for his house at Oxley Road.
Referring to this, Mr Shanmugam said that the there was significant public interest in the discsusions surrounding the house.
He added that the question required discussing the accuracy of the public statements made in the book, in the context of the judgments of the tribunal and the court, and the honesty or otherwise of Mr Lee and Mrs Lee.
“That there were ongoing police investigations, arising from the findings of the disciplinary tribunal and the Court of Three Judges, was relevant and necessary to be disclosed, in that context as well, to give an accurate and full answer,” he said.

Mr Shanmugam said that while the general principle is that law enforcement agencies do not disclose the names of people under probe, there are a wide variety of situations when it may become necessary to do so. PHOTO: MCI
Mr Shanmugam added that this was not the first time that names of people being investigated have been revealed.
Citing Mr Liew’s case in particular, he noted that no one took issue with him being named when Parliament discussed the case.
He also said that he had made clear during that debate that if any judgment or decision issued in the course of any legal proceedings contains findings that there may have been perjury or other serious offences, it is something that will be taken seriously.
In the case of the six former Keppel Offshare & Marine management staff, the Corruptions Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) had conducted as thorough an investigation as it could with the information and powers it possessed, and had also assessed the evidence together with the Attorney-General’s Chambers, said Mr Shanmugam.
He said the CPIB and AGC concluded that they could not sustain any charges in court, as the alleged errant conduct had taken place overseas, key witnesses are not available, and key documents are not available.
There were also no admissions which could be relied upon to cross the evidentiary requirements, he said.

Given this, the CPIB could not proceed with charges when there are no documents or other evidence which cross the evidential threshold, and which can be used to break down interviewees’ defences, he added.
“In these circumstances, the general policy of not disclosing the names of individuals who have been under investigation, applies,” he said.
Mr Shanmugam also said that Mr Lee and Mrs Lee will have every right to provide explanations on the investigations if they eventually decide to cooperate with the police.
“It is their choice whether they want to be fugitives from Justice, or whether they come and explain why they say the Courts were wrong to say that they had lied,” he said.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Further action being considered against NCMP Leong Mun Wai for his conduct: Shanmugam​

Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said that NCMP Leong Mun Wai had acted in a “really unparliamentary and not acceptable” manner. PHOTOS: MCI

Lim Yan Liang
Assistant Political Editor

Mar 22, 2023

SINGAPORE - Next steps are being considered in response to Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai’s breaching of parliamentary procedures and rules, Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said on Wednesday.
In a ministerial statement punctuated by heated exchanges between the two men, Mr Shanmugam said that Mr Leong had acted in a “really unparliamentary and not acceptable” manner by putting out a Facebook post that contained improper and untrue statements following a parliamentary debate on Monday.
During the earlier debate, Mr Shanmugam had addressed a question filed by Mr Leong on why the Ministry of Home Affairs had named and disclosed that Mr Lee Hsien Yang and his wife Mrs Lee Suet Fern were being investigated, when police had not named the six former management staff of Keppel Offshore & Marine (O&M) who were being investigated for corruption.
Mr Shanmugam said that after providing his response, Mr Leong had the chance to raise further questions in Parliament. Instead, the NCMP later put up a Facebook post that made serious allegations.
These included that the Law Minister was trying to “muddy the waters” by bringing up the case of former helper Parti Liyani, where police had disclosed that they were investigating her employer’s son Karl Liew for giving false evidence.
Mr Shanmugam said the Facebook post had cast aspersions on him as well as Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean.
Mr Leong’s statements that the Keppel O&M staff were “actually guilty” were also unsubstantiated, said Mr Shanmugam, who asked Mr Leong Mun Wai to delete his Facebook post, withdraw his statements and make an apology.

“One cannot, under the cloak of parliamentary privilege, make these sorts of statements about people,” he said. “And if he does not withdraw, then sir, we will consider what else needs to be done.”
Mr Leong replied that his post had asked people to concentrate on the differences between the way authorities had treated Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s case and the Keppel O&M case.
“That is what I mean - I am not casting aspersions on the minister at all,” he said. “So that case (Parti Liyani) will actually cloud the judgement of other people, so let’s concentrate on the differences between the Lee Hsien Yang and the Keppel O&M case.”
In response, Mr Shanmugam said he took it that Mr Leong was not withdrawing his statements.
“We will then proceed to consider what the next steps ought to be,” he said. “If anytime member (Mr Leong) changes his mind before a decision is reached, he can let us know.”
Addressing the House, Mr Shanmugam said he is happy for there to be rigorous debate in Parliament, but that it is unacceptable to stay silent and then make untrue statements and allegations outside of its chambers.
Mr Shanmugam said: “I’m not saying everyone has got agree with what I said - hardly.”
“Disagree, explain, debate and so that the public can have a better understanding...but don’t be a coward, keep quiet here, go out and say oh, it’s an attempt to muddy the waters - that’s casting aspersions on me.”

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Fugitive lawyer Charles Yeo told investigator he does not intend to return to Singapore​

Lawyer Charles Yeo Yao Hui had his full bail amount of $15,000 forfeited in September 2022. PHOTO: ST FILE

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Mar 29, 2023

SINGAPORE - Lawyer Charles Yeo Yao Hui, who has a warrant of arrest issued against him after he absconded, is still on the run, a district court heard on Wednesday.
In a review on matters involving the warrant, Deputy Public Prosecutor Teo Siu Ming said that an investigation officer contacted Yeo via WhatsApp on March 21 and was told that he does not intend to return to Singapore.
The DPP also told District Judge Terence Tay that efforts to trace him are ongoing. She did not state where Yeo is now.
Another review is scheduled for Sept 27, 2023.
Yeo, 32, who is the former chairman of the Reform Party, had his full bail amount of $15,000 forfeited in September 2022.
He was earlier charged with offences including multiple counts of harassment and wounding the religious feeling of Christians.
In July 2022, Yeo was given permission to leave Singapore for Vietnam to meet a witness linked to an unrelated trial that he was handling then. He was then offered bail, with his mother acting as the bailor.

He was allowed to leave Singapore on July 27, 2022, and was supposed to be back three days later.
Yeo then posted on Instagram, stating that he intended to go to the UK to seek political asylum.
On Aug 1, 2022, he failed to turn up in court to represent his client in a trial involving immigration-related matters.
His then client, Kok Chiang Loong, 42, who is accused of offences including playing a role in a purported marriage of convenience, has since engaged another lawyer. Kok’s case is still pending.
The warrant of arrest was issued against Yeo on Aug 3, 2022, but about three months later, he appeared in a High Court hearing via video call over a separate matter.
In November 2022, Yeo was convicted of contempt of court by scandalising the judiciary in two Instagram stories he posted on March 14, 2022, in which he aired grievances over his dispute with fellow lawyer Joseph Chen.
Among other things, Yeo had said that Mr Chen, whom he called a “state agent”, was being “shielded” by the justice system.

This hearing had taken place after the Attorney-General was granted permission by the High Court on May 10, 2022, to proceed with contempt proceedings against Yeo.
The relevant papers were served on him seven days later and the hearing took place in November 2022.
During the Zoom hearing, Yeo said he was “currently under the protection of the UK government” and that he was in a “decent hotel room”.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

‘Failed to practise responsible journalism’: TOC’s Terry Xu fined $18k for contempt of court​

Terry Xu had reposted an open letter by an Australian citizen who questioned the equity of Singapore’s justice system. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG

Selina Lum
Senior Law Correspondent

Apr 6, 2023

SINGAPORE - Chief editor of sociopolitical website The Online Citizen (TOC) Terry Xu has been fined $18,000 for contempt of court for reposting an open letter by an Australian citizen who questioned the equity of Singapore’s justice system.
The High Court also ordered Xu to delete the article from TOC’s website, but ruled that the accompanying comments left by readers on the Web page do not have to be removed.
The article had been taken down by Thursday afternoon when The Straits Times checked the site.
On Jan 27, 2021, Xu reproduced a letter that Ms Julie O’Connor had posted on her personal blog earlier that day, with a few stylistic edits.
Xu also shared the article on TOC’s Facebook page. The post was removed earlier in 2023.
In a judgment issued on Thursday, Justice Hoo Sheau Peng said Xu “failed to practise responsible journalism, and instead proceeded to publish scurrilous allegations against the courts” to influence the opinions of TOC’s readers.
The judge said the article and the Facebook post were “rife with grave allegations levelled against the judiciary”.

Justice Hoo said the article, when read as a whole, suggests to a reasonable reader that the Singapore courts favour those who have money, power or connections with judges; that judges are not selected for their courage to seek or determine the truth; and that the courts decide cases based on political reasons rather than on their merits.
This directly impugns the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, and “would necessarily as well as undoubtedly undermine public confidence in the judiciary”, she said.
Ms O’Connor’s open letter was addressed to Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and made references to his speech at a ceremony to mark the opening of the 2021 legal year.

Ms O’Connor, a former Singapore permanent resident, referred to several cases from the previous year, such as that of Ms Parti Liyani, a former domestic worker who was acquitted of theft.
She also cited the cases involving Mr Li Shengwu, who was fined for contempt of court, and Mrs Lee Suet Fern, who was found guilty of professional misconduct in her handling of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s will.
Ms O’Connor also wrote that a Queen’s Counsel had commented that the court decision in Mrs Lee’s case was “legally unsound”.

Between Jan 18, 2021, and March 24, 2021, the TOC article attracted 4,310 page views. The Facebook post, as at June 17, 2021, had received 146 reactions, 31 comments and 44 shares.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) started contempt proceedings against Xu after he refused its demand on June 22, 2021, to remove the article and the Facebook post.
Justice Hoo said Xu showed a complete lack of remorse by keeping the article and the Facebook post up, even after the AGC informed him that the publications contained contemptuous allegations.
She said the reference to “Queen’s Counsel” in the article conjured a false sheen of legitimacy to the allegations.
The Attorney-General had sought a $20,000 fine with 10 days’ jail in lieu of payment. Xu, who was represented by Mr Lim Tean, argued that the fine should be no more than $3,000 with four days’ jail in lieu of payment.
Justice Hoo said a fine of $18,000, with 10 days’ jail in lieu of payment, was appropriate and in line with the precedents.
She cited the cases of blogger and activist Alex Au, who was fined $8,000; activist Jolovan Wham, who was fined $5,000; and Mr Li, who was fined $15,000.
She said Xu’s conduct was more egregious and therefore warranted a higher sentence than these cases.

Under the Administration of Justice (Protection) Act, those found liable for contempt can be punished with a fine of up to $100,000, a prison term of up to three years, or both.
Xu had earlier failed in his attempt to stop the Attorney-General from continuing with the contempt proceedings against him.
He had argued that prosecuting only him and not even investigating Ms O’Connor was a violation of his constitutional right to equal treatment under the law.
But the Court of Appeal dismissed his bid, saying that Xu‘s treatment cannot be meaningfully compared with that of Ms O’Connor’s as there were differentiating factors between them.
The factors include the fact that Ms O’Connor lives overseas, making it difficult for the Singapore authorities to investigate and prosecute her, and that Xu‘s publication likely gave the allegations much wider circulation than they would otherwise have enjoyed, given TOC’s reach as a news platform.
The Attorney-General was entitled to take these factors into account in deciding to prosecute Xu but not Ms O’Connor, said the apex court.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Apex court finds WP’s Sylvia Lim, Low Thia Khiang liable for control failures in AHTC, but not Pritam​

The ruling is the latest development in the civil suit involving $33.7 million of improper payments made by AHTC between 2011 and 2015. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO

Tham Yuen-C
Senior Political Correspondent

JUL 8, 2023

SINGAPORE – Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh cannot be held liable for negligence in the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) payments process as he was not given the chance to defend himself against the claim, the Court of Appeal said on Friday.
This is because AHTC’s lawyers did not put up a case on this front, the court added.
But the apex court held WP chairman Sylvia Lim and former party chief Low Thia Khiang liable for allowing control failures in the payments process that led to the risk of overpayment, noting that the claims had been clearly put to them during the trial.
In previous findings, the court had also held all three senior WP leaders, as well as four others, liable to Sengkang Town Council (STC) for permitting control failures in the payment processes.
The ruling is the latest development in the long-running civil suit involving $33.7 million of improper payments made by AHTC between 2011 and 2015 under the watch of the senior WP leaders.
The High Court found in 2019 that Mr Low and Ms Lim had breached their fiduciary duties to AHTC, and Mr Singh had breached his duties of skill and care.
They appealed against the judgment, and the Court of Appeal in 2022 ruled that the town councillors and employees did not owe fiduciary duties or equitable duties of skill and care to AHTC.

But the apex court noted that they were negligent in certain aspects, including the payments process, and may still be liable for damages.
Friday’s judgment focused on two specific issues: The liability of the senior WP leaders in implementing the payment process which led to the misuse of AHTC’s funds, and the liability of Ms Lim towards AHTC in awarding a contract to electrical engineering firm Red-Power.
The determination for both hinged on whether AHTC had adequately pleaded its case regarding the issues.

Pleadings are formal statements setting out a party’s case in terms of material facts and legal issues. A plaintiff’s pleadings define the parameters of the case so that a defendant knows the issues he needs to address, the court said.
In both issues, the Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (PRPTC), whose lawsuit was heard together with AHTC’s lawsuit, had pleaded its case against the three WP senior leaders.
But the court ruled that the claims made by each party had to be kept distinct, as the two lawsuits were merely heard together and not consolidated.
PRPTC’s lawsuit was transferred to Sengkang Town Council (STC) after the WP won Sengkang GRC in the 2020 General Election. The newly formed GRC had absorbed the Punggol East ward, which was previously run by PRPTC after the People’s Action Party wrested the constituency from WP at the 2015 polls.
The apex court noted that AHTC’s pleadings were narrower than that of STC’s.

In finding Ms Lim and Mr Low liable for implementing the payment processes, the court found that AHTC did plead the material facts of the claim.
For instance, AHTC argued that Ms Lim and Mr Low had set up the “flawed” system which caused the town council damage.
It also argued that the system allowed Ms How Weng Fun and Mr Danny Loh, the owners of the town council’s managing agent, FM Solutions and Services, to certify their company’s work and approve payments to benefit themselves.
To support its argument, AHTC had cited evidence during the trial to prove its case and made closing submissions about the issue, the court found.
Given this, Ms Lim and Mr Low, as well as Ms How and Mr Loh, would have known the case against them, and there would be “no prejudice in the court finding these four individuals liable for the tort of negligence for permitting the control failures to exist”, the court said.
In the case of Mr Singh, as well as town councillors Kenneth Foo and Chua Zhi Hon, the court found that AHTC “did not run any case, much less a clear case” against them regarding the setting up of payment processes.
The town council not only did not plead the case, but also did not cross-examine the trio on the issue and did not make any closing submissions on it, the court said.
As such, the three of them did not know they had to defend themselves against such a claim, and it would be prejudicial for the court to find them liable for the control failures in the payment processes, the court added, in absolving Mr Singh, Mr Foo and Mr Chua of liability.
The court noted that AHTC had tried to amend its pleadings after the High Court trial and before the appeals were heard, but said this would amount to bringing a fresh application and should not be permitted.

On the contract awarded to Red-Power, AHTC said in its submissions to the court that it was not making a claim against Ms Lim in the issue.
The court thus found Ms Lim liable only to STC for this issue.
The Straits Times has contacted WP for comments.
In response to media queries on Friday, the Ministry of National Development (MND) said it “notes with concern the Court of Appeal’s judgment in the lawsuit brought by STC and AHTC”.
MND noted that AHTC’s town councillors, including Ms Lim, Mr Low and Mr Singh, as well as two former employees – Ms How and Mr Loh – were found by the court to be grossly negligent in implementing AHTC’s payment process.
The involvement of conflicted persons and the absence of safeguards created an inherent risk of overpayment, the ministry said.
MND added that the court had found that the town councillors and employees were grossly negligent when making $23 million worth of payments to FMSS, and that $33.7 million in payments to FMSS and FM Solutions and Integrated Services were co-signed by conflicted persons or employees of FMSS.
Ms Lim was found to have not acted in good faith when she awarded the contracts to Red-Power Electrical Engineering at rates that were four to seven times higher than those offered by incumbent vendors for the same services, the ministry noted.
It said it would continue to monitor the case, including the assessment of damages by the High Court, as public funds are involved.
A second round of hearings will be held at a later date to assess the damages that each defendant will have to pay.
The appeal was heard by a five-judge panel led by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and consisting of justices Judith Prakash, Tay Yong Kwang, Woo Bih Li and Andrew Phang.
The long-running case had come about after an independent panel appointed by AHTC launched a suit in 2017 against the town councillors, including Mr Singh, Mr Low and Ms Lim, over $33.7 million in improper payments made under their watch.
Central to the case is the WP leaders’ hiring of FMSS, which was set up by Ms How and her husband, Mr Loh, who were later appointed deputy secretary and general manager, and secretary of AHTC, respectively, while remaining FMSS shareholders and directors.
Mr Loh died in 2015.
PRPTC had initiated a parallel civil suit to recover losses incurred by Punggol East when the constituency was under the WP and managed by the WP-run town council from 2013 to 2015. The lawsuit has since been transferred to STC.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

WP leaders aware of alleged affair between Leon Perera and Nicole Seah in early 2021: Sources​

Allegations of an affair between Mr Leon Perera and Ms Nicole Seah had made their rounds among WP members. PHOTOS: ST FILE, LIANHE ZAOBAO
David Sun and Tham Yuen-C

JUL 18, 2023

SINGAPORE – Rumours of an affair between Aljunied GRC MP Leon Perera and senior Workers’ Party (WP) member Nicole Seah began swirling within party circles between late 2020 and early 2021, The Straits Times has learnt.
Allegations about the duo frequenting hotels and behaving inappropriately with each other since mid-2020 had made their rounds among WP members, and the issue was brought up to party leaders around early 2021.
Mr Perera was mentoring Ms Seah at the time, and while it was expected that they would be spending more time with each other, sources who spoke to ST said some felt there was more happening between the pair.
Text messages seen by ST showed that those who were told about the allegations included WP chairman Sylvia Lim and Sengkang GRC MP Jamus Lim.
Party chief Pritam Singh and MPs Gerald Giam and Dennis Tan were also believed to have been informed about the allegations.
When asked on Monday night about the text messages alerting WP leaders to the affair, Mr Singh said he would address this “at one go” when he provides an update to the media “in due course”.
On Tuesday, WP’s media team said it will hold a media conference on Wednesday to address the video.

Mr Singh and other party leaders had met at the WP headquarters in Geylang on Monday to discuss the matter involving Mr Perera and Ms Seah.

Mr Singh, who is the Leader of the Opposition, told ST that deliberations by the WP’s central executive committee (CEC) were ongoing.
WP CEC members present at the meeting included Ms Lim, former party chief Low Thia Khiang, Mr Giam, Mr Faisal Manap, Mr Dennis Tan, Associate Professor Lim, Mr Louis Chua and Ms He Ting Ru, among others.

Mr Perera and Ms Seah – who are both married and sit on the WP’s 15-member CEC – were not present.
The WP had said on Monday that it was looking into a clip circulating online that “suggests an inappropriate exchange between two senior party members”.
A 15-second video clip shared on social media on Monday appeared to show Mr Perera sharing an intimate moment with Ms Seah at an eatery. The man in the video is seen stroking the woman’s hand.

The video contained no audio, and it is not known when or where it was taken.
In its statement on Monday, the WP said: “The party is currently looking into the matter and will comment when we have the facts. The party also expects all its members to fully own and account for their behaviour.”

Mr Perera, 53, is the MP for Aljunied GRC’s Serangoon division, and heads the party’s media team. He is married with two children.
Ms Seah, 36, is president of the WP’s Youth Wing. She is also married with two children.
ST has sent queries to Mr Perera and Ms Seah.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

WP’s Leon Perera, Nicole Seah resign over extramarital affair which started after GE2020​

1 of 3

Both Mr Leon Perera and Ms Nicole Seah admitted that they had an affair, which started after the general election of 2020. PHOTOS: MCI, LIANHE ZAOBAO

Jean Iau

JUL 20, 2023,

SINGAPORE - Workers’ Party (WP) MP Leon Perera and senior leader Nicole Seah have resigned from the party after initially lying about an extramarital affair, in the latest incident to rock the country’s political scene.
Making the announcement at a media conference on Wednesday, WP chief Pritam Singh said that sometime around late 2020 and early 2021, he was informed by Mr Perera’s driver through WhatsApp that Mr Perera and Ms Seah were meeting very often at restaurants and hotels, and had been seen hugging each other and holding hands.
Both Mr Perera and Ms Seah are married, and they initially denied the allegations.
“There was no evidence or corroborating information to support the allegations,” said Mr Singh, adding that he asked Mr Perera whether anything was going on between him and Ms Seah.
Mr Perera said then he was in an ongoing dispute with his driver and was about to terminate his services.
He also said he had sought legal advice on the allegations of his driver, said Mr Singh.

Subsequently over the next few months, Mr Perera’s driver also approached other members of WP with the same information, who all sought to verify the allegations with Mr Perera.

Mr Perera also told them there was no truth to the allegations.
Separately, other central executive committee (CEC) members approached Ms Seah, after being informed of the same allegations. Ms Seah replied there was no truth to the allegations.
When the video of the two sharing an intimate moment emerged on Monday, it was the first time the party members saw it, said Mr Singh. He immediately contacted Mr Perera and arranged to meet him in the afternoon. He also arranged to meet Ms Seah separately.

Both of them admitted they had an affair, which started after the general election of 2020. But it had stopped some time ago, said Mr Singh.

In his meeting with Mr Singh, Mr Perera acknowledged that he should have been more forthcoming when Mr Singh and other party members first approached him about allegations made by his driver.
The party received Ms Seah’s letter of resignation on Tuesday.
Mr Singh said that Mr Perera resigned on Wednesday, and had also informed the Acting Speaker of Parliament.





“The Constitution of the Workers’ Party requires candidates to be honest and frank in their dealings with the party and the people of Singapore,” said Mr Singh.
“Leon’s conduct and not being truthful when asked by the party leadership about the allegations fell short of the standards expected of WP MPs. This is unacceptable. Had he not offered his resignation, I would have recommended to the CEC that he be expelled from the party.
“From the moment the party was made aware of the video, we moved as quickly as we could, bearing in mind that we needed to be fair to everyone, get to the bottom of matters and put things right.”
On handover arrangements in Aljunied GRC, party chairman Sylvia Lim said that Meet-the-People sessions would go on as usual, and alternate MPs have already been rostered to the end of the year to cover the sessions in Serangoon.
She added that for other duties and groundwork, the MPs will be meeting with the Serangoon team of volunteers shortly to work it out.

On Monday, the WP said it was looking into a video clip circulating online that suggested “an inappropriate exchange between two senior party members”.
It appeared to show Mr Perera sharing an intimate moment with Ms Seah.
The 15-second video showed Mr Perera stroking the hand of a woman who looks like Ms Seah, as the duo drank wine at a restaurant.

Both Mr Perera and Ms Seah were on WP’s 15-member CEC – its top decision-making body.
Mr Perera was the MP for Aljunied GRC’s Serangoon division and headed the party’s media team. The 53-year-old ran as a WP candidate for East Coast GRC in the 2015 General Election and was a Non-Constituency MP until 2020.
Before joining politics, he was a civil servant, and later the co-founder and chief executive of a business research and consulting agency.
He has two children.
Ms Seah, 36, was the WP’s Youth Wing president, and was one of the party’s candidates in the team that contested East Coast GRC in the 2020 General Election.
They narrowly lost to the PAP team led by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat.
She entered politics with the National Solidarity Party in the 2011 General Election, where she was the youngest female candidate.
She married in 2015, and had her second child in April 2022.
The resignations of Mr Perera and Ms Seah come two days after former Speaker of Parliament and Marine Parade GRC MP Tan Chuan-Jin and former Tampines GRC MP Cheng Li Hui resigned from the People’s Action Party over their own extramarital affair.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Observers question WP leaders’ decision to take Leon Perera and Nicole Seah’s denials at face value​

Workers' Party secretary-general Pritam Singh, seen here with party chair Sylvia Lim, said Mr Leon Perera and Ms Nicole Seah initially denied the allegations. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Natasha Ann Zachariah
Correspondent

JUL 20, 2023


SINGAPORE – On Wednesday, the Workers’ Party (WP) announced at a media conference that its Aljunied GRC MP Leon Perera and senior party leader Nicole Seah had resigned after initially lying about an extramarital affair.
This was two days after a 15-second video clip of the pair was circulated online showing Mr Perera stroking Ms Seah’s hand at a restaurant. Mr Perera and Ms Seah are both married with children.
Political observers The Straits Times spoke to said the WP leaders’ acceptance of Mr Perera and Ms Seah’s initial denials, without thorough investigation, raises questions about the extent of political parties’ oversight of their members.
At the same time, they said, it is unrealistic to expect politicians not to have human failings.
They added the WP will have to fight even harder to establish its brand, build trust and wrest seats from the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).

Taking denials at face value​

Political analyst and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) associate lecturer Felix Tan said the WP should have done a “thorough investigation” to verify if what the whistle-blower – Mr Perera’s driver – said was true.
He said: “Accepting the denials from both Ms Seah and Mr Perera (without thorough investigation) reflects shoddy leadership.”

However, Dr Chong Ja Ian, associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, said digging into what and when Mr Singh and other party members knew about the affair raises questions about how much political parties should police their members.
If both Mr Perera and Ms Seah carried out their official duties properly, there was no abuse of authority or position, and there was mutual consent, then their private matters should be left up to them and their families, said Dr Chong.
“Of course, voters can also decide whether these issues are the top issues that decide (how they cast) their ballots. That, too, is a personal decision.”

Dr Gillian Koh, senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, said it was extremely troubling that Mr Perera seemed to victimise his driver, and that he possibly took legal action against the driver for reporting the affair to the party leadership.

On Wednesday, Mr Singh told the media that after he had been informed about the pair by Mr Perera’s driver around late 2020 or early 2021, he asked Mr Perera whether anything was going on between him and Ms Seah.
Mr Perera said there was no truth to what the driver was saying, and that he was in an ongoing dispute with him and was about to terminate his services. He also said he had sought legal advice on the driver’s allegations, said Mr Singh.
Singapore Management University associate professor of law Eugene Tan asked if the right questions were asked by the party leadership, and if more information could have been disclosed.
For example, Prof Tan asked if they could have probed further into the information received rather than brushing it aside for lack of corroboration, and whether and when the party was informed of the indiscretion by Ms Seah after she had told her family.
“These, to me, are critical questions that will inform us whether the party was fully accountable and did the right thing from the get-go, or did it tolerate the indiscretion given that two senior and very high-profile members of the party were involved,” said Prof Tan.
In Mr Singh’s letter to Ms Seah addressing her resignation, he said that he was comforted to learn that she had started the process of healing with her family in 2022.
Dr Leong Chan-Hoong, head of policy development, evaluation and data analytics at Kantar Public, said it would be hard to dig further without specific evidence that can be corroborated by other sources.
“There are probably many allegations against PAP and WP MPs every other occasion. There will be operational paralysis and a climate of distrust if every allegation – especially unsubstantiated ones – is extensively investigated,” said Dr Leong.

Losing three leaders in two years​

Mr Leon Perera and Ms Nicole Seah initially denied the allegations. PHOTOS: GOV.SG, LIANHE ZAOBAO
Before Mr Perera and Ms Seah, another WP member who stepped down was former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan in November 2021.
Ms Khan admitted to lying in Parliament in a speech she made in August 2021 about a sexual assault case which she alleged was mishandled by the police.
NTU’s Dr Tan called Wednesday’s resignations a “most unfortunate series of events” – not just for the WP, but for Singapore’s political landscape.
Given the earlier scandal with Ms Khan, he said, the revelation of an affair between two party members will put pressure on the WP.

Besides fending off competition in Sengkang GRC, the WP will now have to ensure that support from voters in Aljunied GRC, which Mr Perera was a part of, will not wane because of his misconduct, said Dr Tan.
He added: “Given all that has happened, the WP would seriously need to relook at how their party selects its candidates, and what are the protocols in place to manage members’ indiscretions.”
Dr Koh called it a “loss” for the WP, given that the seats of all its 10 elected members after the 2020 General Election were hard-fought wins.
Pointing to the extramarital affair between former Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin and former Tampines GRC MP Cheng Li Hui – both from the PAP – that was also made public this week, Dr Koh said both instances of personal indiscretions and lying to party leadership were equally egregious.
“But in the case of the WP, they have to struggle even harder to establish their brand, build trust and wrest seats from the PAP in the first place,” said Dr Koh.
“So, the price paid is far more costly.”

Will the WP be hurt at the next GE?​

Political watchers say it remains to be seen how hard, and where, the scandal will hurt the WP at the next general election, which must be held by 2025.
Dr Mustafa Izzuddin, a senior international affairs analyst at Solaris Strategies Singapore, said the WP brand will “outlast... the occasional cropping-up of scandals and controversies”.
Its staunch loyalists will stick with the party through thick and thin, said Dr Mustafa, but the middle ground is a “different kettle of fish and could again prove to be the kingmaker in Aljunied GRC”.
That means the WP needs to fill the void left by Mr Perera as swiftly as possible, he said, adding: “Ms Seah’s resignation has dented WP’s hopes at this juncture to spring an upset in East Coast GRC, as it was a closely elected fight in 2020.”
Ms Seah was one of the party’s candidates in the team that contested East Coast GRC in the 2020 General Election.
They narrowly lost to the PAP team led by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, but produced WP’s best result in East Coast since it began contesting there in 2006.
Dr Leong said that as the PAP has faced similar scandals and disciplinary lapses, he did not think the WP’s revelation of the affair would affect it “too badly”.
“Moreover, Mr Singh has responded to calls for an investigation expeditiously,” he noted.
“That said, there are not that many prospective candidates in the opposition camp, and with two of their better-performing candidates out of politics, WP may find it harder to replace their vacated seats in the next GE (general election).”
NTU’s Dr Tan said all the controversies – from WP and PAP – have certainly impacted Singapore’s political scene.
This will probably lead to a more discerning electorate at the next polls – and possibly a number of hotly contested GRCs as well, he added.

Moving past the scandal​

Despite the loss of the two party members, Dr Koh thinks it is unlikely the WP will waste a crisis.
She said now is the time for volunteers and prospective candidates to shine.
“Given what has happened, I am sure these volunteers hoping to stand will be more careful about their decision – so that they are not only there to serve for the right reasons, but know that the matter of personal conduct and honesty between members and leaders is equally important,” she said.
Dr Chong said there is a fixation in Singapore with having good people, but what Singaporeans may have to accept is that politicians are “human like everyone else, with human failings”.
He said: “Singaporeans have to ask themselves what they wish to do when people slip up to varying degrees, and how much they want a robust-enough system that can outlast any individual, rather than focusing on personalities.”

Some residents say affair is a personal issue​

Ms Sarah S, 42, a resident of Mr Perera’s Serangoon ward, said his affair with Ms Seah was their personal matter, and what mattered more was how they had helped the community.
The administrative worker said that Mr Perera had a “kind, humble disposition, and had no airs about him”.
She added that it was a waste he had resigned as he had done much for his residents.
A resident of East Coast GRC, Ms Sharon Tan, 42, felt the extramarital affair was a personal issue that had nothing to do with the party itself.
Ms Tan, who said she has met Ms Seah before, said: “I was disappointed that she resigned because I think she can do a lot of work for WP.”
Senior store specialist Anthony S., 62, said Mr Perera’s affair was unexpected and sad news. He felt his MP should have exercised better judgment.
The Serangoon North resident said that Mr Perera had no choice but to resign.
“(However), the place should be okay because other MPs are also there.”

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Pritam asked to explain why WP did not interview Leon Perera’s driver​

Former Workers' Party MP Leon Perera and former senior party member Nicole Seah resigned from the party after lying about their affair. PHOTO: NICOLE SEAH/INSTAGRAM

Goh Yan Han
Political Correspondent

AUG 2, 2023

SINGAPORE - The Workers’ Party (WP) leadership did not call up the driver of former Aljunied GRC MP Leon Perera for an interview, after receiving messages from him about Mr Perera’s affair, said Leader of the Opposition and WP chief Pritam Singh in Parliament on Wednesday.
He was responding to questions from Mr Vikram Nair (Sembawang GRC) on why the driver was not called up for an interview, and whether steps were taken to protect the driver’s identity as an informant.
Mr Singh said: “There was no corroboratory information for us to work with. There was no other source. If either of these two criteria came into play, I think something different would have happened. We would have had to look into the matter more carefully, beyond what Mr Perera had shared to us.”
He also answered “no”, when asked by Mr Nair if the need to collate further corroborative evidence was conveyed to the driver.
Mr Singh had earlier, in response to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s ministerial statement addressing the resignation of two People’s Action Party MPs, said that he was prepared to answer questions – if there were any – about his own party’s handling of the indiscretion between his party members.
In a July 19 press conference, Mr Singh had announced that Mr Perera and former senior party member Nicole Seah had resigned from the party, after lying about their affair.
On Wednesday, Mr Nair said that normally, in a proper organisation, when one receives information from a credible source who is close to the wrongdoing that something has happened, that would be treated as a whistle-blower report.

Steps would then be taken to protect that person, who would be called up for further interviews, he said.
Mr Nair asked Mr Singh: “You mentioned that you did not tell Mr Perera, you did not reveal the source of information. How did you tell Mr Perera you came to know about his indiscretions – did you say the driver told you?”
Mr Singh said the party had to deal with the information that was shared by the driver.

He said: “We made an assessment of the total circumstances with which the information was provided to us and, as we found out after the fact, of course, that this person was a former police officer with, I think, 10 years’ experience. I think this was in the (news)papers.
“I would have expected somebody close to Mr Perera, very close to Mr Perera, to have corroborating evidence at hand. I would have expected them, especially by him being a driver.”
On protecting the identity of the driver as an informant, Mr Singh noted that the driver had obtained the contact numbers of a “significant number” of WP members and circulated the allegations to them.
He said he did not reveal the identity of the source, but had to check with Mr Perera on the information he had received.

Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam also asked Mr Singh to clarify whether he revealed the identity of the source to Mr Perera, citing Mr Singh’s comments at the WP’s press conference.
Mr Singh had said at the press conference that Mr Perera had told him he was in an ongoing dispute with his driver, and was about to terminate his services. Mr Perera said he had also sought legal advice on the allegations of his driver.
In response, Mr Singh said that the driver had been circulating the message, in his name, to multiple members of the WP.
“I don’t think he was interested in protecting his identity,” said Mr Singh.
“And so far as the question directed to me, like I said – the conversation with Mr Perera, Mr Perera would have known who that individual was, (when I asked him). But I didn’t actively go and seek to do something nefarious.”

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Pritam revealed detail of sexual assault against Raeesah’s wishes, say former WP members​

Former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan had repeatedly asked the party’s leaders not to use the “r-word”, said two former WP members. PHOTO: GOV.SG

Tham Yuen-C
Senior Political Correspondent

August 3, 2023

SINGAPORE - Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh had gone against the wishes of former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan when he revealed in public details of her sexual assault, said two former members of the party.
Ms Khan, who resigned from the party in 2021 after lying in Parliament, had repeatedly asked the party’s leaders not to use the “r-word”, and constantly maintained that she preferred her traumatic experiences to be described generically as sexual assault, added Ms Loh Peiying and Mr Yudhishthra Nathan on Wednesday.
Calling out Mr Singh for using the r-word, the two former WP cadres said in a statement posted on Facebook: “The revelation by Pritam Singh to the public about what happened to her in detail, was without her consent, and against her repeated, explicit request for her privacy to be respected.”
Their comments follow a debate in Parliament on Wednesday, during which Mr Singh had sparred with Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam about whether the WP had handled Ms Khan’s sexual assault sensitively.
In 2021, Ms Khan had revealed that she was a sexual assault survivor when admitting to having lied in Parliament in August and October that year. The WP leaders later came under criticism when it emerged during Committee of Privileges (COP) hearings that they had known about Ms Khan’s lie but had not asked her to clear it up until later.

Mr Singh, who is Leader of the Opposition, on Wednesday drew parallels between this and how the People’s Action Party (PAP) handled the extramarital affair between former Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin and former Tampines GRC MP Cheng Li Hui.
Speaking in Parliament as the House discussed the affair and recent incidents involving PAP MPs, Mr Singh said the PAP had been slow in clearing the air when things happened.

He questioned if Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had taken two years to act on the affair because he was being sensitive to the families of Mr Tan and Ms Cheng as claimed, or because he was just not being upfront.
Comparing this with how the WP handled Ms Khan’s lie, Mr Singh said: “Does the PAP selectively apply these standards expecting Singaporeans to give the PAP the full benefit of doubt when its MPs foul up, while screaming blue murder when the opposition seeks to make the same point?”
“When former WP MP Raeesh Khan revealed to the WP leaders that she was a rape victim, sensitivity was not even considered by the COP in accounting for the delay in addressing Raeesah’s lies to Parliament.”

This prompted a rebuttal by Mr Shanmugam, who said it was Mr Singh who did not consider sensitivity. He noted that it was Mr Singh who insisted the word “rape” be used during the COP hearing, even though the committee had been very sensitive about describing what exactly happened to Ms Khan.
“So when someone stands up here and says, ‘We want to be sensitive’, I think we need to look back at what each one did. The word ‘rape’, (in) my recollection, was insisted upon by Mr Singh. So much for sensitivity,” said Mr Shanmugam.
To this, Mr Singh said that he had used the word “rape” during the COP hearings to show the seriousness of the matter that the WP leaders had to deal with.
He added that Mr Shanmugam was missing the point, and said the issue was not “a lack of sensitivity vis-a-vis the word ‘rape’”.
Rather, it was about the PAP’s double standards in citing the need for sensitivity when it took time to handle the Speaker’s affair, while ignoring that the WP was also being sensitive in giving Ms Khan time to come clean about her lie in Parliament, said Mr Singh.
However, Mr Shanmugam cast doubt on Mr Singh’s claim suggesting that he could have asked Ms Khan to come clean without revealing her sexual assault.

Mr Shanmugam also said that the WP chief himself had been insensitive by “insisting on talking about rape” even though the COP had suggested that there was no need to expressly mention it. “I think most observers felt a considerable degree of disquiet at this, that attacking a young lady on the basis of her mental condition, and also insisting on putting on record that she had been raped,” he said.
In response, Mr Singh said that he felt the “rape” was an important point for the COP to consider, as that was why he did not push Ms Khan to clarify her lie in Parliament.
As for Ms Khan’s mental illness, that was “a question of fact” that she herself had communicated to the WP leaders, he added.
“It wasn’t a case of putting someone with such an issue out to dry, as the minister is very enthusiastic to portray,” he said.
On Wednesday, Ms Loh and Mr Nathan said in their statement: “We watched with regret Pritam Singh’s statements made in Parliament today... We find it extremely insensitive, and were horrified to witness this disrespect while watching the COP videos and again today in Parliament.”

The two former WP cadre members, who had been with the party for about nine years, quit last November over a disagreement on how the WP leaders handled the incident involving Ms Khan’s lying.
The pair had contradicted the WP leaders’ version of events when giving evidence before the COP, and have accused the WP leaders of being unfair to Ms Khan by not being transparent about their own role in the incident.
In their Facebook post on Wednesday, they said: “We strongly disapprove of this behaviour. Raeesah Khan made a severe mistake. Still, it does not mean that basic human decency should not be extended to her because of her error.”

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

‘I cannot accept the decision’: George Goh says disqualification from presidential race not fair​

Natasha Ann Zachariah and Judith Tan
UPDATE

AUG 19, 2023

SINGAPORE – Businessman George Goh said on Friday that he cannot accept the decision by the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC) not to grant him a certificate of eligibility, thereby ending his run for the presidency.
The PEC had rejected his argument that his experience running five companies that together met the shareholders’ equity and profitability criteria was equivalent to that of a CEO running a single company, he said.
This was a “very narrow interpretation of the requirements without explaining the rationale behind its decision”, and has deprived Singaporeans of a wider choice to select the next president, he added in a statement.
At a press conference at his Holland Road home on Friday afternoon, the mood among his family and campaign team was sombre.
Asked if the PEC had provided any specific reason as to why he was not eligible, Mr Goh would only say that the PEC did its own review.
“I cannot accept the decision given by them. I personally think it is not a fair decision,” he said.
Mr Goh said he had been fairly confident he would make the cut because he had assembled a broad team of experts to assess his eligibility. They included a former attorney-general, a constitutional law professor, a former judge and a senior counsel, among others.

“This group of people are the top, top people in Singapore. Are you saying they are all wrong?” he asked. “Cannot be – they are all from the system.”
Asked whether he would consolidate his companies or build a $500 million company in order to qualify for future elections, Mr Goh reiterated that he already met the shareholder equity criterion for private sector candidates.
“It is not ‘tomorrow I have to try and work harder’ – it is already there,” he said. “If I continue what I am doing now as an independent candidate, (it is) whether the system allows me to go in or not. We should ask this question.”

He added: “I have $507 million (in shareholder equity). I don’t know what they want. We should ask them.”
Mr Goh was also asked if he would now reveal the names of the five companies he submitted to the PEC, but he declined to do so. He had declined to name them on Aug 4, when he held a press conference after submitting his application for a certificate of eligibility.
“We do have shareholders, so I also don’t want, because I stand for the election, then the few thousand shareholders suffer,” he said.
On whether he would now stand behind one of the remaining three candidates, Mr Goh said it was difficult for him to say as he did not know them well.

Responding to presidential hopeful Tan Kin Lian’s remark that he is the only remaining independent candidate left in the race, Mr Goh reiterated that he was the sole independent candidate without any past ties to a political party or the Government.
“You must prove yourself, that you are really independent,” he said. “If you are not independent and you say you are independent, it is very sad.” He added: “Because I am so truly independent, you know what the result (is) – they know if I go into (the) Istana, I will work for (the people and) look at (things) differently.”
At his home, Mr Goh showed some campaign collaterals he had already prepared, including T-shirts, badges and flags. He had also ordered some 1.4 million mailers and a container full of tissue packets.
He declined to say how much he had spent on them, but said he would sell the items and donate the proceeds to charity.

The campaign collaterals prepared by Mr George Goh. He will sell the items and donate the proceeds to charity. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
Quoting his campaign slogan, Mr Goh said Aug 18 was supposed to be a day of change, but had turned out to be a very sad day.
While he did not qualify, he said that private sector candidates will not be discouraged from stepping forward to contest future presidential elections.
“This country needs an independent president; we cannot continue (with) the same system (where) after 30 years, we are still rejected by the establishment,” he said. “I hope this day will come... An independent president must walk into the Istana tall, (to) represent the people of Singapore.”

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Tan Kin Lian says criticism over his ‘pretty girls’ Facebook posts part of smear campaign​

Presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian said nobody had expressed discomfort over his remarks in the 10 years that he had been putting up such posts. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Zhaki Abdullah

AUG 22, 2023

SINGAPORE - Presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian, 75, once again defended his Facebook posts on “pretty girls” on Tuesday, after his successful nomination at the People’s Association headquarters.
He described recent criticism that he had objectified women in his online posts as a smear campaign orchestrated by his competitors for the presidency and the ruling People’s Action Party.
He said that nobody had expressed discomfort over his remarks in the 10 years that he had been putting up such posts.
On Tuesday morning, Mr Tan had put out a media statement that initially said the criticism over his Facebook posts were from an attack group “from a political party that is now backing my strongest opponent”, without providing more details.
The statement also said that should his “top opponent” be involved in the smear campaign, Mr Tan “would now consider him to be unfit to be the president of Singapore”.
Mr Tan subsequently amended his statement to remove these points.
Following the thank-you speeches by the presidential candidates, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam said he was glad that Mr Tan had withdrawn the suggestion that he was involved in any smear campaigns.

“It certainly goes against everything I represent, which I’ve stated repeatedly: the need to focus on candidates’ ability to contribute to Singapore, avoid smear campaigns of any sort,” said Mr Tharman, 66. “Clearly, I have nothing to do with it. But I’m very sure that no one backing me has anything to do with it either.”
Mr Tan, however, said he had been subject to smears for “more than 10 years”.
“These smears, of course, come from one political party,” said the former NTUC Income chief executive after his thank-you speech. “I say (to) that political party: You are in power. You want to ask people to unite. You want to ask people to trust the government. Is this the way to behave?”

Mr Tan had in recent days drawn flak for his occasional references on Facebook to “pretty girls”, “pretty joggers” and “pretty slim girls”. A TikTok video that compiled some of these posts has been seen more than 338,000 times since it was put up over the weekend. His past comments have also made the rounds on platforms such as Reddit.
His dismissal on Monday of criticisms over his posts drew a response from the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) that questioned whether the issuance of a certificate of eligibility for him to contest the election was tacit approval of behaviour that objectifies women.

The Presidential Elections Committee said in a statement on Monday night that the issuance of a certificate to Mr Tan did not amount to an endorsement of his social media posts.
On Tuesday, Mr Tan said the posts had been put up over a period of 10 years, and had been viewed by more than 100,000 people with “no one” expressing any discomfort over his remarks.
“On this election, suddenly somebody... says ‘I feel uncomfortable’. But there are more than 100,000 people who watched the posts over 10 years. Why do you feel uncomfortable now?” he asked.
Mr Tan said it was “a concerted effort to smear” him.
Asked who he thought was behind such an effort, he said: “They are most likely my competitors.”

Mr Tan said he had spoken to Mr Tharman at the nomination centre, and that the former senior minister had assured him that he was not behind the criticism, nor would he allow such behaviour from his team.
“But of course, I’m not too sure whether he knows what somebody else (is) doing on his behalf,” said Mr Tan.
He acknowledged that he had described some women in his posts as pretty girls, but that there was nothing wrong with that.
“The pretty girls take the effort to dress up to be attractive, and when I say that they are quite attractive, most of them actually feel quite happy,” he said. “I don’t know why somebody would want to use that as a negative point.”
Mr Tan then said that the media had taken something “quite frivolous (and) made it into a big issue”.
Earlier in the morning, Mr Tan told The Straits Times at his home that he had become quite stressed in recent days because of criticisms over his social media activity, which he described as a “very malicious attack”.
“The media was part of it, my opponent in the political party is part of it. It’s very despicable,” he said.

Some who had turned up to support Mr Tan at the nomination centre said they saw nothing wrong with his social media posts.
People’s Power Party founder Goh Meng Seng, who was at the PA headquarters on Tuesday morning, said Mr Tan’s posts were simply about being candid and posting what he was feeling in the moment.
“What has Mr Tan done wrong?” he asked, adding that the furore over the posts was missing the bigger picture about Mr Tan’s candidacy.
On Monday night, Mr Tan reiterated that he saw nothing wrong with “appreciating pretty girls”.
“I’m sure the girls also appreciate good-looking men, so there’s nothing to be so upset about,” he said in a Facebook live stream where he took questions from supporters. “Maybe the people who are upset were not the pretty ones.”
At the interview following his thank-you speech on Tuesday, Mr Tan said he wanted to write to Aware to ask the gender equality group what exactly they found offensive about his posts, “but I got no way to reach out to them”.
“In case some other ladies, after reading this, think that they are uncomfortable, I want to apologise to them,” he said. “I have no (such) intention.”

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Ministers Shanmugam, Vivian Balakrishnan sue Lee Hsien Yang for defamation over Ridout Road claims​

Mr Lee Hsien Yang (left) has been sued by ministers K. Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan for allegations made regarding Ridout Road properties. PHOTOS: ST FILE, ZB FILE

Nadine Chua

SEP 2, 2023

SINGAPORE – Ministers K. Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan have sued Mr Lee Hsien Yang in the High Court for defamation, following Mr Lee’s comments on Facebook about the Ridout Road saga.
According to the hearing list published on the Singapore Courts website, the case conference will be held on Tuesday.
Mr Shanmugam, who is Law and Home Affairs Minister, and Dr Balakrishnan, who is Foreign Minister, are represented by a team of lawyers from Davinder Singh Chambers.
On July 27, both ministers said they intended to sue Mr Lee for defamation if he did not apologise for having made false allegations relating to their rental of two black-and-white bungalows in Ridout Road.
Mr Lee is the younger son of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
In his Facebook post on July 27, Mr Shanmugam said: “Lee Hsien Yang has accused us of acting corruptly and for personal gain by having Singapore Land Authority (SLA) give us preferential treatment by illegally felling trees without approval, and also having SLA pay for renovations to 26 and 31 Ridout Road.
“These allegations are false.”

The ministers had asked Mr Lee Hsien Yang to apologise, withdraw his allegations and pay damages, which will be donated to charity.
“If he does not do so, we will sue him,” Mr Shanmugam had said.

In a post on July 23, Mr Lee claimed the “two ministers have leased state-owned mansions from the agency that one of them controls, felling trees and getting state-sponsored renovations”. The agency he was referring to is SLA.
After the two ministers sent him lawyers’ letters, Mr Lee said on Facebook on July 29 that he was simply stating the facts.
He added that the two ministers should sue him in a court in Britain, saying he was in the country at the time.
The issue of the Ridout Road rentals was debated in Parliament in July, following a Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) investigation and a review by Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean.
The CPIB said in its report that it did not find any wrongdoing on the part of the two ministers. The review found that processes had been followed.
Mr Lee and his wife Lee Suet Fern are currently living overseas. The couple left Singapore after coming under police investigation for lying during judicial proceedings.