Kenneth Jeyaretnam told LIES about his father!

[God Meng Seng]

KJ wrote to WSJ, could not get even basic fact rights, intentionally or otherwise, and was rebutted by the MICA press secretary.

Judge for yourself:

KJ:"...my father, Reform Party founder Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, was sued numerous times for defamation, culminating in being bankrupted over a few words in an article published in the Workers' Party newspaper that he did not write and in a language (Tamil) whose written form he did not understand. This resulted in him losing his seat in Parliament and not being able to stand again before he died, which was of course the key objective."[1]

MICA:"The article that (KJ) referred to was published in the August 1995 issue of the Workers' Party publication The Hammer. J.B. Jeyaretnam was then the secretary-general of the party.

The author of the article, the editor of The Hammer, and the Executive Council of the Workers' Party (of which J.B. Jeyaretnam was a member) acknowledged that the article was "completely false and baseless" and accepted responsibility for it. They published an unqualified apology in The Straits Times on Nov. 23, 1995 and agreed to pay costs and damages.

Contrary to Mr. Kenneth Jeyaratnam's claim, this episode did not cause J.B. Jeyaretnam to lose his seat in parliament—he was not even a member of parliament at that time. Nor did it prevent J.B. Jeyaretnam from contesting the subsequent general elections in 1997, and being selected as a non-constituency member of parliament."[2]

Reference:

[1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203458604577264532773291426.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
[2] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304537904577277244119659820.html

 

[Kinana]

I laughed when I read this article today. I was wondering, why did Philip make such a claim? What for?

 

[Ramseth]

KJ was correct. The suit was settled in 2000 with JBJ guilty and disqualified as NCMP.

 

[Perspective]

That's correct. There are many cases and people got confused.

JBJ lost his NCMP seat in 2001 while having 2 suits/damages to pay in hand - Tamil Language Committee and GCT suit. However, the application of the bankruptcy was the TLC. GCT did not pursue this although he received the final discounted payment from JBJ. In total both sides settled with a third of the original amount.

KJ is half right and considering that TLC has claimed to disassociate itself from the PAP, there is lesser accuracy to blame the PAP government for the suits. KJ is also wrong that JBJ was not being able to stand again before he died - he was already discharged and if he could not stand, he would also not be able to register RP.

 

[zeebjii]

Who the hell is TLC? Is is so hard to type his full name just once?

 

[glockman]

Who the hell is TLC? Is is so hard to type his full name just once?

From reading the contents of the post, it would be Tamil Language Committee.

 

[RafflesTiger]

That's correct. There are many cases and people got confused.

JBJ lost his NCMP seat in 2001 while having 2 suits/damages to pay in hand - Tamil Language Committee and GCT suit. However, the application of the bankruptcy was the TLC. GCT did not pursue this although he received the final discounted payment from JBJ. In total both sides settled with a third of the original amount.

KJ is half right and considering that TLC has claimed to disassociate itself from the PAP, there is lesser accuracy to blame the PAP government for the suits. KJ is also wrong that JBJ was not being able to stand again before he died - he was already discharged and if he could not stand, he would also not be able to register RP.

He was unable to stand in 2001 because he was declared bankrupt before the GE, he couldn't stand in 2006 because he was only discharged in 2007, so Kenneth is not wrong to say that.

 

[GoMadSeng]

You all shouldn't care about Kenneth Jeyaretnam lying. It should be WP lying that we should worry about! They are as strong as PAP in parliament and will become a big evil with people like Chen Show Mao and Pritam Singh stealing people's property and lying through their teeth about it!

 

[Narong Wongwan]

JBJ was a hero and we all knew what happened to him.
He was sued, he was bankrupted, he did lose his seat, he was not able to contest elections.
Timeline is secondary.
FOCUS PEOPLE! DUN GET DISTRACTED!

 

[Ramseth]

That's correct. JBJ was disqualified from NCMP and unable to stand in GE 2006 because he was bankrupted by the Tamil Murasu case against WP Hammer. Many of WP CEC members were also sued and most voted to remove him and instate LTK as Sec-Gen. A democratic process. I'm not blaming or belittling JBJ. But that was what happened. JBJ chose to resign and started a Save JBJ campaign. James Gomez and YSL were helpers too. The donation wasn't enough. In the end, I understand that KJ and PJ finally came out with the money to requalify JBJ to stand for GE 2011. However, too late, JBJ passed away in 2007.

 

[GoldenDragon]

JBJ was a hero and we all knew what happened to him.
He was sued, he was bankrupted, he did lose his seat, he was not able to contest elections.
Timeline is secondary.
FOCUS PEOPLE! DUN GET DISTRACTED!

Poor JBJ. His downfall was 'man-made'. Should have been more cautious with those he dealt with.