Ailing Singapore Opposition Leader Threatened With Contempt
Jeyaretnam scion, laid up in UK, faces potential banishment from politics
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“The Singapore Police have informed me that I remained ‘out of jurisdiction’ and had failed to return, painting me as an absconder,” he told Asia Sentinel. “They have now written to me giving me till July 23 to tell them whether I intend to return or they will proceed in my absence. I’m sure they intend to fine me enough to prevent me from standing in the approaching GE.”
The 65-year-old Jeyaretnam is required to correct allegedly false statements or face contempt of court charges stemming from a June 15 Facebook post claiming the government intentionally sets artificially high land prices for sale to the Housing Board, that endowment and trust funds are not transparent, and that the government maintains a large land bank of heritage properties to keep prices as high as possible to boost reserves. If not corrected, he faces possible jail time and heavy fines.
Jeyaretnam has been in London since last August, under treatment for deep-vein thrombosis, a dangerous condition in which a blood clot starts in the legs and travels up through the right side of the heart and into the lungs, resulting in a pulmonary embolism. The condition can be fatal. He has been advised not to fly until the condition, famously aggravated by long-haul flights, is cleared up.
“Under the Singapore Criminal's Procedure Code the police cannot compel me to attend an interview if I’m not in Singapore yet their tactics seem reminiscent of the Chinese overseas police stations set up, in some cases such as Italy with the collusion of local authorities, to harass dissidents,” he said in an email.
Jeyaretnam has been hit eight times with the fake news law, formally known as the “Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act” or POFMA, for statements criticizing the government that have been deemed false by authorities, generating criticism that the law is being used to quell dissent.
The law requires a correction of the allegedly false statements, even if the person making the statements is abroad, and that the false statements are “detrimental to the security of Singapore, public health, public safety, public tranquility or public finances, friendly international relations with other countries, influence the outcome of parliamentary and presidential elections or referendums, incite tension between different groups of people, or diminish public confidence in the public service or general governance.”
Since last December, the government has designated Jeyaratnam’s website, The Ricebowl Singapore, and his social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn as “Declared Online Locations” under the law, resulting in barring financial contributions to them and effectively limiting their use for political fundraising. The regulations require social media platforms to restrict access to online locations, reducing the exposure of his views and opinions.
“It appears that they are now frightened of KJ and wish to prevent him from being in Singapore and/or standing for election,” said another critic who left Singapore under threat of legal action. "My sense is that ‘invitation’ is to keep KJ out of Singapore. Clearly this is an extremely anxious regime, bent on holding on to power, using many improper tools that it has created – laws that make virtually everything illegal, laws that embed subjectivity with ministers, capture of the police and prosecution and the courts by the People’s Action Party.”
At the time of the law’s 2019 passage, it was feared by press protection groups and rights advocates that it would be used against political opponents. That appears to have come true. The heads of 13 of Singapore’s 16 ministries have invoked the law, as Asia Sentinel reported in 2023, with at least a third of POFMA charges brought against opposition political parties and political figures including, besides Jeyaretnam, the Singapore Democratic Party, its leader Chee Soon Juan, The People’s Voice party and its lawyer-leader Lim Tean, and Alex Tan Zhixiang, a self-exiled dissident and editor of the now-dissolved Temasek Review.
“As widely predicted and feared upon its passage, Singapore’s fake news law is being abused by authorities to stifle independent news reporting and critical voices,” Shawn Crispin, the senior Southeast Asia representative for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, told Asia Sentinel at the time. “It shows clearly that authorities view the law as a tool to censor free reporting under the thinly veiled and dishonest guise of protecting the Singaporean public from misinformation and fake news. The law as written and applied should be scrapped, if Singapore still has any interest in portraying itself as a functioning democracy."
Crispin’s concerns are echoed by every major press and human rights organization including Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and many more. “POFMA has only worsened the press freedom situation in the ‘city-state’ and shown the true face of the Singaporean government: an aggressive government that does not tolerate criticism, is prepared to fight outside its jurisdiction, and wants at all costs to set itself up as the "Ministry of Truth," said Reporters Without Borders.
Jeyaretnam, a former hedge fund manager, turned to politics after his late father, Joshua B. Jeyaretnam, led a decades-long campaign for democratic recognition as leader of the opposition Workers’ Party in the face of lawsuits defamation and other offenses from the ruling People’s Action Party led by Lee Kuan Yew, the country’s modern founder and prime minister. JBJ, as he was universally known, spent more than S$1.5 million on those cases, adjudicated in a pliant court. In 2001, he was declared bankrupt, lost his lawyer’s license again, and was disbarred from standing for election. He was forced to resign from his party. In 2007, he was able to pay his S$233,000 debt, got out of bankruptcy, and regained his lawyer’s license. He tried to return to politics by forming a new party but death prevented him.
“The People’s Action Party appears to have turned to using the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act to persecute Kenneth Jeyaretnam, echoing the tactics that led to his father’s bankruptcy through defamation suits filed by former political leaders of the party,” wrote Terry Xu, the self-exiled editor of The Online Citizen, now in Taiwan after being repeatedly charged with offenses described by rights advocates as trumped up.
DISCLOSURE: Access to Asia Sentinel’s website was blocked in Singapore by the Ministry of Communications and Information after we refused to comply with an order to correct a May 24, 2023 article concerning the use of government power against dissenters. Asia Sentinel cited statements confirming the veracity of our reporting. The government demanded that Asia Sentinel carry the correction at the top of our website for 30 days, which we refused to do as we satisfied ourselves the article was accurate.
