I refer to ST article, “PM Lee’s lawyers seek ‘very high’ damages in defamation case against Roy Ngerng” and Today’s “Blogger Roy Ngerng still straying into issue of defamation, says Prime Minister’s lawyer”.
ST’s article makes the damage assessment case to be so complicated that it requires an army of “PM Lee’s lawyers” to come to his defence. In Today’s article, it appears Lee is defended by only one lawyer, Davinder Singh.
Anyone reading ST’s headline would have been disgusted as PM Lee’s intent is clearly to more than bankrupt an ordinary citizen. But then again maybe not because, in all likelihood, CPF members will rally around Roy.
Seeking damages in excess of $400,000 will make PAP a global laughing stock. Unnamed lawyers seem to be making a mountain out of a molehill. In other truly democratic countries, their leaders wouldn’t even bother in the first place. How many Singaporeans have been swayed by Roy’s defamatory article? I mean, if someone thinks the world of PM Lee, wouldn’t he have simply brushed it off?
On the other hand, if a person already has a negative view of PM Lee, would Roy’s posts make any difference?
PM Lee has been ill-advised to take legal action and has wasted tax dollars by spending 7 hours in court today, excluding preparations for the hearing. We’ll never know the opportunity cost of PM Lee spending 3 days in court attempting to claim hundreds of thousands which Roy does not have. Any other head of state will be given the boot at the next election.
PM Lee: ”(Ngerng) wanted to make as big a dent in my reputation as he could”. Pause and think about this – can an honest and competent leader’s reputation be dented big time by a single image, a blogpost or even numerous posts?
If a blogger could easily dent the reputation of a prime minister, the most powerful man in Singapore, then he probably had very little reputation to begin with.
PM Lee once revealed that he had stayed positive online because he was ‘flameproof’. Hmm… so how come now so easily set ablazed by a few blogposts? PM Lee must learn not to flip flop on his words or he will lose more credibility.
PM Lee’s famous words which I think Singaporeans will now find them hard to believe: “Never forget that we are servants of the people. Always maintain a sense of humility and service”.
Questions:
1 PM Lee (our servant) has taken action to bankrupt a citizen (his master). Where is the humility?
2 PM Lee and the entire civil service have refused to engage citizens in any meaningful manner on the CPF issue, besides wayang, and have also refused to disclose information which rightly belongs in the public domain. Is this service to the people?
Even if Roy is silenced, the unhappiness of CPF members has still not been addressed.
A government exists to serve the people and there’s no such a thing as being given “authority in Singapore indefinitely without having to ask those who are governed whether they like what is being done..”.
In an email to PM Lee last year, I highlighted certain issues pertaining to CPF as well as the negative PR it was creating by demanding excessive monetary compensation from an ordinary. It was a bad idea then and still is. Wouldn’t have wasted my time if I had known it was actually hara kiri.
CPF issues concern an increasing majority of citizens and cannot be allowed to fester. The court case is not one of PM Lee vs Roy but hundreds of thousands of CPF members.
Whatever obscene amount PM Lee demands, CPF members will speak as one. Even if a quarter of active CPF members aged 50 and above contribute $5 to Roy each, it will be more than sufficient to settle PM Lee’s demand for ‘very high’ damages. What’s next?
PAP cannot continue to intimidate citizens with threats of bankruptcy in order to avoid meaningful engagement and continue to ”never mind what the people think”. The people are not daft.
Most Singaporeans are disgusted with PAP for resorting to legal means and bankruptcy to silence citizens. The people will soon speak at the GE and our message to the PAP is its “servants can bankrupt citizens” system must go.
Philip Ang
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