Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released his statement on the defamation suit against Singapore blogger Roy Ngerng by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
In his statement, Phil Robertson slammed Lee for behaving just like his deceased father, Lee Kuan Yew, in threatening his opponents with defamation lawsuits. He said that this defamation suit says a lot about Singapore's leaders disregard for freedom of expression and their insecurities.
Instead, Lee should have gone out in public to debate Roy Ngerng's allegations instead of "rushing to the courts to sue perceived opponents" like Roy Ngerng.
Do you agree with Robertson? Shouldn't the PAP and its leaders have come out to disprove Ngerng instead of relying on the old hatchet?
See his full statement:
"As a public leader who heads a purportedly democratic government, Prime Minister Lee's first impulse should be to debate points of public policy instead of rushing to the courts to sue perceived opponents like Roy Ngerng into submission.
The apparent political strategy of intimidating an opponent in this case says more about the insecurity of Singapore's leaders and their ingrained disregard for free expression than it does about Roy Ngerng's allegations about mismanagement of the CPF.
Sadly, when it comes to restricting freedom of expression, Prime Minister Lee's actions in this case shows that the seed does not fall very far from the tree."
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