Ministry of Law Legal challenge
I am concerned about the use of the legal process to handle dissenting views. Here are some recent examples:

a)  PM Lee sued Leong Sze Hian for sharing an article in the Malaysian media containing defamatory statements. Mr. Leong shared the article without giving any personal comment. He withdraw the article when asked to do so.

b) The govt is charging the contributor and the editor of The Online Citizen for criminal defamation, apparently over an article that contains a statement alleging "corruption at the highest level".

c) Nanyang Technological University National University of Singapore has sent a legal challenge to a mainstream newspaper, Today Online, for an article over the resignation of academics. No details are available on what were the statements that the institutions found to be annoying or defamatory.

In these cases, I consider the legal challenge to be excessive, like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. There was no malice intent by the parties concerned, although their statements might be inaccurate or annoying to the parties reported on.

The parties taking the legal action, who are connected to the govt or govt funded, should be aware that it is very costly to the defendants to defend their case in court. The legal fees could amount to tens or hundreds of thousand dollars. They are beyond the means of ordinary people. 

We should not allow a situation where rich persons or individuals can win court cases because they are able to pay expensive lawyers when the other party could not afford the legal expenses. 

We need the administration of our law to be fair and just.

There are better ways for the aggrieved parties to deal with these situations:

a) Ignore the statements. The ordinary public, who are reasonable and thinking people, will probably not believe the statements.
b) Issue a statement in the appropriate platform to correct the inaccuracies or to present the other side of the story. (This was the approach adopted by our former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew).
c) Request for the statement to be withdrawn, without issuing any legal challenge.

Many Singaporeans are already afraid to speak their mind. Worse, they become paranoid and think of the worst that could happen in any ordinary situation. This culture of fear in speaking out will be bad for the future of Singapore. Bad or corrupt practices (if any) will continue if people dare not bring them up for the attention of the public.

Tan Kin Lian
 

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