Update @ 1445:

A message on TR’s Facebook page now reads:

“TR is in maintenance mode at present due to upgrading of its wordpress platform from 2.8 to 3.0. It will be up and running soon”.

Update 12 October @ 1300:

The error message on TR’s main page remains unchanged since 12 hours ago: “THE TEMASEK REVIEW is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance.
Please try back in 1 hours 18 minutes.”

Posted @ 0030 hrs

Just two days after local tabloid The New Paper (TNP) supposedly exposed the founder of online news website Temasek Review and its’ predecessor, The Wayang Party, the website is no longer viewable by the public. Readers have notified TOC about the unavailability of Temasek Review for a few hours this evening. At the time of this posting, the website is still unavailable.

No explanation for the site’s unavailability have been provided on Temasek Review’s Facebook page.

Photo courtesy of Sammyboyforum

Attempts by TOC to contact Dr Ong at his clinic have so far been unsuccessful.

The TNP article

The TNP article in question was published on Saturday, and claimed that Dr Joseph Ong, a medical doctor practicing as a GP for Healthway Medical Group in Sengkang, is the man behind the Temasek Review.

The TNP report quoted Dr Ong as having admitted to having asked Bangladeshi cleaners to put up posters in May 2009 calling for Member of Parliament Mdm Lee Bee Wah’s resignation as the president of the Singapore Table Tennis Association.

In June that year, the Temasek Review (then known as The Wayang Party Club) paid freelancers to organize a petition drive at the Speaker’s Corner to call for the resignation of Mdm Lee Bee Wah. The website called it the event their “first outreach event organized by this blog and its auxiliaries”.

The TNP report also relied on an unattributed quote to state that Dr Ong “identified himself to police as being the founder of the Wayang Party, and later, Temasek Review”.

Dr Ong was alleged to have been investigated and given a stern warning for putting up the posters, but not for organizing the petition drive.

Temasek Review fights back

The current editors of the Temasek Review are, according to comments by the editorial team, all based overseas. The team is led by Panama based “Molina Han” and four other editors.

Prior to the shut-down, editorial team of Temasek Review vigorously rebutted the TNP report, stating that they have no knowledge of Dr Joseph Ong, and have never worked with Dr Ong.

Just one day before Temasek Review was shut down, the editorial team published an editorial by a self-identified “pioneer contributor” to The Wayang Party called “BK”, denying all knowledge or correspondence with Dr Ong. He wrote:

“I don’t know the doctor in question and never once came across his name in my correspondence with TR and I was writing for TR when it was still Singapore Enquirer and Wayang Party”.

Temasek Review had also been hinting that the TNP article was a sign of a broader crackdown to come. In an article posted on the website just yesterday, a contributor to the Temasek Review called “Atobe” wrote that:

The TNP article about TR yesterday is an ominous sign that reveal the intent is to generate controversy and to ultimately target Temasek Review for being a subversive site – which will lead to the beginning of official efforts towards the demise of TR.”

Temasek Review has also gone on the offensive to query the leak of information about Dr Ong’s anti-Lee Bee Wah postering and his alleged involvement with the website. Two days before the TNP report, Temasek Review published an article stating that “A formal complaint has been lodged with Mr Benny Lim, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs” regarding a complaint by one Mr Ong.

The possible leak of confidential information was also queried by social worker and TOC contributor Mr Ravi Philemon in a letter written to the Singapore Police Force. The Singapore Democratic Party has also raised the issue on their website.

After the story broke, Temasek Review also highlighted the personal phone number of the TNP journalist who wrote the article in question, a move that some interpret as a veiled threat to the mainstream media to stop the smear campaign.

Update @ 0120hrs:
The update on the TR page states that the page is down for scheduled maintennance. We thank our readers for bringing this to our attention.

Until the time of this article’s authourship, the error message for the Temasek Review page read as follows:
Fatal error
: Call to undefined function is_multisite() in /home/wayangpa/public_html/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 505

You May Also Like

NUS conducts intensive investigation due to complaints about inappropriate orientation activities

The National University of Singapore (NUS) released a statement on 26 July…

林厝港码头与克兰芝出现大量死鱼

今天在林厝港码头至克兰芝的西北部海域出现了大量死去的野生鱼。 拍摄以上的照片的公众人士,说当时她在现场看到三个人忙于清理海岸上的垃圾和死鱼。 他们说他们是清理垃圾而已,必须要等到高潮带来所有的死鱼后才清除高潮线。因为没有收集的死鱼将由潮集聚起来。 据说,有一些渔农也损失了渔场的鱼只。 上个周末,东部海域多家养鱼场出现大量鱼只死亡事件。有渔农估计,今年的死鱼量高达400公吨,是历年来损失最严重的一次。据了解,柔佛海峡东部共有64家岸外渔场。 政府部门解释鱼的死亡解释是因为是海里的浮游生物大量繁殖,与海洋生物争氧气,最终导致鱼群缺氧死去。 但有的渔农说浮游生物产生毒素,导致鱼只死去。英文报,TODAY委托试验室对的海水的化验,证实了渔农说提出的推断是有所根据。但试验室说虽然浮游生物产生毒素能导致鱼只死亡,但对人是非致命。 去年2月,东部和西部海域的渔场也发生相似状况,东部的34家渔场和柔佛海峡西部另5家渔场都遭殃,死鱼约160公吨。 照片来源 http://wildshores.blogspot.sg/

Siew Kum Hong makes police report against “vile, vicious and malicious” attacks

“I consider them extremely defamatory and criminal in nature,” he says.

Mobike asks for orderly withdrawal from Singapore bike sharing market

Mobike has submitted a proposal on Monday (11 March) to the Land…