~by: Ravi Philemon~
TOC refers to the article published in TR Emeritus, 'Is PAP bankrolling prominent blogger Andrew Loh' (see HERE). The article has been taken off-line by TRE now.
Although most of what was written in that article were only speculations and so need no clarification, there were two assertions made in the article which had to be clarified.
In the article, the writer claimed that 'it is rumoured that he (Andrew Loh) left TOC because after the GE he wanted to turn TOC into a pro-PAP website and the others were against this'. This is not true.
In announcing the resignation of Mr Loh in June 2011, we had said, "Andrew has had some impressive achievements in this stint as TOC Chief Editor, notably leading TOC’s editorial coverage through the seminal 2011 General Elections. Without his leadership, we would likely not have enjoyed the success during GE2011 that we did."
The article in TRE further went to claim that 'It is rumoured that the Institute of Policy Studies is supporting Andrew financially in the guise of doing projects for them. Everyone knows that IPS is a government statutory board.'
Mr Arun Mahizhnan Deputy Director at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in speaking to TOC said that there is a misperception that IPS is part of the Government. "We are part of the University (National University of Singapore)", he explained.
Mr Mahizhnan further clarified that Mr Loh has been engaged as a consultant by IPS to redesign their website.