Dr Lee Wei Ling clarifies on her Facebook post that she did not retract the entirety of her comment regarding the proposed .Administration of Justice (Protection) Bill.
This is in response to Channel News Asia (CNA)’s report that seems to imply that Dr Lee had retracted her entire post posted on Sunday after she posted a subsequent post and apologised for causing any embarrassment that she may have caused to the Minister of Law and Home Affairs, K Shanmugam.
CNA in its report wrote:
“Two hours after launching an attack on a Bill outlining contempt of court laws, Dr Lee Wei Ling apologised publicly, saying she had been wrong in her assumptions….
…”Thus I was wrong in my assumptions,” wrote Dr Lee. “Everyone is entitled to criticise judgements, policies, as I did in the Tang Wee Sung matter.
“I am relieved by the clarification given by Mr Shanmugam, and I apologise for any embarrassment I may have caused to Mr Shanmugam.”
Clarifying that she did not retract the whole post about the proposed bill. Dr Lee wrote, “I just read CNA. The report seems to imply that I retract my entire first post of today. I only retract the part related to the comment on Mr. Tang Wee Sung. Mr. Shanmugam has informed me that even after the new law has been passed, it is not illegal to criticize a judgement or the AGC after the judgement has been delivered.”
Dr Lee went on to reiterate how the proposed bill will be adverse to the common people.
“Much of the proposed bill is ambiguous to a person not trained in legal matters. As per my current understanding, I stand by the rest of the statements I posted. The bill which will be passed in parliament tomorrow gives the government the right to comment whilst denying that to people. This is inconsistent with equality before the law and is an attempt to muzzle public opinion.”
Earlier today, Dr Lee wrote a post about the new law on the Contempt of Court, criticising the reasonings provided in support of the proposed bill.
She wrote, “Ironically, Sub Judice rules were set up for situation where there is laymen jury who may be naïve enough to be misled by rumours or lead by emotion rather than logic as in religious or racial issues. It was this weakness of having a jury swayed by ignorance or emotions that lead our founding PM Lee Kuan Yew, to do away with Juries in Singapore courts. If your judges are so vulnerable, then the cabinet is at fault for its choice of candidates proposed to be promoted to be judges.”
Commenting that the current government is not like previous governments under the People’s Action Party, she urged all Singaporeans, and all Members of Parliament and Nominated Members of Parliament to think through what has been proposed in the bill, and also to read the commentaries on the bill that are available on the internet.
Dr Lee Wei Ling is the daughter of founder Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew and sibling of the current Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong.
The bill will be read for the second time on Monday and a petition has been submitted to Parliament on Wednesday by Nominated Member of Parliament Kok Heng Leun to delay the passage of the bill and to have a further in-depth discussion about the bill. (read the petition here)
Read here:
