• About Us
    • Fact Checking Policy
    • Ownership & funding information
    • Volunteer
  • Subscribe
  • Letter submission
    • Submissions Policy
  • Contact Us
The Online Citizen Asia
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Politics
    • Civil Society
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Politics
    • Civil Society
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
No Result
View All Result
The Online Citizen Asia
No Result
View All Result

Details revealed by former editor of The New Paper of how the press was manipulated by PAP in 1997 to fix Workers’ Party politicians

by kathleen
25/04/2019
in Current Affairs, Media
Reading Time: 7 mins read
0

Bertha Henson former Associate Editor of The Straits Times wrote on her blog, Bertha Harian, about the upcoming book written by former editor of The New Paper, Mr P N Balji called The Reluctant Editor.

The book promises stories from Mr Balji’s times as editor in both Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) Mediacorp – described by Ms Henson as ‘nuggets of information that had been kept from the public eye’.

The Reluctant Editor, says Ms Henson, contains stories about the relationship between the Government and local media which were generally not openly talked about, stories that she thought ‘journalists would take to their graves’. The fact that he, and others like him in the past, chose to share these stories is a mark of courage, she said.

One story in particular that Mr Balji expands on in his book which Ms Henson was part of is the incident of the 1997 General Elections when The New Paper ran a story on their front page about the police reports filed against People’s Action party ministers by Workers’ Party politicians Tang Liang Hong and JB Jeyaretman.

What happened in 1997?

Before we can go further, we need to know what happened in 1997. The General Election that year was notable for the incident involving Tang Liang Hong who now live in exile. At the time, Mr Tang stood for elections alongside the late JB Jeyaretnam in Cheng San GRC. Mr Tang was attacked constantly by the PAP for being an anti-Christian Chinese chauvanist.

The day before polling day, WP held a rally during which Mr Jeyaretnam had said that police reports had been filed against 11 members of the PAP. He said, ““Mr Tang Liang Hong has just placed before me two reports he has made to the police against, you know, Mr Goh Chok Tong and his team”.

However, he did not go into further detail. People were guessing over the content of the report but there was no way for journalist to get their hands on it unless Mr Jeyaretnam handed it over to them directly. The police, after all, do not release report details on request.

Ms Henson went on to describe how the next day, Mr Balji received a home call suggesting that he could get the police reports. He need only ask. Ms Henson highlighted, “This was a strange offer of a scoop offered to TNP, a newspaper which at that time was sold at lunch-time.”

She continued, “Balji admits that the idea of a scoop stirred journalistic passions. Which editor would not welcome the chance to get one step ahead of its rivals, especially the broadsheet Straits Times, which had already gone to print by then?”

As the deputy at the time, Ms Henson got in touch with the police to get the report but was denied. Mr Balji then made a phone call and a little later, the reports were faxed to them. TNP published the reports on their front page that day.

The aftermath

Ms Henson says that while she and Mr Balji did not get in trouble for publishing the police reports, Mr Tang and Mr Jeyaretnam did. While WP earned a non-constituentcy MP seat which Mr Jeyaretnam took, he was also slapped with 11 suits.

Ms Henson said, “That was when it began to dawn on us that we had been made use of to disseminate a supposed libel to an even wider audience, which could mean higher damages if the PAP side won.”

What followed was a massive legal battle waged against Mr Tang and Mr Jeyaretnam by the PAP leaders of the Singapore government for alleged defamation.

Ms Henson recalled at the time that Mr Balji ‘wondered if he would be called to the stand by the defence to declare how he had obtained the reports’ but he was never summoned.  “Nobody talked about the content of the reports; just its announcement,” she wrote.

The courts found Mr Jeyaretnam liable and ordered him to pay $20,000 in damages. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong at the time described that sentence as “derisory”. The PAP then appealed and the damages were raised to S$100,000 plus $20,000 in costs.

As Ms Henson says, Mr Tan had fled the country and Mr Jeyaretnam was ‘taken to the cleaners’. In 2001 he was declared bankrupt after failing to meet his instalment payments. Consequently, he lost his NCMP seat as undischarged bankrupts are barred from serving in Parliament. He couldn’t stand for the 2001 general elections and in October of that year, he resigned as Secretary General of the WP.

Regret over the decision to publish

Over 20 years later, Ms Henson says the events still ‘grated’ on her.

She said, “Playing it back, I wondered if we could have said no. Our journalistic instincts, scoop mentality and deadline pressure overwhelmed our ethics. We wanted to be first with the story. But we found that the fleeting euphoria was nothing compared to the stone that had been lodged in our hearts since. We did a terrible thing.”

In the Particulars of the Statement of Claim served on 21 July 1997, the late Lee Kuan Yew conceded for the first time that he and ESM Goh Chok Tong who was then Prime Minister had procured the release of the police reports. The ESM Goh made a similar admission in an affidavit he swore in August 1997.

This was also pointed out by Mr Tang in an interview he had given to freelance writer Chris Lydgate (originally commissioned by Asia Online but never publish) which was eventually posted on the Singapore Election blog in 2006.

Similarly, the Singapore-Window website recounted Mr Tang’s lawyer George Carmen’s statement to the High Court which pointed out the ‘fundamental error in the case’. He noted that while under oath, PM Goh has admitted in Court that he has authorised Mr Lee Kuan Yew to release Mr Tang’s police reports.

“Mr Carman said the prime minister and Mr Lee, his predecessor, “shot themselves in the foot” by releasing the report over which they are now seeking legal damages,” said the site.

The press is a tool for politicans

As it was already established way back then that it was Mr Goh who had authorised the release of the reports to the press. This, coupled with Mr Balji’s recounting of the events in his book and Ms Henson’s sharing on her blog, adds further evidence to the Mr Tang’s claim that he was set up with a cleverly orchestrated plan.

If anything, this reinforces the fact that the press has always been a powerful tool not just for critics of the administration but for the administration itself.  So it’s not a stretch at all to consider that politicians would want to be able to harness this tool and utilise it for themselves while preventing others from using it.

You can see where this is going, I’m sure. The heavily debated Clause 61 in the proposed Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) states:

So apart from the sweeping powers that would be granted under the act to any minister to declare falsehoods, ministers are also able to exempt individuals and groups from the act.

This is a power that would be easily abused as a means to avoid holding the government accountable for potentially spreading falsehoods. For example, in the case above of the government claimed in Court that the announcement made by Mr Jeyaretnam at the WP rally was the problem when actually it was the administration that released that information to the press in the first place, making way for a libel suit.

As it stands, there is a high potential of the law being misused by a minister seeking to advance an agenda.

As Associate Professor of Law at Singapore Management University and former NMP, Eugene Tan said in an article by the South China Morning Press, “Any law can be misused for rogue purposes. Ultimately, a price will be paid by the government of the day if the law is misused to clamp down on dissent. How it is applied will also be subjected to the court of public opinion. Hence, governmental action must not only be in conformity with the law, but also endowed with legitimacy.

Note: While Ms Henson said that TNP revealed the police reports in their noon issue, TOC could only find mention of it in Straits Times and other Chinese newspapers.

For just US$7.50 a month, sign up as a subscriber on The Online Citizen Asia (and enjoy ads-free experience on our site) to support our mission to transform TOC into an alternative mainstream press.

Related Posts

Level of unemployment in Indonesia shows failure in the Job Creation Law, says KSPI
Indonesia

Level of unemployment in Indonesia shows failure in the Job Creation Law, says KSPI

02/02/2023
Commentaries

The Keppel bribery scandal tests Singapore’s zero-tolerance policy towards corruption

02/02/2023
Singapore Law Watch removes commentary on CPIB’s decision to not prosecute former Keppel executives
Singapore

Singapore Law Watch removes commentary on CPIB’s decision to not prosecute former Keppel executives

02/02/2023
US businesses ‘fear internet curbs in Hong Kong’
AFP

Hong Kong offers free flights after COVID isolation

02/02/2023
Why is Gautam Adani’s Indian empire in turmoil?
AFP

Why is Gautam Adani’s Indian empire in turmoil?

02/02/2023
India’s Adani shares plunge again after stock sale cancelled
AFP

India’s Adani empire loses more than US$100 bn after fraud claims

02/02/2023
Subscribe
Connect withD
Login
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
Notify of
Connect withD
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Latest posts

Level of unemployment in Indonesia shows failure in the Job Creation Law, says KSPI

Level of unemployment in Indonesia shows failure in the Job Creation Law, says KSPI

02/02/2023

The Keppel bribery scandal tests Singapore’s zero-tolerance policy towards corruption

02/02/2023
Singapore Law Watch removes commentary on CPIB’s decision to not prosecute former Keppel executives

Singapore Law Watch removes commentary on CPIB’s decision to not prosecute former Keppel executives

02/02/2023
US businesses ‘fear internet curbs in Hong Kong’

Hong Kong offers free flights after COVID isolation

02/02/2023
Why is Gautam Adani’s Indian empire in turmoil?

Why is Gautam Adani’s Indian empire in turmoil?

02/02/2023
India’s Adani shares plunge again after stock sale cancelled

India’s Adani empire loses more than US$100 bn after fraud claims

02/02/2023
Former political prisoners calls for abolishment of ISA and apology from PAP Govt on 60th anniversary of Operation Coldstore

Former political prisoners calls for abolishment of ISA and apology from PAP Govt on 60th anniversary of Operation Coldstore

02/02/2023
Indian state picks new capital after kicking out Singapore consortium

Indian state picks new capital after kicking out Singapore consortium

02/02/2023

Trending posts

Former Singaporean shares change of life in Australia with annual pay of S$80,000 as a plumber

Former Singaporean shares change of life in Australia with annual pay of S$80,000 as a plumber

by Yee Loon
30/01/2023
25

...

Earning only S$400 a month, delivery-rider turned hawker threw in the towel after two years of running a rojak stall

Earning only S$400 a month, delivery-rider turned hawker threw in the towel after two years of running a rojak stall

by Yee Loon
26/01/2023
24

...

Two Indian nationals paid about S$330 and S$730 respectively for forged certificates submitted in their S-Pass application

MOM found issuing EPs meant for foreign PMETs to PRC waitress and general worker

by Correspondent
26/01/2023
41

...

They have done a fine job of confusing us about the jobs situation

They have done a fine job of confusing us about the jobs situation

by Augustine Low
01/02/2023
33

...

Temasek and GIC reportedly in talks with Adani Group accused of “brazen” market manipulation and accounting fraud

Temasek and GIC reportedly in talks with Adani Group accused of “brazen” market manipulation and accounting fraud

by The Online Citizen
26/01/2023
59

...

Indian rupee falls 60% since signing of CECA while Singapore becomes top investor in India

by Correspondent
25/01/2023
69

...

April 2019
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  
« Mar   May »

The Online Citizen is a regional online publication based in Taiwan and formerly Singapore’s longest-running independent online media platform.

Navigation

  • Editorial
  • Commentaries
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Community

Support

  • Contact Us
  • Letter submission
  • Membership subscription

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Fact Checking Policy
  • Privacy Policy

© 2022 - 2023 The Online Citizen Asia

No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Civil Society
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
  • Politics
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
  • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Subscribers login

© 2022 - 2023 The Online Citizen Asia

wpDiscuz