On Tuesday (21 January), Member of Parliament (MP) for MacPherson Tin Pei Ling lodged a police report over a doctored image of a Chinese New Year banner that has been circulating online. It is said that the banner contains a manipulated photo of her wearing revealing clothes.
The edited image, which has been making rounds on social media, is a digitally modified version of the original banner placed at Ms Tin’s ward.
It shows her wearing an exposing red and white outfit along with Chinese New Year message that has been edited as well. The new text reads, “ENJOY HAPPY SAVINGS with Government U-SAVE Rebates!” and “Vote PAP for Prosperity and Power!”
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Ms Tin condemned the act and called the altered photo of her “crass”, and the culprit behind this act has “no respect for women”.
“It is so crass that I would not even put it up here. I do not know who committed such mischief. But it is clear that the person or party behind this has no respect for women,” she wrote.
She added, “I sincerely urge everyone not to circulate the doctored image to discourage such behaviour”.
Ms Tin explained that she came to know about this new edited image after receiving “enquiries from friends and members of the public”.
Speaking to Channel News Asia, Ms Tin said that she would let the police decide if any action should be taken or not.
“It’s unpleasant, it’s offensive – I still find that it’s clearly a lack of respect for women,” she noted.
She continued, “The content of the banner also has nothing to do with my Chinese New Year banner as well, so it’s very puzzling as to why whoever did this, did this”.
The Straits Times reported that the police said on Wednesday (22 January) that they are investigating the matter.