Progress Singapore Party (PSP) has issued a statement to refute the claim made by Daniel Teo in the Straits Times report dated 3rd May 2020, and any insinuation that the party has ‘been infiltrated and funded by foreign sources’.
Teo was expelled by PSP last Friday after he confessed to Dr Tan Cheng Bock, PSP’s Secretary-General about the creation of the video which claimed that PSP “has been infiltrated by foreign proxies”.
In the ST report published yesterday, Teo told ST he made the video after receiving information from a third party, which he declined to name.
Teo said the person, who is an acquaintance, had reached out to him with the information in February this year. According to the ST report, Mr Teo made and released the video in mid-April.
He added that he sent the video to only one person for fact-checking but it was leaked and circulated.
“I was very upset about this kind of scrutiny from within the party, and I wanted to make sure these allegations were cleared once and for all. If there’s no proof, then we could all move on,” he said.
The party highlighted in its statement that the video content did not point to PSP having received foreign funding and that it would like to state categorically that the Party’s funding is in compliance with the Political Donations Act.
The party noted that Teo has made this allegation before to certain members of the Central Executive Committee previously and that no evidence was presented by him.
“Our internal investigations showed no such matters and his allegations were dismissed. We understand that some members of the Party who have been implicated in the video have made their own police reports and have sought legal counsel.” wrote PSP.
It added, “Should anyone wish to make potentially libellous allegations against any member of the party, proper evidence is required. The party does not react to hearsay or rumours”
PSP notes that it stands by the previous statement given on Teo’s involvement in the video and awaits further updates from the police on the pending investigations.
“While the party embraces diversity there is no tolerance for saboteurs. Moving forward, the party will not hesitate to expel members that fall short of the Party rules of accountability. This is in line with the party’s stance and long term goal in making Singapore a better place for all.”
The video produced by Teo was initially passed to the mainstream media and subsequently published by fathership.co, claimed that the party has been infiltrated by foreign proxies and named ten individuals in-or-associated with the party along with two other non-party members.
Among the named individuals were Jose Raymond from Singapore People’s Party and Ravi Philemon from PSP.
Mr Raymond’s lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam said to Today that the allegations in the video are “completely false and baseless”.
“We will be asking for (the maker of the video) to admit that there is no basis for his statements, to apologise, to undertake not to repeat these allegations, and to pay damages,” said Mr Thuraisingam.
Mr Philemon has posted on his Facebook last Saturday to deny the allegations and note that he has made a police report on the matter.
Teo expelled last Friday by party
According to the message sent by Dr Tan that he sent to party members last Friday night and seen by TOC, while Teo had offered to resign from the party, the Central Executive Committee has decided unanimously to expel him with immediate effect.
He noted that the party has taken decisive action on this to preempt any rumor or speculation that may be detrimental to the party’s reputation. Noting that while the party values its members, it also expect its members to safeguard the interests of the party.
“Any action that hurts the party’s crediblity cannot and will not be tolerated”, wrote Dr Tan.
This is the second incident where the party had to expel its member. It had previously expelled Jan Chan, who was formerly with the National Solidarity Party (NSP) from 2014 to 2019 after he posted an image of the Bible and the Quran with the accompanying caption, “For use during toilet paper shortages”, on the Facebook page of NUS Atheist Society, which he ran. The offensive post went viral leading the police to investigate the matter.
