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SDP
Affidavit: Lees' reputations built up by controlling media
02
Dec 07
The lawsuit between Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Mr
Lee Hsien Loong, against the SDP over the National Kidney
Foundation will soon be going to its hearing over the assessment
for damages.
The courts awarded the Lees summary judgment
preventing the matter going to trial. The defendants were thus
unable to defend themselves and cross-examine the Lees.
The
next step is for both parties to file their Affidavit Evidence In
Chief (AEIC) in preparation for the hearing to assess the amount
of damages the defendants have to pay to the plaintiffs.
Below
is the AEIC filed by Dr Chee Soon Juan.
This would also
necessitate the parties presenting themselves in court for
cross-examination.
Readers would do well to note,
however, that the Lees will find some excuse to avoid facing the
SDP at the hearing and being cross-examined by the defendants.
AFFIDAVIT EVIDENCE IN CHIEF
I, Chee
Soon Juan, do hereby make oath and say as follows:
1. I am
the Defendant in this suit.
2. I am filing this AEIC on
my own behalf and on behalf of Defendants No. 1
(Singapore
Democratic Party) and No. 2 (Chee Siok Chin).
3. The
Plaintiffs were awarded summary judgment in a hearing where our
counsel was not present as he was ill.
4. In the first
place we do not accept the summary judgment handed down by the
Courts. Despite the fact that we had filed our defence showing
that there were triable issues and disputes of facts, Judge
Belinda Ang awarded summary judgment to the plaintiffs.
5.
This meant that there was no trial and the defendants were not
afforded the opportunity to call our witnesses, cross-examine the
plaintiffs, and conduct our defence in open court.
6.
This is a travesty of justice.
7. Any claim for damages
must be backed up by an assessment of the plaintiffs' reputation.
The question is to find a independent and unbiased assessment of
these reputations.
The media
8. To be
sure the plaintiffs' reputations have been built up on the backs
of a controlled and subservient media. The media would sing their
praises leading everyone to conclude that their reputation is
sterling.
9. There is little coverage and analysis of the
political machinations of the plaintiffs by Singapore's media.
10. In other words: self-praise is no praise.
11.
The foreign media, that is, those that do not circulate in
Singapore and hence out of the punitive reach of the plaintiffs,
hold a much more critical view.
In court
12.
In the legal realm, Lee Kuan Yew had sued the late Devan Nair in
Canada in 1999 for defamation over an article entitled "Singapore
Sage" published in the Globe and Mail, a Canadian
newspaper.
13. Nair countersued, claiming damages for the
tort of abuse of process.
14. Lee Kuan Yew applied for an
order to strike out Nair's counterclaim, saying that Nair's
counterclaim was "scandalous, vexatious or an abuse of
process of the Court."
15. The presiding judge, Greer
J., dismissed Lee's application, ruling that "Lee's action
is brought in a country that prides itself in allowing freedom of
expression." (See Exhibit collectively marked CSJ-1)
16.
This is another indication that there is no freedom of expression
in Singapore which lends weight to the argument that the
plaintiffs' reputations have been inflated by the Lees
themselves.
International opinion
17.
Several international groups such as Amnesty International,
Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights Watch,
National Endowment for Democracy, Council for a Community of
Democracy, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, International Commission
of Jurists, Human Rights First, and the US State Department have
criticised the Singapore Government, headed by the plaintiffs,
for not respecting the freedom of expression in Singapore.
18.
This again supports the defendants' argument that the reputations
of the plaintiffs are not what the Lees claim them to be. They
must also be seen in the context of the lack of freedom of
expression in Singapore which curtails criticism, as well as the
publication of such criticism, of the Lees.
Views of
the layperson
19. On the other hand the Internet,
especially the online forums where the Government has little
control over discussions, are rife with robust criticism of the
plaintiffs.
20. This is an illustration of what the
layperson thinks given an independent and free
forum.
Elections
21. Another way that
the plaintiffs' reputations are assessed is through general
elections.
22. With the elections system, in the words of
Lee Kuan Yew, "engineered" to ensure a PAP victory, is
it any wonder that the Lees continue to be re-elected at every
election? (See Exhibit collectively marked CSJ-1)
23. Lee
Kuan Yew has indicated that the one-man-one-vote system has to be
changed if necessary.
24. Lee Hsien Loong has said that
if there are more opposition members of parliament, he, as prime
minister, will have to "fix" the opposition and "buy"
support (See Exhibit collectively marked CSJ-1).
25. The
Elections Department which conducts elections is supervised by
the Prime Minister's Office.
Conclusion
26.
The reputations of the plaintiffs must be assessed by looking at
the entire spectrum of views, not just a selective and highly
skewed picture promulgated by the Singapore Press Holdings, Media
Corp and the election system.
27. Only when such a
comprehensive vantage is considered can an accurate and unbiased
assessment of their reputations be made.
Sworn in
Singapore this
20th day of November 2007
Before A
COMMISSIONER FOR OATHS
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