On Thursday (27 July), Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam and Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan sent lawyers’ letters to Lee Hsien Yang, accusing him of defamation by making false allegations about Ridout Road.
Earlier this week, Mr Lee received a POFMA order for his Facebook post containing those claims. He subsequently published another post declaring that he stood by his earlier statements.
Mr Shanmugam and Dr Balakrishnan have now stated that if Mr Lee does not apologise for the claims, they would sue him.
Mr Shanmugam took to Facebook today (27 July) to explain that he and Dr Balakrishnan had sent lawyers’ letters to Mr Lee for “defaming” them.
He stated that Mr Lee had accused them of acting corruptly “for personal gain” by having the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) give them preferential treatment.
Mr Lee further alleged that the SLA had done so by illegally felling trees without approval.
In addition, he claimed that Mr Shanmugam and Dr Balakrishnan had the SLA pay for renovations on 26 and 31 Ridout Road, which were properties they rented.
“These allegations are false,” Mr Shanmugam wrote.
We have asked him to apologise, withdraw his allegations and pay damages, which we will donate to charity.
“If he does not do so, we will sue him,” he added.
Dr Balakrishnan posted a similar statement on his Facebook page too.
Mr Lee made the Facebook post on 23 July, which the Ministry of Law stated contained “false statements of fact.”
Issuing him with the correction notice on 25 July, the ministry said two of the statements pertained to the properties on 26 and 31 Ridout Road.
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Mr Lee had claimed that the estates had undergone “state-sponsored renovations”, which were works in line with their practice.
He had additionally alleged that the tenants’ identities had a bearing on the decision to fell trees. The ministry said the relevant parties had made the decision after inspections by experts.
As a result, Mr Lee would have to add a correction notice to his Facebook page including a link to a Factually article containing clarifications.
In response, he called the notice misleading in a separate post.
People’s Action Party (PAP) assistant secretary-general Desmond Lee also addressed the matter in an article on Petir, accusing Mr Lee of having a “vendetta” against the PAP.
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Featured image adapted from govsg on YouTube and Lee Hsien Yang on Facebook.
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