The Kent Ridge Common, 5 Apr 2009, Kelvin Teo
SINGAPORE - What do Dr Chee Soon Juan, the late Joshua Benjamin Jeyaratnam and Mr Tang Liang Hong have in common? No prizes for guessing the obvious answer - all of them were at the receiving end of ruinous defamatory suits and thrown into the abyss of bankruptcy. No one is ever a supporter of political parties resorting to legal recourse against their opponents. Such a move merely stifles political debates and is a definite invitation to criticisms.
Amid the critiques, little attention is paid to the impact of defamation suits on the nature of electoral politics. In fact, it can be ironically argued that defamation suits may end up being a positive selective pressure in improving the quality of political discourse. Why is this so? The reasoning is simple and really a matter of common sense. This will force the parties especially those from the opposition to focus on discussing pertinent issues.
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