On 19th Feb 2012, TR Emeritus (TRE) through our Singapore-based editor, was served with a Letter of Demand from law firm Drew & Napier, acting for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The letter said that on or about 16th Feb 2012, TRE published or caused to be published on TR Emeritus website, an opinion piece entitled “PAP-government is full of ironies” by a contributor. The article, as well as a number of associated comments, contained words that are defamatory:“… you always publicise yourself as a clean government with no visible cronyism. There are 10,001 examples that this is absolute crap, but let me just bring up the most obvious one. Is there no person better than Ho Ching in Singapore? Has she brought in extraordinary level of profits every year for Temasek Holdings? Who else in the world has a woman as a chief of sovereign fund or head of investment company? I am not sexist. When HP appointed Carly Fiorina as HP’s CEO, I was cheering for her! Though she did not manage to turn the company around, but I think she made a lot of women proud. My question is, how come someone like Mr Koh Boon Hwee has not been given this position? You mean to tell me Ho Ching is better than Mr Koh? I know of only ONE thing that she does better than Mr Koh.”
It also said that the allegations (above) in the opinion piece by the contributor are false and baseless, ”Mdm Ho Ching was appointed on merit and through proper process.”
Additionally, Messer Drew & Napier was kind enough to provide TRE with information pertaining to the appointment of Mdm Ho Ching, which showed that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was not involved in the decision making process. As a matter of fact, Mr Lee was against the idea from the onset.
In light of the information made available to TRE, we would like to offer our sincere apology to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
APOLOGY
1. On or about 16 February 2012, we published on this website, TR Emeritus, an article entitled “PAP-government is full of ironies“ (the “Article”). The Article, and the comments in response to the Article, was available at http://www.tremeritus.com/2012/02/16/pap-government-is-full-of-ironies/.
2. We recognise that the Article meant or was understood to mean that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had secured, or was instrumental in securing, the appointment of his wife, Mdm Ho Ching, as the Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited for nepotistic motives.
3. We admit and acknowledge that this allegation is false and completely without foundation. We unreservedly apologise to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for the distress and embarrassment caused to him by this allegation.
4. We have removed the Article and the comments in response to the Article and undertake not to make any further allegation to the same or similar effect.
Richard Wan
for TR Emeritus
Link
Related:
Website apologises to Singapore PM for nepotism post - Yahoo! Singapore Finance
TR Emeritus (TRE) issues apology to PM Lee - inSing.com
Website apologises to Singapore PM for nepotism post - Sin Chew Jit Poh
Website apologises to Singapore PM for nepotism post - Times Of Oman
