Daily Lessons from Life 11 October 2009

"Singapore's Lees Win a Case Against a Defunct Magazine -Wednesday, 07 October 2009

An appellate court rules upholds defamation charges against the Far Eastern Economic Review As expected, a three-judge appellate panel has upheld a ruling that the Far Eastern Economic Review defamed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, in a 2006 interview with Chee Soon Juan, the long-suffering secretary-general of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party.

The Lees sued editor Hugo Restall and Review Publishing Co. over the article, which described Chee's marathon battles with the Lees and the ruling People's Action Party, and a series of court cases, all won by the government, that left Chee destitute.

It quoted him as saying, among other things, that the Singapore government would never change course until the elder Lee was dead.In addition to suing the publication and editor Restall, the government also later banned the Review, which at that time had more than 1,000 subscribers in Singapore, because the magazine hadn't appointed a legal representative or paid a $126,150 security bond -- new requirements that at the time were unrelated to the lawsuit, but that the Review called unjustified.

In the 204-page concurrence by Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, Appellate Justice Andrew Pheng Boon Keong and Judge Judith Prakash, the three agreed with the Singapore High Court's ruling last September that the two had been defamed, dismissing the appeals and awarding costs “and the usual consequential orders” to the Lees.

Decisions by the Court of Appeal are final. In all, it was a routine judgment in favor of the Lees, who have never lost a libel case in their own courts. Being charged in the Singapore courts is tantamount to being convicted. The government or the Lee family have filed defamation or contempt charges against virtually every major publication in Asia, including the International Herald Tribune, the Financial Times, Time Magazine, the Economist, the now-defunct AsiaWeek and any other publication that refuses to toe the Lee line.

The media watchdog organization Reporters Without Borders ranks Singapore 140th out of 167 countries surveyed in terms of freedom of the press. The country has been kicking foreign journalists out for writing critical articles about the republic since the early 1970s."

I decided to comment on this 9 Oct 2009 News Headline as it was sent to me by a friend.

Lessons for me are:

1. While quoting Mr. Chee, who is not the best politician in Singapore though he has a personal thing with the government for whatever reasons, against Mr. Lee and Mr. Lee, it has a point. That the perception that Singapore government's record on freedom of (if I may add: 'responsible') press is not sterling. Unlike its economic miracle of the past 40 years (the 41st to 44th years are challenging to say the least);

2. in this life time, Mr. Lee will continue to get it his way. Writing stories his way. At the end he will learn that he too has to pass over to the world. In that world, he may read about many good and great stories of his achievements, yet he will read about some of the not-so-good and terrible stories about himself. Hopefully in that world, he will not call on the court to clear his honours. After all, it is just an opinion that disagreed with his. As long as he is clear in his mind, he is alright;

3. as for the 'free press' of the West succumbing to the pressure of the Singapore government, I think they can do it in a non-confrontational manner and not be aware of who they quote. Dr. Chee, in my mind, is not the best witness of some of the not-so-great doing of the government. There are imperfections, and the authorities need to hear that. It will be a very sad day when we only hear the good things and not the bad. It is not heaven, if there is one. We are not perfect yet. This we must acknowledged!

May the press freedom fighters continued their fight and do it in a responsible manner. May Singapore move up a notch in the future on true press freedom in the next survey. This one we need to get higher even when ranked by our disgruntled critics!