The happy oppressor: hereditary PM Lee Hsien LoongSingapore's government is at it again- using their pet judges in a legal system wholly geared to punish anyone who dares to express opposition to the Singapore government's policies to once again sue someone for defamation over a perceived slight.
This time they've gone after the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER). The FEER is a fine publication- as a kid I used to read it when it was a magazine. Last time I read it it had gone to a more no-frills journal-style publication, but still as insightful as ever.
The FEER has frequently reported on the Singapore government's misunderstanding of the concept of democracy. This time it's editor Hugo Restall who's in trouble, alongside the magazine itself, for the supposed defamation of the Lee hereditary dynasty:
The Straits Times reported that lawyers for the Lees had said the article at the centre of the case was "calculated to disparage both leaders by suggesting they were corrupt and unfit for office, and would sue and suppress those who questioned them as the questions would expose their corruption".
Hilarious. Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong proved the FEER right by responding in exactly the corrupt and oppressive manner that the article and opposition politician Chee Soon Juan predicted. I suppose dictators aren't known for possessing a keen sense of irony, and the behaviour of Singapore's government, democratic in name though it is, definitely skews toward the dictatorial.
Singaporean leaders have won hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages in defamation cases against critics and foreign publications, which they have said are necessary to protect their reputations from unfounded attacks.
The BBC neglects to mention that after Singaporean leaders sue their opponents into bankruptcy and poverty, they may then jail them for being unable to pay their fines. It suits the Lees and their cohort very well.
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