Dr Chee Soon Juan close to having bankruptcy status lifted
Opposition party leader Chee Soon Juan said that former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong have accepted his offer of S$30,000 to annul his bankruptcy.
Dr Chee, who is Secretary-General of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), was declared a bankrupt in 2006 after he failed to pay damages of S$500,000 to Mr Lee and Mr Goh, Today newspaper reported.
The two former Prime Ministers of Singapore had filed a defamation suit against him when, during the 2001 General Election, he questioned the government’s 1998 loan of S$17 billion to Indonesia as a rescue package during the Asian Financial Crisis. The government did not lend the money to Indonesia and Dr Chee was sued.
In a statement found on the SDP website on Tuesday, Dr Chee said: "Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Goh Chok Tong have indicated that they will accept my offer of composition of $30,000 to annul my bankruptcy."
Earlier in July, the SDP had said in a press release that Dr Chee was making the offer because he “wants to discharge himself from bankruptcy as he intends to contest in the next general elections due in 2016.”
To do that, he has appealed for donations and will try to raise the money by selling a 16-chapter book titled ‘Democratically Speaking’ to pay off the damages. The book is also to mark the 20th anniversary of the year he entered politics.
An undischarged bankrupt is not allowed to stand in the general elections.
The Official Assignee at the Insolvency and Public Trustee's Office recently replied to Dr Chee’s offer, informing him that “they have no objection” to his offer of $30,000, and some paperwork and procedure is all that stands in the way to annul his bankruptcy.
Dr Chee said he hopes the settlement would “mark the end of a chapter of Singapore's politics marred by defamation suits against opposition members" and looks forward to a "new era where political discourse is dominated by substantive debates on policies and ideas".
http://features.insing.com/feature/dr-chee-close-to-having-bankruptcy-status-lifted/id-a05e3f00/
Opposition party leader Chee Soon Juan said that former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong have accepted his offer of S$30,000 to annul his bankruptcy.
Dr Chee, who is Secretary-General of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), was declared a bankrupt in 2006 after he failed to pay damages of S$500,000 to Mr Lee and Mr Goh, Today newspaper reported.
The two former Prime Ministers of Singapore had filed a defamation suit against him when, during the 2001 General Election, he questioned the government’s 1998 loan of S$17 billion to Indonesia as a rescue package during the Asian Financial Crisis. The government did not lend the money to Indonesia and Dr Chee was sued.
In a statement found on the SDP website on Tuesday, Dr Chee said: "Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Goh Chok Tong have indicated that they will accept my offer of composition of $30,000 to annul my bankruptcy."
Earlier in July, the SDP had said in a press release that Dr Chee was making the offer because he “wants to discharge himself from bankruptcy as he intends to contest in the next general elections due in 2016.”
To do that, he has appealed for donations and will try to raise the money by selling a 16-chapter book titled ‘Democratically Speaking’ to pay off the damages. The book is also to mark the 20th anniversary of the year he entered politics.
An undischarged bankrupt is not allowed to stand in the general elections.
The Official Assignee at the Insolvency and Public Trustee's Office recently replied to Dr Chee’s offer, informing him that “they have no objection” to his offer of $30,000, and some paperwork and procedure is all that stands in the way to annul his bankruptcy.
Dr Chee said he hopes the settlement would “mark the end of a chapter of Singapore's politics marred by defamation suits against opposition members" and looks forward to a "new era where political discourse is dominated by substantive debates on policies and ideas".
http://features.insing.com/feature/dr-chee-close-to-having-bankruptcy-status-lifted/id-a05e3f00/
