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PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday sent a lawyer's letter to the editors of the TR Emeritus (TRE) sociopolitical website, asking for a post alleging cronyism in the appointment of Madam Ho Ching as head of Temasek Holdings to be taken down.
Madam Ho is PM Lee's wife.
He also asked for an apology to be posted on the website by Feb 24, and which must remain on the website for the same number of days as the offending post had been.
In addition, he also wanted the TRE editors to give a written confirmation by Feb 23 that they would comply, failing which he would start legal proceedings against them.
By 10pm last night, the post in question had been taken down.
Mr Richard Wan, the TRE editor to whom the letter was addressed, told The Straits Times last night that he was discussing the matter with other TRE editors, and they would issue a statement by 'around lunch time' today.
One of the editors, he added, is a lawyer who could provide advice on the next steps to take.
Mr Wan himself is a 49-year-old IT consultant who appeared at a public forum on Wednesday last week declaring himself as one of five editors of the website, which is known for views critical of the Government and the ruling party.
Mr Davinder Singh, the Drew & Napier lawyer acting for PM Lee, told The Straits Times yesterday that the letter had been served on Mr Wan in person at his house in Hillview estate.
In his letter, a copy of which he released to The Straits Times, he said that 'as is publicly known', the appointment of Madam Ho as head of Temasek in May 2002 was 'on merit and through proper process'.
He detailed how it was Mr S. Dhanabalan, the chairman of the investment company's board of directors, who first decided that Madam Ho was the right person for the job, and approached Mr Lee in August 2001 to broach the subject.
Mr Lee, who was then Deputy Prime Minister, was uncomfortable with the idea, as was then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.
Mr Dhanabalan, however, still felt that Madam Ho was the most suitable person, and in November 2001, raised the subject again with Mr Lee, who again turned it down.
Mr Dhanabalan then came up with a modified proposal: He would reconstitute Temasek's executive committee and chair it himself.
This way, Madam Ho would report to him directly, and not to the prime minister. She would be appointed as executive director instead of chief executive officer.
In his letter, Mr Singh also noted that Madam Ho's appointment to the board of Temasek, which is a company listed in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, had to be approved by the President.
He also pointed to an interview that Mr Dhanabalan gave to the Agence France-Presse news agency in June 2002, in which he said that Madam Ho's appointment had nothing to do with her family connections.
Likewise, Mr Goh told Business Week news magazine later that month that Madam Ho was appointed because of her record and performance.
Mr Singh's letter also requested the TRE editors to provide the identity and contact particulars of 'Matthew Chua', the person who contributed the post in question.
Mr Wan told The Straits Times that Mr Chua was an occasional contributor to TRE whose articles had been published on the website before, but he did not know him personally.
The TRE editors would, however, be able to reach him by e-mail.
This is the second time in five days that legal action is being threatened for comments posted on websites.
On Tuesday last week, Law and Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam got lawyers from Allen & Gledhill to send such a letter to blogger Alex Au, asking him to remove from his blog allegedly defamatory comments about him.
Mr Au did so the same evening.
Source: Straits Times