According to CNA, Richard Wan has apologized on behalf of TRE

[Zatoichi]

PM Lee's lawyers take Temasek Review Emeritus editor to task - Channel NewsAsia
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1184021/1/.html
(By Ng Jing Yng Posted: 20 February 2012 0814 hrs)

SINGAPORE: Four days after sociopolitical website Temasek Review Emeritus (TRE) editor Richard Wan made a first public appearance at a social media forum, he was served a lawyer's letter on Sunday by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for carrying allegedly defamatory remarks on his website.

This is the second time in the past week that a political leader has sent a legal warning to a website regarding allegedly defamatory comments.

In TRE's case, Mr Lee's lawyers are asking Mr Wan to retract a Feb 16 post and to publish an apology on his website within the next four days.

The five-page letter, which was sent by Drew and Napier's Senior Counsel Davinder Singh, made reference to an excerpt of a post on TRE which questioned Madam Ho Ching's position in Temasek Holdings.

In the letter, Mr Singh said the excerpt "alleged that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong 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".

"This is a false and baseless allegation. As is publicly known, Mdm Ho Ching was appointed on merit and through proper process."

The letter also outlined the circumstances behind Mdm Ho's appointment and highlighted past instances where other media outlets had to apologise for similar allegations.

Mr Singh also noted that Mr Wan confirmed his identity as TRE's editor after attending a public forum on Wednesday.

Mr Lee has requested that TRE immediately remove the article and all related comments as well as to publish an apology and the undertaking. But Mr Singh added: "Although our client has suffered damage and incurred costs as a result of the libel, he has not made any demand for damages or cost." Legal proceedings and damages and costs will nonetheless be pursued if TRE does not comply, he added.

Mr Wan, who is one of the five editors behind TRE but is the only one based here, told Today that the post was made by one of their contributors.

He added that TRE is "very sorry for causing unnecessary duress to the PM" and will comply with all the remedial actions.

Mr Wan said that TRE vets through all its articles before publishing them but it is challenging to vet through the feedback received each day. Going forward, Mr Wan said that they will be "more careful" before any publication.

Last Tuesday, Foreign and Law Minister K Shanmugam sent a lawyer's letter to well-known blogger Alex Au, asking him to remove from his website allegedly defamatory comments about the minister. Mr Au did so, saying he took Mr Shanmugam at his word.

Nominated Member of Parliament Eugene Tan, who is a law academic at the Singapore Management University, said that the approach taken by the political leaders has been consistent in protecting their reputation especially when it comes to defamatory remarks.

He noted that Mr Lee and Mr Shanmugam are not asking for damages and costs. "This perhaps suggests that the political leaders have recognised the new political environment we are in, and the need and value of a greater diversity of views being expressed by Singaporeans. Benefit of the doubt is extended in the first instance but it is not to be regarded as a licence for defamation," he said.

 

[refulgence]

RW has made himself a prime target.

 

[Zatoichi]

RW has made himself a prime target.

Which is why I'm confused by his decision to expose himself in the first place!

 

[jiakhongleow]

RW will be a good friend to PAP and porlumpar from now onwards.

Politic is a national matter and whether your wife, children and all next-of-kins are talents or capable there is always an element of mistrust between the public and the office holder if he/she appointed to high office.

One day someone will question the 'mistrust' and now it has happened!

Politicans and high office holding appointments is not family businesses but belong to the voters and the public. You are voted into parliment by voters and appointment as ministers and a minister should not appoint his next-of-kin, or wife, to an appointment where $$$ and CPF money is concerned.

PM LHL shd appoint his wife to work free in charity organisations to help the poor and make her talent useful then being 'watched over $$$'. The obscene minister pays is enough to feed his wife, send his children to uni and retire well and he don't need a double income for his family.

Stop being a nuiscene to Singapore, PM LHL. Get your wife off the back of Singaporeans and put her in free charity organisations where she can espouse her gifted talent and improve your credentials. You don't need her 2nd income to support you, do you?

RW has made himself a prime target.

 

[wikiphile]

And this concludes to an end to the anti-establishment firebrand Richard Wan formerly known as Kojakbt

 

[Nice-Gook]

RW has made himself a prime target.

Another wayang lah.

As if Richard Wan is not aware of TOC being gazetted and it's consequences?

Why than was Richard Wan trolling SBF under the nick of kojakbt as a hard core racist?....to avoid minority races suing his pants off?

Come on fellas,can't you folks see the wayang in it.It was the very Richard who destroyed TR only to emerge as the editor of TRE.....and now TRE is going to meow like a pussy cat because Richard Wan can wave LHL lawyers letter as a basis.

Hey !...wait a minute,wasn't it the same Richard Wan to whom PAP ministers were gracing with replies to his emails --when he was writing under 'total' anonymity under the nick of kojakbt?Did anybody bother to ask why an anonymous Richard was any less libelous than one who shows a face today?Especially,even JBJ and Dr.Chee could not get a word out of our officialdom--even if they stood on their head in front of the Istana?

And talking about basis?I wrote a thread about it sometime back in this forum.Every action have a basis.If there is no basis than it would be created;however fake a pseudo basis would be tendered regardless.Like when Mr.Bush wanted to bomb Iraq than the whole world was presented with 'evidences' that Iraq owned weapons of mass destruction-as a basis.When non was found after invasion, never mind US advocated a another "basis".All amounted to wayangs.

So "kojakbt' is a wayang.So is our resident racist 'Jah Rastafar".Folks you tell us whether Richard Wan is a wayang or not?

 

[AndroAsc]

I also think this Richard/kojak fucker is a mole.

WTF is this? The old TR would NEVER have bowed down to this kind of fucked-up ness. Apologize my foot! TR will soon be bought over by the PAP.

 

[rainnix]

You guys better dun believe in TRE and any promises that your identity will be kept secret. (See editor's posting at the end of the article)

PAP-government is full of ironies
February 16th, 2012 | Author: Contributions

This is by far the best way I know how to name this article. A few other words did come into my mind but I fear that the article may not be published if those words were used.

First of all, let’s talk about their liberal use of migrant workers. Some are here because they are cheaper, others supposedly even better than us. This is a good way for businesses to keep their operating costs low, so that profits can be sky-high. By the same logic, shouldn’t we keep the cost of operating Parliament low too? If President Obama fails to be elected for a second term, why not get him here? He is operating at a fraction of what our Ministers are charging us. You don’t want to protect Singaporeans’ jobs, yet you want to protect PAP’s?! Please be more consistent in your employment policies! We also like cheap and good ministers!

Secondly, 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.

Last but not least, PAP claimed that they run a fair justice system which has no bias towards the rich or poor. Only recently, there was a case of a rich tai-tai who got herself so drunk that she crashed her Mercedes into 4 stationary vehicles! Still, she maintained enough composure and sanity to offer the officers at the crime of the scene $20,000 to let her off. Her sentence – 8 weeks in jail! My god, she could have killed someone in her drunkard state! Some say she know some MP, some say she hired some big shot lawyer, others say the prosecutor was weak, etc. Whatever the reason, this sentence is simply not good enough! I don’t know any MP, I don’t have money to hire any big shot lawyer and after contributing so many articles to TR Emeritus, I am sure the Public Prosecutor’s office will send their top dog to gun me down. Where then is the fairness in the system?

These three are just the tip of the iceberg. The rest of the examples I will leave to the good readers of TR Emeritus to pen down.

.

Matthew Chua

Editor’s note: Matthew, you do not have to worry about the authorities gunning for you as long as you are not making any racist or seditious statements.

 

[Nice-Gook]

I also think this Richard/kojak fucker is a mole.

WTF is this? The old TR would NEVER have bowed down to this kind of fucked-up ness. Apologize my foot! TR will soon be bought over by the PAP.

Their profile is rather interesting.

Richard Wan runs a multi million dollar company with government funding and sponsorship.The other co-founder of the company is now with NUS,as a scientist,researching Cognitive Science Programme--co -funded by DSO.

And if you ask what da heck is a Cognitive Science Programme?It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on intelligence and behavior, especially focusing on how information is represented, processed, and transformed..

In simple words psychological warfare lah.