The story of why we sued NUS for Vicarious Liability — What Happened and Why It Still Matters.
27 Sept 2025
https://healingthedivide.cc/2025/09/26/nus/
Summary
We sued NUS on a vicarious liability theory—because we believed an NUS professor’s public conduct (calling us “terrorists,” mobilising students, and escalating media campaigns) was closely connected with his position and activities as an NUS academic. The Court struck out our claim and ordered us to pay S$32,833.17 (Round up $33k) in costs; NUS’s solicitors later served a Statutory Demand on 16 Sept 2025 at the State Court Cafe (during Criminal Trials) .
Why We Sued NUS (Vicarious Liability)
Nov 2021:
NUS professor Ben Leong publicly described Healing the Divide as a “terrorist organisation,” in his Facebook wall and claimed that if Mr Lee Kuan Yew were alive, our members would be jailed for sedition.
Nov 2024: After years of such attacks, I filed a defamation lawsuit against him. Instead of limiting his defence to court, he escalated: giving multiple media interviews, publishing a Medium article mocking us, and announcing that he would involve NUS students to help others fight our lawsuits.
We notified NUS and asked the University to address its employee’s conduct. There was no response. In our view, a National University should not stand by when its own professor—identifying as such—mobilises students against citizens who seek legal redress. So we sued NUS for vicarious liability.
What the Court Said
The Court recognised that we were not vexatious in starting this lawsuit. It acknowledged that our claim was a genuine attempt to seek accountability.
However, the judge ultimately struck out our case, ruling that NUS owed us no duty of care regarding its employee’s actions. We were ordered to pay S$32,833.17 in costs to NUS.
Then, on 16 September 2025 — right in the middle of my criminal trials — Drew & Napier, acting for NUS, served us with a Statutory Demand at the State Courts Café.
The Wider Public-Interest Context
Our case cannot be seen in isolation. Around the world, universities and research institutions are under scrutiny for their role in high-risk biological research. Independent analyses of Project DEFUSE (DRASTIC) say Duke-NUS was listed as a proposed partner site in a rejected DARPA proposal concerning coronavirus experiments. Crucially, the proposal listed Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore as a research partner for live bat and infection experiments.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363729325_DRASTIC_-_An_Analysis_of_Project_DEFUSE
This is published analysis; it raises governance questions but is not an allegation of wrongdoing by NUS/Duke-NUS.
A few days ago, President Donald J Trump spoke at the United Nations, said that “Just a few years ago, reckless experiments overseas gave us the Global Pandemic” and called for an end to “extremely risky research into man-made pathogens” proposing the use of AI for Biological Weapons Convention compliance.
To read the full story:
https://healingthedivide.cc/2025/09/26/nus/
Call for Support
We’re facing a S$33,000 costs order and a Statutory Demand that could lead to bankruptcy. If that happens, we may be prevented from continuing our legal challenges and defences. If you value our efforts to continue to hold institutions accountable, eg. NUS, HSA, the mainstream media and public figures for their speech in public, please consider supporting our Legal fund.
While this NUS Statutory demand is $33,000, separately, I’m also owing my lawyer Mr Wee Pan Lee $43,000 for his services over the years. As such I’m doing a joint fund raising from now, with the immediate $33,000 due on 3 Oct 2025.
To Support:
PAYNOW 98291678 (Ref: SOS) or
Support my book, The Silent Roar.
Thank you for supporting Justice and Accountability,
Iris Koh
Daughter of Singapore