Blogger Roy Ngerng takes down blog post about PM Lee
PUBLISHED ONMay 20, 2014 7:13 AMByTham Yuen-C
SINGAPORE - The health-care worker said he took down the blog post on Monday night, but is still deciding how he should respond to a letter of demand sent to him from Mr Lee's lawyer.
Get the full story from The Straits Times.
Singapore blogger removes post about PM, dithers on apology
AFP
May 20, 2014
SINGAPORE - A Singaporean blogger accused by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of defamation has removed the offending post but said Tuesday he was still deliberating whether to apologise.
"I took down the article last night on the advice of my lawyer," Roy Ngerng Yi Ling told AFP. He also removed links to the article posted on his two Facebook pages.
"We are still deliberating on the next course of action," he said, declining to comment on whether he would apologise as demanded by Lee.
Lee's lawyer Davinder Singh on Sunday wrote to Ngerng, a 33-year-old healthcare worker, demanding an apology and compensation for a May 15 blog post seen as accusing the premier of corruption.
The lawyer said the commentary penned by Ngerng "means and is understood to mean that Mr Lee Hsien Loong, the Prime Minister of Singapore and the chairman of GIC, is guilty of criminal misappropriation of the monies paid by Singaporeans to the CPF (Central Provident Fund)".
GIC is a sovereign wealth fund that manages more than $100 billion of the city-state's foreign reserves. CPF is the state pension fund.
Singh said the article constituted a serious libel against Lee, and asked that it as well as the links be removed.
Apart from an apology to be posted by Wednesday, Singh also stipulated that Ngerng must make a "written offer of damages and costs".
Ngerng has said the article was meant to call for greater transparency on how CPF funds are invested by the government through GIC and state investment firm Temasek Holdings.
Lee's demand for an apology has drawn mixed reactions from Singapore's vocal online community.
Some accused Ngerng of posting material without verifying facts, while others sympathised with him.