Letter of Apology to Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong
On 19th Feb 2012, TR
Emeritus (TRE) through our Singapore-based editor, was served with
a Letter of Demand from law firm Drew & Napier, acting for
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The letter said
that on or about 16th Feb 2012, TRE published or caused to be
published on TR Emeritus website, an opinion piece entitled
“PAP-government is full of ironies” by a contributor. The article,
as well as a number of associated comments, contained words that
are defamatory:
“… 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. ts 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.”
It also said
that the allegations (above) in the opinion piece by the
contributor are false and baseless, ”Mdm Ho Ching was
appointed on merit and through proper process.”
Additionally,
Messer Drew & Napier was kind enough to provide TRE with
information pertaining to the appointment of Mdm Ho Ching,
which showed that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was not
involved in the decision making process. As a matter of fact, Mr
Lee was against the idea from the onset.
In light
of the information made available to TRE, we would like to offer
our sincere apology to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
APOLOGY
1. On or about
16 February 2012, we published on this website, TR Emeritus, an
article entitled “PAP-government is full of ironies“ (the
“Article”). The Article, and the comments in response to the
Article, was available at
http://www.tremeritus.com/2012/02/16/pap-government-is-full-of-ironies/.
2. We recognise
that the Article meant or was understood to mean that Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong had 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.
3. We admit and
acknowledge that this allegation is false and completely without
foundation. We unreservedly apologise to Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong for the distress and embarrassment caused to him by this
allegation.
4. We have
removed the Article and the comments in response to the Article and
undertake not to make any further allegation to the same or similar
effect.
.
Richard
Wan
for TR Emeritus
http://www.tremeritus.com/2012/02/22/letter-of-apology-to-pm-lee-hsien-loong/
Richard Wan,
Editor TR
Emeritus
