Netizens see broader political significance in TH’s
demand
Citing a desire not to waste the Singaporean tax payers’ money
in legal wrangling, website Temasek Review (TR) has complied with
Sovereign Wealth Fund Temasek Holdings’ (TH) demand that it change
its’ name.
In the statement, one of TR’s editors who uses the pseudonym
“Amanda Tan”, stood by what “she” felt were the legal strengths of
their case. It noted that the website had started using the name
“The Temasek Review” since July 2009, whereas TH had only
registered the same name for trademark rights in November 2009.
Despite citing these strengths, TR claimed that it was not keen
to go to court to defend its’ case as “to contest the case even in
a fair court in the USA will expose the identity of our editorial
team which we are not prepared to do so for the time being”.
The editorial team of TR claims to be completely based overseas,
under the leadership of a Panama based personality using the
pseudonym“Molina
Han”.
TR also said that the name change was an act of respect for
Singaporeans. It explained: “By “backing off”, we are actually
respecting the rights of Singaporeans and not Temasek Holdings
which incidentally also belongs to Singaporeans although the ruling
party will deny otherwise.”
TR was also careful to qualify that the move was not because of
what it called “no balls and guts”
Temasek Holdings’ move sparks speculation
In Temasek’s
letter to the press earlier on Saturday, Mr Goh Yong
Siang (Head, Strategic Relations) stated that the term “Temasek
Review” had been used to title TH’s performance reviews since
2004.
The move by Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund has sparked
speculation of a non-financial variety.
Netizens of popular local political discussion platform Sammyboy
forum saw a broader political significance to the move by TH. One
commentator noted that: “They are just trying to flush out TR. Its
(Temasek Holdings) an arm of the Govt.” Another commentator on The
Online Citizen was more direct, claiming “this reeks of an
orchestrated political gesture by Temasek Holdings in the run-up to
the elections”.
Indeed, the letter by Mr Goh contained statements that one would
be unlikely to find in letters by a purely commercial entity:
“Temasek has no issue with the desire to foster and facilitate
serious debate and discourse and to provide news of socio-political
affairs of Singapore. That is the right of every Singaporean.”
TH’s name change request was made through the press earlier on
the same day (Saturday, 16 October) in the form of a publicly
available letter to Dr Joseph Ong, the man who claims to be Temasek
Review’s founder. A New Paper report on 10 October stated
that Dr Ong admitted to police to being the person behind the
Temasek Review and its’ predecessor, The Wayang Party.
The current editors of TR have attempted to dissociate
themselves from Dr Ong in their response to TH by claiming that he
“is not a member of our editorial team past or present” and
that “He is not in a position to receive any notices or
communication on our behalf”.
