Janadas Devan describes Lee Wei Ling as an incoherent writer – denies she was censored

Mr Janadas Devan has made a further comment on Dr Lee Wei Ling’s post revealing that he was the one who edited Dr Lee’s book, “A Hakka Woman’s Singapore Stories”. He disputed Dr Lee’s remarks that she suffered suppression by the editors at The Straits Times (ST).
We republish Mr Devan’s comments in full.
—
There’s another matter I have to respond to. Much as I dislike publicly contradicting a friend, there is no alternative.
I was the one who, when I was with The Straits Times, first edited Wei Ling’s columns. Most of the pieces that appeared in her recent collection, A Hakka Woman’s Singapore Stories, were edited by me.
Wei Ling now says she suffered suppression under 3 editors — beginning presumably with me. She has unjustly questioned the professional conduct of a number of my former colleagues as well as myself.
We are expected to believe she suffered so much oppression, writing for ST, that she willingly persisted with the experience over almost ten miserable years. And then, at the conclusion of that prolonged period of agony, she lovingly gathered the products of her oppression into a best-selling collection of essays.
How credible can that be?
Reading Wei Ling’s unedited writings was like sailing through a fog. The effort of turning her raw material into coherent articles — that’s what I remember most about editing Wei Ling.
That effort was often worth it because she had something valuable to offer, as her many fans can attest. I personally thought her pieces on medical matters and education the most useful.
But hardly ever did I think that my main task in editing her was to curb what she might say on “sensitive matters”. Of course, like with any writer, she was fact-checked to make sure she did not inadvertently make inaccurate or misleading statements. That’s not “censorship”; that’s called editing.
It beggars belief that she now presents herself as someone who was suppressed and silenced.
—
Mr Devan further clarified to Today newspaper that he responded to Dr Lee’s posts in his private capacity.
“Dr Lee alleged that she had three editors and all three editors acted improperly with regard to her articles. I was one of the editors, as many people know. Not to have replied to deny such insinuations means I accept them… Dr Lee must know you can’t make such allegations about people and expect them to keep quiet,” Mr Devan said.
—
Article was edited after it was published to add Mr Devan’s clarification to Today newspaper.