Prakash Hetamsaria took All Singapore Stuff to task for using his picture in an article about a new citizen who wants to give up his citizenship. The website identified the new citizen as ‘Fernandez’. Prakash pointed out that he was not Fernandez and said that he has “informed the authorities on this matter for them to investigate.”
All Singapore Stuff (ASS) had taken the screengrab of Prakash’s picture from Channel NewsAsia’s report on integration of new citizens in the year 2012. The article titled ‘S Iswaran urges new citizens to integrate, be part of larger society’ said that the MP for West Coast GRC and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, S Iswaran, urged new citizens to learn to integrate and be part of a larger society.
The article quoted Prakash (a new citizen from India) as saying that he felt right at home in Singapore from the time he arrived here. “You can see a lot of Indian friends, we have. Lots of Indian food you have. In terms of culture, I don’t feel like it’s too far from India,” he said.
Prakash is a grassroots leader in West Coast GRC and serves as the West Coast Park Neighbourhood Committee chairman.
ASS has since removed Prakash’s picture from their article and replaced it with Gong Li’s.
It is unclear if Gong Li will point out that she is not ‘Fernandez’ and take ASS to task for misusing her picture.