WP’s Jackson Au calls out ‘internet brigading’ campaign to discredit Aljunied MP Kenneth Tiong

SINGAPORE: In a Facebook post from earlier this week, the Workers’ Party’s Jackson Au came to the defence of WP MP Kenneth Tiong (Aljunied), whom he said had been the target of a coordinated attack online through “internet brigading.”

In the wake of the announcement that Air India would be asking Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines (SIA), which own the carrier, for an additional US$1.5 billion (S$1.9 billion) amid large losses, Mr Tiong had said in a social media post that he would be raising questions in Parliament on the matter. 

Given that Singapore Airlines owns around a quarter of Air India, and the state-owned investment firm Temasek has effective control of over 50% of SIA, Mr Tiong had pointed out on Aug 26 that “this is not only a question for private shareholders. Whichever of the two writes the cheque, it will have a significant impact on Temasek.”

“No one, least of all Singaporeans, owes Air India a living. I will not support, nor expect, any future use of Temasek’s funds to prop up Air India via Singapore Airlines,” he added.

Because of this, in addition to a connected spate of racism tinged commentary, Mr Tiong came under fire online, with some netizens accusing him of dog-whistling, while others questioned his qualification to question Singapore Airlines’ investments at all.

Mr Au wrote, “For his trouble, he has faced intense scrutiny. Some of this has taken the form of civil and robust debate, but the majority has descended into unwarranted character attacks, fueled by what I perceive to be a coordinated campaign to discredit him.”

He noted that on the day of his post (Sep 7), there were “racist, vitriolic, and tasteless” AI‑generated videos that were shared on various social media pages that were designed to denigrate the MP.

“I will not dignify them by resharing, but to illustrate their depravity: one depicts him assaulting airline staff and crashing a plane, another shows him shouting at wheelchair‑bound passengers, he added, calling for the people who are behind the people responsible for the content to be identified publicly and dealt with. 

Mr Au, who was fielded by the WP as a candidate at Punggol in last year’s General Election, called accusations that Mr Tiong is xenophobic or racist “politically nefarious,” and underlined that the MP is fearlessly asking the difficult questions on behalf of the Singaporeans who elected him.

Many Singaporeans agreed with Mr Au, with one writing, “Political issues should always be open to robust debate, but personal attacks and racist content have no place in the conversation. I hope discussions can remain focused on the issues and facts rather than targeting individuals. We need more constructive dialogue, not more hostility.” /TISG

Read also: Kenneth Tiong, ‘Singaporeans are best served when we can hold 2 things at once: zero tolerance for racism & hard questions about money’