Singapore – Former People’s Action Party (PAP) election candidate Shamsul Kamar is under fire for sharing a picture purportedly of Ms Sarah Bagharib but that turned out to be of someone else.
Ms Sarah has recently been embroiled in a controversy with the People’s Association while Mr Shamsul was part of the five-member PAP team that stood for election in Aljunied GRC in 2020 and lost to the Workers’ Party.
The Facebook page Wake Up, Singapore urged Mr Shamul to apologise to Ms Sarah for smearing her.
Ms Sarah, a communications specialist, recently had her wedding photo used without her permission in a Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration banner by the People’s Association (PA).
The PA issued a public apology and offered to meet Ms Bagharib and her husband. However, the meeting was cancelled.
The PA cited disagreements with the couple over the purpose of the meeting and how the latter characterised the incident.
On June 15, Ms Sarah expressed her disappointment that the meeting, which was scheduled for that day, was cancelled.
On June 17, the Facebook page Fabrications About the PAP shared a post insinuating that Ms Sarah could be in photos alongside a Workers’ Party (WP) member.
The top half showed Ms Sarah with a face mask photoshopped on her face.
The bottom half showed a woman, wearing the blue Workers’ Party shirt, with Mr Nathaniel Koh, who was a Workers’ Party candidate for Marine Parade GRC in 2020.
“Towards a First World Parliament! #TeamMarineBlue (laughing emoji),” read the caption.
A Facebook profile under the name of Mr Shamsul shared the post on June 17 at 4.37 pm with the caption, “For all to decide…Everything happens for a reason but let’s not be divisive.”
It was reported that the page is different from Mr Shamsul’s public Facebook page.
Facebook page Wake Up, Singapore revealed on Thursday that the woman in the photo was not Ms Sarah.
The page included a screenshot of an Instagram direct message conversation between the woman in the photo and Mr Shamsul.
In her messages, the woman identified herself in the photo and asked Mr Shamsul to delete the post.
“Please also issue a correction that the lady in the photograph is not Sarah, and any insinuations you have made were false or likely to mislead,” the woman wrote.
In their caption, Wake Up, Singapore wrote, “Hey @shamsulkr, you wanted to talk so much just now, right? But you were too focused on smearing that you couldn’t even get the right person.
“Are you going to publicly apologise to @sarahbagharib now?”
Mr Shamsul confirmed with Mothership that it was he who had shared the post.
“I did not (mention) that it was Sarah nor anyone else, and it didn’t cross my mind to do so,” said Mr Shamsul.
He added: “I’m sorry that it seems many misunderstood my key intention of sending the message to everyone that we need to stand united rather than divisive, especially during this period of the pandemic.
“If you read my posts, especially on my public page, this has been a consistent message I have been advocating to let’s fight this pandemic together.
“That’s what the shared post was about.” /TISG
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