Singapore—Jose Raymond, the chairman of Singapore People’s Party (SPP), has served a letter of demand to Daniel Teo Weilong, a former member of the Progress Singapore Party (PSP). Mr Teo admitted to having been responsible for an anonymous video wherein accusations had been made against certain members of the PSP, as well as other opposition figures, including Mr Raymond.
The video claimed that PSP “has been infiltrated by foreign proxies” and that they are “funded by western liberal sources.” Furthermore, it claimed that the persons involved from PSP had “been working with Mr Jose Raymond and PJ Thum.”
PSP Secretary-General Dr Tan Cheng Bock announced the expulsion of Mr Teo “with immediate effect”, via a broadcast message on the party members’ Telegram chat group on Friday (May 1).
Following Dr Tan’s announcement, several of the people named in the video filed police reports, including Mr Raymond, who is believed will contest in the next General Election for the Potong Pasir single-member constituency (SMC).
Eugene Thuraisingam, Mr Raymond’s lawyer, told Mothership on Saturday (May 2) that Mr Teo had been given a letter of demand to admit the falsehood of the statements made in the video, as well as apologise “for his actions, to undertake not to repeat them and to pay damages”.
Mr Teo has been given until May 5 to respond to the demand letter from Mr Raymond.
Mr Raymond has also told the Electoral Department about the incident.
According to Dr Tan, the case is now under police investigation. He added that PSP’s leadership cannot provide details concerning Mr Teo’s actions, but that it is a matter “the party has absolutely no tolerance for”.
“We have taken decisive action on this to preempt any rumor or speculation that may be detrimental to our party’s reputation. Any action that hurts the party’s credibility cannot and will not be tolerated”, said Dr Tan.
In a story ran in The Sunday Times on Sunday (May 3), Mr Teo cited an unnamed “acquaintance” as the source of his information, which he allegedly obtained in February.
The video, which he made by mid-April, had only been sent to one person for the purpose of fact-checking but had been leaked, according to Mr Teo. He told ST he had “accepted that he got expelled and am not unhappy”.
Mr Teo’s video provided a list of those allegedly involved.
In addition, it said that the party “has been infiltrated by foreign proxies well-funded beyond your dreams”.
https://www.facebook.com/kumaran.m.pillai/posts/10159917818907576
On Saturday (May 2) Kumaran Pillai took to Facebook to say he had also filed a police report concerning the matter. He wrote, “I would like to categorically deny these allegations as they are baseless, without merit and false.
I made a police report on Sunday 26th of April 2020 and was interviewed by the IO at Bedok Police Station on Tuesday 28th of April at 6pm. The other victims have also reported this to the police….
It is troubling that my friends and I with impeccable character are tarnished and maligned in this way. It is grossly unfair to us.” —/TISG