Singapore — The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a statement on Thursday (Oct 7) saying that letters had been issued to nine individuals for publishing posts on social media that misrepresented remarks made by Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam in Parliament on Monday (Oct 4).
The letters were issued to the following: lawyer and opposition leader Lim Tean, former editor of The Online Citizen Andrew Loh, activist and journalist Kirsten Han, filmmakers Martyn See and Lynn Lee, writer Julie O’Connor, and activists Jolovan Wham and Kokila Annamalai.
The Wake Up, Singapore Facebook page was mentioned as also having received a letter.
MHA also mentioned in its statement that news website Mothership published similar misrepresentations in an article on Oct 6.
The ministry called the posts that had been published “false… completely misstating” what Mr Shanmugam had said.
“The Minister had said in Parliament that Rule of Law is fundamental and basic for Singapore and its success, and the Government has always been committed to the Rule of Law and continues to be committed to it.
He also said that there are countries around the world where the Rule of Law is a concept for lawyers, but does not operate in the real world, and their societies live in utter misery.”
According to MHA, the posts that had been published were the “very opposite” of what Mr Shanmugam had said.
“They suggested that the Minister had said that Rule of Law does not operate in Singapore. That is false.”
The persons involved were required to correct the statements and also to apologise.
As of the issuance of MHA’s statement, seven of the nine had corrected their posts and apologised, and Mothership also published an Editor’s Note to that effect.
On Thursday afternoon (Oct 7), Wake Up, Singapore wrote a post that read, “We unreservedly apologise to the Minister for misquoting him.”
Those who have also apologised for misrepresenting Mr Shanmugam’s remarks include Mr Loh, Mr See, Ms Han, and Ms Annamalai.
Ms Han apologised in a Facebook post, “for sharing Mothership’s misrepresentation of the Minister’s comments.”
The journalist wrote that she had republished quotes from Mothership, but that she has added the clarifying note from the editor to her posts as well.
Ms Annamalai, who had also shared Mothership’s misrepresented quotes, had already deleted the post she shared, but apologised as well.
The Editor’s Note on Mothership reads, “Our earlier version gave the impression that Minister Shanmugam has changed his mind on rule of law. This is wrong and taken out of context.
Minister Shanmugam said in Parliament that the rule of law is fundamental for Singapore and its success. He also said that the government has always been committed to the rule of law and continues to be so. He also referred to some countries around the world “where rule of law is a concept for lawyers but it does not operate in the real world.” He used this as a contrast to how the rule of law is applied in Singapore.
Mothership apologises for the misrepresentation. We have corrected our article to accurately represent Shanmugam’s comments.”
/TISG
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