SMRT Feedback calls out The Online Citizen for hiring a M’sian writer to comment critically on SG society

After facing much backlash from Singaporeans and a lawsuit from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Terry Xu, chief editor of The Online Citizen, now faces allegations by self-styled internet-vigilante group SMRT Feedback by The Vigilanteh that the writer of the article is a foreigner known as “Kiara Xavier”.

In a Facebook post, the group wrote that The Online Citizen’s foreign writer “Kiara Xavier” is actually one Malaysian Rubaashini Shunmuganathan.

They question, “But why is Terry Xu from The Online Citizen paying a foreigner to write critical articles about Singapore’s society? Terry wants to champion Singaporean workers but he hires a foreigner to do a job a Singaporean writer could”.

On Sunday (September 1), the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) issued a letter to the editor of TOC, demanding that the website apologise and remove an article and a Facebook post repeating allegations PM Lee’s sister Lee Wei Ling made during the Lee family feud in 2017. That article was also written by ‘Kiara Xavier’.

The group’s main gripe with Terry was that he hired a foreigner to interfere in a Singaporean way of life.

They wrote, “You wanna hire foreigner for us no problem lah. You wanna criticise PAP or simi c*** also we don’t mind. But if you get a foreigner to interfere with Singaporean way of life, then be ready to get called out, especially when you were so interested in SMRT Feedback, so now we will be very interested in you”.

It was found out that ‘Kiara Xavier’ was just a pen name in the comments section of one of TOC’s articles. Another netizen tagged her and said, “Woww. You hv come a long way Rubaashini Shunmuganathan! Keep it up. Oh, and although Kiara Xavier is a sexy pen name, I thought you wld hv gone for something like Kiera Knowles!”

It is unconfirmed as to whether Rubaashini is a foreigner, and one netizen posed that question to the group in the comments section.

At the time of writing, neither Terry Xu, nor The Online Citizen have confirmed or denied allegations. -/TISG