ST publishes correction on IPS Research Fellow’s op-ed after call out from Pritam Singh

SINGAPORE: The national broadsheet has issued a print correction after Workers’ Party secretary-general and Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh published a “Correction Notice” on his Facebook page over a statement in an opinion piece that was published in The Straits Times on April 17.

In a subscribers-only piece titled ‘Creating forward momentum for next GE when Lawrence Wong is PM,’ Dr Gillian Koh, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies at the National University of Singapore wrote, “The WP said it will tilt towards the strategy of fighting to form the Government at the next GE.”

On his Facebook page, Mr Singh stated categorically, “This is false,” adding that the WP has made clear that its medium-term goal is to do its part in ensuring that at least one-third of Parliament would not be members of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).

Read also: Pritam Singh issues correction notice on ST piece that said WP is ‘fighting to form the Government at the next GE’

A few hours after Mr Singh put up his post, Dr Koh apologised in a comment, adding that the sentence had been amended to read: “The WP has said its medium-term electoral goal is to help deny the PAP a two-third majority in Parliament needed for constitutional amendments.”

Less than half an hour after her comment, Mr Singh replied, “Thank you for the correction.”

She immediately responded to this by thanking him for pointing out the error and apologised again.

Other commenters on Mr Singh’s post wondered whether ST would also publish a correction to Dr Koh’s post, which it did on Thursday morning (Apr 18).

Under the heading “What it should have been,” the correction reads, “Our Apr 17 commentary, ‘Creating forward momentum for next GE when Lawrence Wong is leader,’ had wrongly noted that the Workers’ Party said it will tilt towards the strategy of fighting to form the government at the next GE. This is inaccurate. The WP has said its medium-term electoral goal is to help deny the PAP a two-thirds majority in Parliament needed for constitutional amendments. We are sorry for the error.”

Earlier this week, his fellow WP MP Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC) also wrote in a social media post, “At some level, the aspirations of the political opposition are remarkably modest.”

“We hope to bring better balance to Parliament and policymaking in this country so that we can have not just an efficient economy but also a compassionate society,” added Assoc Prof Lim. /TISG

Read also: Jamus Lim: At some level, the aspirations of the political opposition are remarkably modest