Former presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian–known for his quips online, and often cheeky comments–put his tooth up for auction saying he would “donate the proceeds to the TOC legal defence fund”.
The Online Citizen, self-proclaimed as ‘a community blogging platform involved in political activism in Singapore’ is embroiled in a lawsuit with Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong.
On Thursday (September 5), Davinder Singh Chambers LLC served a Writ of Summons along with a Statement of Claim on behalf of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to Terry Xu, Chief Editor of The Online Citizen (TOC).
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 Facebook post repeating allegations PM Lee’s sister Lee Wei Ling made during the Lee family feud in 2017.
TOC did not comply, and Xu wrote a letter refusing a take-down of the article saying that he was “of the opinion that the contents of the Article are not defamatory” and that he was “merely republishing” the words uttered by the PM’s siblings.
On his Facebook page, while Tan, a former CEO of NTUC Income, shared a link to TOC’s crowdfunding page, he also joked about selling his tooth.
On Friday (September 6), Tan shared a photo of a rotten, rather gnarly-looking tooth and shared a joking exchange he had with his dentist about selling it.
I say goodbye to my useless tooth. ( Elliot, don't worry! It won't apply to you.).The dentist was polite. He called it…
Posted by Tan Kin Lian on Thursday, 5 September 2019
Tan posted a photo on social media and asked his followers for “more than a stingy offer of $2”.
“I will donate the proceed to the TOC legal defence fund.
Hahaha” he added.
I post a better portrait of my "useless tooth" in the hope of getting more than a stingy offer of $2. I will donate the proceed to the TOC legal defence fund.Hahaha.
Posted by Tan Kin Lian on Thursday, 5 September 2019
Netizens had their own ideas as to what he could do with the tooth. Tan joked with them in the comments as well.
Last November, The Online Citizen said on it’s Facebook page the Singapore Police Force (SPF) was investigating the editor of the website over an alleged offence of criminal defamation.
It is unclear which article triggered the investigation under Section 21 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code Chapter 68, but the socio-political website said the SPF seized all electronic equipment used for the purpose of the website.