THE States Times Review website, which accused Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of involvement in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal, said it will welcome a libel suit by the leader in an Australian court.
STR editor Alex Tan, in a statement on the site and its Facebook page yesterday, made known the portal’s stance following accusations that it published fake news.
A report on Monday, titled “Lee Hsien Loong becomes 1MDB’s key investigation target”, alleged that there had been “secret deals” between Lee and his former Malaysian counterpart, Najib Razak.
“It is believed that Najib Razak signed several unfair agreements with Singapore’s Lee Hsien Loong, like building the Singapore-Malaysia High-Speed Rail when the country was in trillion-ringgit debt, and a grossly underpriced water sale agreement, in exchange for Singaporean banks’ assistance in laundering 1MDB’s billions,” said the article.
The Singaporean government has denied the report, calling it “fake news”.
Tan said if Lee is able to give a reasonable explanation in response to the “fake news”, he is willing to take the first flight home and turn himself in to Singaporean police.
If Lee feels he has been wronged, said Tan, he should commence legal proceedings immediately, and if he fails to sue within a week, it would only reinforce the public’s opinion that the prime minister may be guilty.
“Like his former best friend, Najib, Lee immediately invoked his favourite term, ‘fake news’, when the criticism went viral,” said the editor.
“‘Fake news’ is his first line of defence, but it is also a porous one,” he said, adding that a libel suit will determine whether the allegations are true.
Defending the STR report, Tan said it is true that the water deal signed in January is unfair as it sees Singapore paying 3 sen per 1,000 gallons, or more than 15 times lower than the 50 sen Malacca is paying.
At the 8th Singapore-Malaysia Leaders’ Retreat in January, both countries affirmed the terms of the 1962 Water Agreement.
“The water treaty is unfair, as confirmed by newly elected Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is, in fact, flying to Singapore next week to negotiate a price increase,” said Tan.
He added that it is not fake news that Najib had inked the exorbitant HSR contract in 2013 despite knowing the country’s debt level.
“It is already an established fact that the HSR has been postponed due to Malaysia’s trillion-ringgit national debt. The then prime minister overstretched Malaysia’s finances to please Lee, who proposed the rail project.
“Link the dots and think what was the return for Najib then.”
He said tens of billions of dollars had flowed into eight Singaporean banks, which processed fund transfers amounting to US$3.5 billion with the government’s knowledge between 2011 and 2015.
According to Singapore’s anti-money laundering regulations, all “large and frequent” transactions are labelled as suspicious, and the authorities are notified of them.
Tan said the existing bank regime should have flagged the transactions, and if that did not happen, it “only proves that Singapore is a money laundering hub in practice, or it deliberately shut an eye to the transactions”.
He also accused Singapore of delaying investigations between 2011 and 2015 to assist Najib.
“According to Singaporean investigators, the BSI bank was flagged for suspicious transactions as early as 2011. The Singaporean government only started monitoring the bank in May 2015, after being notified by Swiss police.
“BSI was shut down by the Singaporean government in 2016, only after Swiss authorities had gathered evidence confirming the bank’s role in laundering 1MDB funds.
“As such, the actual fact of the matter is, we have two parties making moves to each other’s benefit. Which point, exactly, is fake then, my esteemed prime minister?”
In a post today, Tan reiterated that Lee or his “acting proxies”, namely the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), should file a case with Australian authorities if the prime minister maintains his innocence.
He said STR will not remove its Monday article, following a letter by IMDA requesting that it be done by 5pm today. The letter has been posted on the site and its Facebook page.
“The website refuses to bow down to the dictatorship’s draconian censorship order, or accept any arbitrary order naming any content as ‘fake news’.
“I will wear the ban and falsified charges as a badge of honour. Singaporeans should not be afraid of the truth or impugn their integrity bowing to legalised corruption and threats.” – November 9, 2018.
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Comments
Or was it the Swiss authorities which flagged the money laundering activities in the 1MDB issue, forcing Singapores MAS to take action?
Who is right then? Please enlighten..
Posted 5 years ago by TTs Take · Reply
Posted 5 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply
Dear Dr M,
1. Please make your stand firm on the 1MBD funds stashed in Singapore banks and request for an immediate investigation on this matter.
2. Three Sen for 1000 gallons of raw water is NUTS! What do these Singaporean authorities think they are? And we buy back at 50 Sen? Where is the logic in this? Please take LGE and Tony Pua on your visit to Singapore, Dr M.
Posted 5 years ago by TTs Take · Reply
Posted 5 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply
Posted 5 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply
Posted 5 years ago by Tan Kenny · Reply
Posted 5 years ago by Antares Maitreya · Reply