Singapore minister slams Malaysian media for failing to fact-check

Updated 5 years ago · Published on 9 Nov 2018 10:37PM · 3 Comments

Singaporean Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam says an article published by the States Times Review website, alleging that the Singaporean prime minister is involved in the 1MDB scandal, is 'nasty and malicious'. – EPA pic, November 9, 2018.

SINGAPOREAN Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam today slammed some Malaysian media outlets for their failure to conduct “basic checks” on an article seeking to damage the reputation of the country and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, reported TODAY.

The minister, who did not name the organisations, said when allegations “appear in the mainstream media, you would expect them to check the facts before publishing”.

“Basic checks would have shown the allegations to be false,” he was quoted as saying.

Shanmugam described the claims as “absurd”.

He said the arguments made – that the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail agreement favours Singapore, and the price of water as stated in a deal between Singapore and Malaysia is too low – are “not new”.

“This article repeats those points, and adds a very nasty and malicious twist. It brings in 1Malaysia Development Bhd, it brings in (former Malaysian prime minister) Najib Razak, and says our PM and the Singaporean government are corrupt and complicit in the (1MDB) money laundering.”

He called such articles “a classic example” of wanting to “damage confidence in Singapore, damage Singapore’s reputation internationally (and) damage confidence in the prime minister”.

“We debunked (the article) immediately, and a lot of media outlets have carried that, and we can go further,” Shanmugam said, adding that “police will take action against all those involved, based on investigations, and of course, based on the attorney-general’s advice”.

It was reported that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has lodged a report with Singaporean police against the author of an article published on the States Times Review website on Monday.

The report allegedly contained false and malicious statements, and impugned the integrity of MAS as a financial regulator.

The article, titled “Lee Hsien Loong becomes 1MDB’s key investigation target”, alleged that Malaysia had inked unfair agreements with Singapore, in exchange for Singaporean banks’ assistance in laundering 1MDB funds.

The central bank has said the article is “baseless and defamatory”. – Bernama, November 9, 2018.

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Comments

  • True it is our own Malaysian stupidity that was taken advantage by the Singapore leaders. Any Ahmad, Ah kow or Mutthu will do that when the other side are feeing rich and very magnanimous in giving. It is our Malaysian leaders at fault and clearly the negotaitions especially both water and HSR are being manipulated to the best outcome for Singapore.

    Posted 5 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • Was HSR viable given the state of finance and the 1mdb scandal going on at the time , not only in USA, Swiss but also in Singapore? Why the go ahead to sign the deal?

    Posted 5 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • Singapore Straits Times also fail to fact check on their article about Malaysia having more 1MDB debts to IPIC than that declared by MOF. So what's the big deal. Is the pot calling the kettle black? Red dot kiasu Singaporeans should examine themselves in the mirror before they slam Malaysian media.

    Posted 5 years ago by Panchen Low · Reply