http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4269&Itemid=195
Singapore's Lee Family and Nepotism
Written by John Berthelsen
Friday, 24 February 2012
Kuan Yew says how it will be
A blogger feels the wrath of the ruling family
Singapore’s ruling Lee family, apparently angered by a comment made on a
Singapore-based blog Temasek Review Emeritus, has come down hard, with Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong, his wife, Ho Ching, his brother Lee Hsien Yang, all
demanding apologies for intimating that they have filled top government
positions with family members.
Lee Kuan Yew became prime minister of Singapore in 1959 and ran the place
until 1990, when he stepped down to become a senior minister and then was
appointed minister mentor by his son, with many of his critics alleging he has
continued to run the island republic from behind the scenes. After an
interregnum from 1990 to 2004 when Goh Chok Tong held the premiership, Lee
Hsien Loong took over as prime minister and has led the People’s Action Party
government since.
Among other Lee family members who have held high positions in government
are the elder Lee’s daughter, Lee Wee Ling, who is director of the National
Neurological Institute. His other son, Lee Hsien Yang, was chief executive
officer of Singapore Telecommunications from May 1995 until April 2007. He was
appointed the chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore in 2009.
Ho Ching, Hsien Loong’s wife, has run Temasek Holdings, the sovereign
wealth fund controlled by the Singapore Ministry of Finance, since 2002 after
serving as president and chief executive officer of the government-owned
Singapore Technologies. Although she has been criticized for some disastrous
investments, including one in former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s
Shin Corp that Fortune Magazine called a "spectacular misjudgment" as well as
several others in flagging western investment banks, she has never been asked
to step down.
TR Emeritus, as the blog is known, hastily took down the article, which
is no longer available. Apparently written by a contributor or in response to
another article, it has been described as pointing out that the elder Lee’s
appointing Hsien Loong prime minister and Hsien Loong appointing his wife to
head Temasek Holdings “was nothing short of ‘cronyism’ and nepotism.”
The blog has posted a full apology, saying, among other things, that “we
recognize that the article meant or was understood to mean that Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Loong had secured, or was instrumental in securing, the appointment
of his wife, Mdm Ho Ching, as the Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Holdings
(Private) Limited for nepotistic motives. We admit and acknowledge that this
allegation is false and completely without foundation. We unreservedly
apologize to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for the distress and embarrassment
caused to him by this allegation.”
Richard Wan, representing TR Emeritus, was unreachable. He posted a
statement on the website saying he would no longer respond to questions from
the press. He also asked TRE readers to “refrain from making such comments
about Mdm Ho Ching with regard to her appointment in Temasek Holdings (Private)
Limited. Any such allegations put up by anyone on TRE will be deleted.”
That may not have been enough. On Feb. 17, the government-controlled New
Paper reported the parliament had pushed through an amendment to the Evidence
Act that gives the courts the discretion to admit deleted online posts as
evidence. The amendment, according to the paper, gives the courts “the
discretion to consider relevant evidence by widening the admissibility of
several categories. Among them are changes to the computer output evidence -
which means computer printouts and sound and video recordings can be treated
just like other evidence in Singapore courts.”
The paper quoted attorney Suppiah Thangaveloo of the law firm Thanga &
Co, as saying the amendment would "make it easier" for the law to go after
cyber felons.
Challenging the Lee family in Singapore is a formidable undertaking. By
calculation of the US-based attorney and former Singaporean dissident Gopalan
Nair – who was jailed for it on a visit to Singapore -- the Lees have set a
world record in filing defamation suits and a second one by never losing one,
although in Singapore’s notoriously pliable courts when it comes to government
or Lee family actions. The family has filed charges against virtually every
major publication in Asia, including the Economist, Time Magazine, the
Financial Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Wall Street Journal
(Asia) and its predecessor, the Asian Wall Street Journal, the now-defunct Far
Eastern Economic Review and AsiaWeek, among many others. As near as can be
determined, the family has never attempted to sue outside of Singapore.
In the only case on record where the family ventured out to other courts,
Lee Wei Ling, the head of the Neurological Institute, attempted to bring
charges in London against Simon Shorvon, the former principal investigator of a
medical research project in Singapore, on allegations of professional
misconduct. The London charges followed a long series of actions against
Shorvon in Singapore. Witnesses told the British High Court in England that the
alleged offenses by Shorvon by the Singaporeans were so minor that they weren’t
worth bothering with.
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