TL;DR – Again?

The States Times Review is at it again.

Here’s what happened…

Minister Shanmugam said something at a forum on the elected presidency that the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) organised. The States Times Review proceeded to claim that Minister Shanmugam said that Eurasian Singaporeans are Indians. Worse, the States Times Review even suggested in this comment that Minister Shanmugam should be arrested for sedition:

Misleading or not, you be the judge. But as of now, many people including Hamish Brown (former radio DJ at Mediacorp) were led to believe so:

Thankfully, Brown has been alerted and we believe he has since removed the post above. He also made a clarification post here and his comments on this post is worth reading. At least one more person knows now than to read and believe everything from that “online news site”.

Minister Shanmugam didn’t say that.

And how can I be sure?

Because I was there, along with a few other friends. None of us recall Minister Shanmugam saying anything about Eurasians being classified as Indians. Instead, it was Mr Bennett Theseira, President of the Eurasian Association, who said that he was disappointed that Eurasians would be considered part of the “Indians and other minorities” community in relation to the elected presidency.

Minister Shanmugam has since put up a response on his Facebook page:

The government has also responded with the following remark on States Times Review’s Facebook page.

And guess what founder/editor behind the States Times Review Alex Tan did? He conveniently deleted the comment by Gov.sg.

Whatever happened to freedom of speech huh?

Also, when Alex Tan found out that Min Shanmugam has lodged a police report, he had this to say:

And… guess what, again?

He wasn’t even at the forum. The Australian PR is currently Down Under.

Also, guess what, again? Again?

(Last time, I promise)

He quietly edited the offending article. Here’s the screenshot from his Facebook Page on Sunday, after Min Shanmugam said that he would make a police report:

Notice how the headline of the same article has been changed? Now it’s simply the Presidency candidacy law and not Minister Shanmugam.  But the comment suggesting that Minister Shanmugam should be arrested for sedition is still there.

Oh well.