There is a rumour going around online at the moment regarding the passing of former Cabinet minister Chua Sian Chin, who died of heart failure on Wednesday night at the age of 81.

Coconuts Singapore, a news-fortainment site, picked up on it and incorrectly reported that the deceased, Chua Sian Chin, is the father of Singtel CEO Chua Sock Koong.

This is what Coconuts Singapore wrote in its report:

"Mr Chua is the father of Singtel CEO Chua Sock Koong and PAP's branch chairman for the Eunos ward Chua Eng Leong."

Unfortunately, it is factually and categorically wrong.

Confirmation of this falsity is readily available from two sources: The Straits Times and the obituary pages.

Chua is survived by three children:

Chua Eng Chiang

Chua Hui Tin

Chua Eng Leong

Nowhere is SingTel CEO Chua Sock Koong mentioned as an offspring.

So how did SingTel CEO Chua Sock Koong get dragged into this?

The source of the father-daughter rumour can be traced to HardwareZone forum.

Which in turn can be traced to the perennially dodgy but relatively funny yeocheowtong.com site.

And just a couple of days ago, SingTel chief executive Chua Sock Koong sparked a major uproar and gained herself some unwanted publicity when she asked the regulators in Australia to give telcos the right to charge WhatsApp and Skype for use of their networks.

But in any case, someone owes someone an apology for this error, no?

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