Police report made against foreign commentator Critical Spectator for trying to influence GE2020

The Polish national had commented on the policies of political parties and their candidates.

Matthias Ang | Kayla Wong | July 07, 2020, 11:07 PM

The Online Citizen editor Terry Xu has lodged a police report against the self-styled one-man-show commentary Facebook page, Critical Spectator.

Police report lodged over Facebook posts that commented on GE2020

In a July 7 Facebook post, Xu revealed that he made the police report over Critical Spectator's Facebook posts that commented on the ongoing 2020 General Election (GE).

In case you can't see the post:

Xu pointed out that the person behind the Facebook Page, Michael Petraeus, is a Polish national, as reported by CNA.

Xu's post has been shared over 250 times within three hours of posting.

Xu picked out Facebook posts where Petraeus commented on the GE

Xu further highlighted three Facebook posts as examples that Petraeus has "clear intent to influence the election by criticising a candidate from a particular party and on policies proposed by various parties".

In a recent post, he commented on new Workers' Party candidate Raeesah Khan's choice of a role model in American Marxist feminist Angela Davis, saying after "a bit of mulling", he had to comment as he could not let the issue slide since he is from "a communist country".

In another post that Xu mentioned, Petraeus questioned the rationale behind the support that Khan has received from Singaporeans after she apologised for her controversial comments on the judicial system in Singapore, while former PAP candidate Ivan Lim was condemned for his alleged "elitist" attitude.

In a third post that Xu raised, Petraeus argued for why he thinks GST should be raised in Singapore.

In the post, he said he does not think he can "stay silent" about the matter as in addition to the allegedly misguided ideas that he sees on the issue, he cares about Singapore very much despite not being a citizen.

Government agencies cautioned against foreign interference in Singapore's election

Xu concluded his post by citing Section 83(1)(d) of the Parliamentary Election Act, which states, "No person who is not a citizen of Singapore shall take part in any election activity."

He also cited the April 20 advisories issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore and the Elections Department that cautioned political parties and candidates against the threat of foreign interference in Singapore's election.

Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam has also remarked on the threat of foreign interference in Singapore's elections that is made easy by the Internet to carry out, through "fake news" and "disinformation campaigns", The Straits Times reported.

He added that "it'll be foolish of us not to take steps to deal with it".

Mothership has reached out to the Singapore Police Force for more details on the police report that Xu made.

Petraeus' response

Petraeus has since responded to Xu's accusation, alleging that the latter employed Malaysians to write about "Singaporean politics" under TOC.

Top image adapted via Terry Xu & Critical Spectator's Facebook pages