Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam and Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan have sent lawyers' letters to Lee Hsien Yang over Lee's defamatory statements regarding their rental of black-and-white bungalows at Ridout Road.
Threaten to sue
Their Facebook posts wrote:
"Lee Hsien Yang has accused us of acting corruptly and for personal gain by having Singapore Land Authority (“SLA”) give us preferential treatment by illegally felling trees without approval, and also having SLA pay for renovations to 26 and 31 Ridout Road. These allegations are false."
Shanmugam and Vivian have asked Lee to "apologise, withdraw his allegations and pay damages which [they] will donate to charity".
"If he does not do so, we will sue him," the posts concluded.
POFMA correction direction was issued to Lee on Jul. 25
On Jul. 25, a correction direction under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) was issued to Lee regarding a post he put up on Jul. 23 about Ridout Road and SPH Media Trust.
The POFMA correction direction was issued by Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong.
Lee wrote that the state had paid for renovations at 26 and 31 Ridout Road because the properties were leased by Shanmugam and Vivian, which was untrue. The Ministry of Law said the identity of the tenants had no bearing on the decision on the works to be carried out on the properties.
The ministry said that most of the costs incurred for 26 and 31 Ridout Road were for works that external consultants determined were necessary.
The ministry also highlighted that the post omitted information about how the works were done in accordance with Singapore Land Authority's (SLA) practice and were assessed to be necessary in the circumstances.
The ministry also noted Lee's post said the trees at 26 and 31 Ridout Road were allowed to be felled on account of the tenants' identities which the ministry said was also untrue. It added that the tenants' identity had no bearing on the felling of the trees.
Lee's post also claimed that SPH Media Trust had fraudulently inflated its circulation numbers which the ministry refuted and said it was untrue as the overstatement of circulation numbers happened when the media business was under SPH Limited, a listed company.
The ministry said that when SPH Media Trust took over SPH Limited's media business, the circulation issue was discovered, reported and investigated.
Top photos via K Shanmugam, Vivian Balakrishnan & PSP's Facebook