ICJ query PM's defamation win

DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR in Singapore

INTERNATIONAL human rights and judicial groups have questioned Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong's defamation victory against an opposition MP, reports said yesterday.

Workers Party leader J. B. Jeyaretnam was this week ordered to pay the premier S$20,000 (HK$102,795) plus 60 per cent of the court costs for defaming Goh during a campaign rally speech in January.

The Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists released a report calling the court's judgment against the 71-year-old opposition veteran "unduly harsh", Singapore's Straits Times reported.

The commission had sent Australian Queen's Counsel Stuart Littlemore to observe the proceedings which took place in the High Court in August.

In his 10-page report, Mr Littlemore noted: "It was somewhat startling to see the court attendant serve the Prime Minister, when he was in the witness box under cross examination, with a pot of tea, milk and sugar, on a tray."

He noted that the defendant did not receive similar service, but added that this "probably had more to do with the court attendant's priorities than with anything sinister".

The human rights group Amnesty International also sent an observer, Paul Bentley.

It "feared the judgment is likely to have an inhibiting effect on freedom of expression, deterring those who seek to peacefully express dissenting political opinions", reported the Straits Times.

The suit centred on Mr Jeyaretnam's mention, during the rally, of two police reports filed by his fellow opposition party member Tang Liang Hong against "Mr Goh Chok Tong and his people".

Mr Tang had made the reports after the Prime Minister and other ruling-party leaders called him an "anti-Christian Chinese chauvinist", a label he claimed endangered his life in multi-ethnic Singapore.

Mr Goh claimed that by mentioning the reports, Mr Jeyaretnam had implied they had engaged in a criminal conspiracy against his election partner.

The judge's ruling in Mr Goh's favour also prompted a response from the United States Government.

A spokesman at the US Embassy in Singapore, responding to queries from the media, said it was most concerned about "the ruling party's use of the court system to intimidate its political opponents".

But Singapore's Government hit back on Thursday, calling the comments "unwarranted and unfounded".

"Singapore leaders sued because they were defamed," a Singapore Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman said.

"They will continue to clear their names through the courts whenever they are defamed. How else can they clear their names?"

The city state's leaders have filed a number of defamation lawsuits against opposition politicians over the years, noting their right to defend their reputations against "scurrilous, untrue" allegations.

Meanwhile, Singapore has been internationally recognised by political and economic analysts as having one of the world's most efficient, corruption-free governments.