Singapore demands apology from
ICJ
Singapore: Oct
10, 1997. Hong Kong Standard
THE Singapore government has demanded an apology from a
representative of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) who attacked
a defamation judgement in favour of Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.
Mr Goh's press secretary Lim Siam Kim, in a letter to the ICJ's Geneva head office released here late on Wednesday, accused senior Australian lawyer Stuart Littlemore of ``misrepresentation'' and causing ``political embarrassment'' to the Singapore premier.
Mr Littlemore represented the ICJ as an observer at the trial of opposition leader J B Jeyaretnam, who was ordered to pay about US$13,000 in damages plus 60 per cent of Mr Goh's legal costs after being found guilty of making defamatory remarks at a political rally.
Singapore officials have issued rebuttals against legal issues raised by Littlemore, with Mr Lim focusing on the claim that Mr Goh was served tea on the witness stand, which Mr Littlemore described as ``somewhat startling.''
``This was a misrepresentation,'' said Mr Lim, who said all Mr Goh received was a pot of warm water.
``Its imagery embarrassed my prime minister as it implies that he was insensitive and must have his `tea, milk and sugar' even when in the witness box. The misrepresentation was widely reported in the local and international media,'' Mr Lim said.
``If Mr Littlemore cannot be accurate or objective in his report to the ICJ, can he at least have the decency to acknowledge and apologise for the misrepresentation of facts which had caused political embarrassment to my prime minister?'' Mr Lim said.
In a letter to the Singapore Straits Times this week, Mr Littlemore said he would not ``quibble with trivia'' and maintained his criticism of the ruling on legal grounds.
Mr Goh and 10 other leaders of the ruling party had sued Mr Jeyaretnam for telling a rally on the eve of general elections in January that a fellow Workers' Party candidate, Tang Liang Hong, had filed police complaints against the premier.
The police complaints arose from PAP allegations about Mr Tang's racial views.
The PAP filed a barrage of lawsuits against Tang, who fled to exile before he was found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay more than US$5 million to the plaintiffs, a record in Singapore.- AFP
Published in the Hong Kong Standard. Oct 1, 1997