Singapore regrets US human rights report

Jayakumar said the government sent a letter to the US Embassy on March 30, 1998, expressing the government's ``surprise and regret that the 1997 Report had repeated old allegations that the government has used libel suits to intimidate the opposition and questioned the independence of the judiciary.''

The US annual report on human rights worldwide in January had said the Singapore government ``stepped up intimidation of the opposition in 1997, an election year.''

It said the leaders of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) had filed ``a number of potentially ruinous defamation suits against opposition parties and their leaders'' after the January 2 election.

``The government rejected these unfounded allegations. Legal action against libel and defamation is an established part of Singapore's political culture,'' Jayakumar said in a written reply to an M.P.'s query over the government's response to the US report.

Turning to the judiciary, Jayakumar said allegations against it were also ``completely unfounded.''

``The Singapore judiciary and judicial system have consistently received high ratings in eminent international surveys which affirms the independence of the judiciary,'' he said.

A group of PAP leaders, including Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, sued defeated Workers' Party candidate Tang Liang Hong in 1997 after he filed police reports against the leaders.

Tang accused them of lying when they called him an ``anti- Christian Chinese chauvinist'' during the election campaign.

Tang fled Singapore after the elections, saying he feared for his life. He has not returned and was unrepresented for parts of the court case, in which a record Singapore $8.08 million (US$5.05 million) in damages was awarded to Goh and 10 PAP colleagues.

Singapore's Appeals Court in November reduced the original award against Tang to S$4.53 million.