Angered by his account of Singapore’s historical facts that did not portray the ruling party government in a good light at the Select Committee’s hearing, Law Minister K Shanmugam today (Sep 20) threw his tantrums telling state media reporters that Oxford academic Dr Thum Ping Tjin is a liar who broke the law by lying under oath:
“Historian Thum Ping Tjin had clearly lied about his academic credentials in the evidence he gave to the Select Committee tasked to look into the problem of combating deliberate online falsehoods. We did not find Dr Thum to be a credible representor, based on his conduct in relation to the committee. It had also given no weight to Dr Thum’s views… Since his perspective was unique, we thought that we will set out what we thought of the representation because the committee concluded that he lied about his academic positions and that on the representations, he was not credible.”
It is unknown whether Dr Thum Ping Tjin has been arrested as of publication time, but the Law Minister is notorious for fixing his critics. When charged, the historian will face a maximum of 7 years imprisonment for lying under a statutory declaration.
Earlier in March this year, the ruling party PAP government convened a fake “independent committee” – comprising of PAP MPs and the Law Minister himself – to create new laws to counter “fake news”. The sole purpose is to arrest critics who could only voice out online, and to shut down news websites that report negatively against the ruling party PAP. To deal with the growing number of resentful comments made against the government, dictator Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong planned to write new laws to protect his reputation and self-interests as as he did for the 38 Oxley Road memorial and ministerial pay raise.
In order to consolidate his political powers, Lee Hsien Loong and his state media spread propaganda cautioning Singaporean voters to be wary of foreign news media and even openly lied that certain unnamed “enemy organisations or countries” are launching disinformation campaigns against Singapore. By spreading fear using fake news and conjuring non-existent bogeyman “enemies”, Lee Hsien Loong intends to keep his ruling political party PAP in power forever like as he recently did through legal corruptions to appoint the Singapore President of his choice.