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Tag: Li Shengwu

  • AGC To Take Action Against Lee Hsien Loong’s Nephew, Li Shengwu, For Contempt Of Court

    AGC To Take Action Against Lee Hsien Loong’s Nephew, Li Shengwu, For Contempt Of Court

    The AGC said it decided to act after Mr Li, 32, the eldest son of Mr Lee Hsien Yang and nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, failed to remove the Facebook post and to apologise by an extended deadline of 5pm on Friday.

    In the Facebook post on July 15, which Mr Li set to “friends only” privacy setting but which was published by several websites and widely circulated on social media, he said foreign media had been cowed into self-censorship because of previous legal action.

    He shared a link to a Wall Street Journal newspaper article giving a summary of the recent dispute which saw his father and aunt Lee Wei Ling on one side, and his uncle on the other, over their late father Lee Kuan Yew’s home on 38, Oxley Road. The article was titled Singapore, A Model Of Orderly Rule, Is Jolted By A Bitter Family Feud.

    He also included a link to a 2010 New York Times commentary that was critical of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew and the Government over what it deemed as censorship of the foreign press.

    AGC, in its statement on Friday, said it issued a letter of warning on July 21 to Mr Li.

    In that letter, Senior State Counsel Francis Ng noted that the New York Times article described the Singapore Government as “an authoritarian regime which aggressively uses the Singapore judicial system to silence its critics, even where such criticisms are fair or valid”.  The article also described the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew as the designer of “draconian press laws”, which have been used to suppress legitimate criticism, he wrote.

    Referring to Mr Li’s Facebook post, he said: “The clear meaning of the post, in referring to ‘a pliant court system’, is that the Singapore judiciary acts on the direction of the Singapore Government, is not independent, and has ruled and will continue to rule in favour of the Singapore Government in any proceedings, regardless of the merits of the case”.

    “This assertion is reinforced by your reference to, and clear endorsement of, the article,” he added, referring to the New York Times story.

    Mr Li was asked to comply with the following by 5pm on July 28:

    – Delete and remove the post from his Facebook page and any other social/online media and other documents in his possession, custody or control; and

    – Issue and post prominently a written apology and undertaking in the terms stated in the AGC’s letter on his Facebook page.

    Mr Li then wrote to the AGC to request an extension of time till 5pm on Aug 4 to respond to the AGC’s letter.

    The extension was granted. But he failed to purge the contempt and to apologise by the extended deadline, said AGC.

    In a Facebook post earlier on Friday, Mr Li said the post in question was not an attack on the judiciary.

    “It is not my intent to attack the Singapore judiciary or to undermine public confidence in the administration of justice. Any criticism I made is of the Singapore Government’s litigious nature, and its use of legal rules and actions to stifle the free press,” he said.

    “However, to avoid any misunderstanding of my original private post, I have amended the post so as to clarify my meaning,” he added.

    His amended post was not made public on his Facebook page.

    Responding to AGC’s decision to start contempt of court action against him, Mr Li wrote in a Facebook post on Friday night: “Well, this is a new development. Fortunately, my friends know how to call a spade a spade.”

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • SDP Urges President Tony Tan To Revoke Lucien Wong’s Appointment As AG

    SDP Urges President Tony Tan To Revoke Lucien Wong’s Appointment As AG

    The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) has refused to look into Dr Lee Wei Ling’s and Lee Hsien Yang’s allegations that PM Lee Hsien Loong had abused his powers and made false statements in Parliament.

    In its reply to the SDP on 21 July 2017, the AGC said that it “does not undertake investigations into the matters alleged in the letter. The persons who are the subjects of any criminal offence alleged to have been committed may lodge a police report.”

    This is a curious, if not altogether hypocritical, stance. The AGC recently indicated that it would “look into” Mr Li Shengwu’s private Facebook posting which criticised the judicial system even though there was no mention that anyone had made a police report against Mr Li.

    Surely, if the AGC could “look into” private Facebook messages, it can look into the serious accusations of the abuse of power by the Prime Minister.

    Also, in 1997, then AG Chan Sek Keong had investigated the matter of Mr Goh Chok Tong and other ministers entering polling stations on voting day even though they were clearly not authorised to do so.

    As in the 1997 incident, the “persons who are the subjects” of the alleged offence are the people of Singapore. If AG Chan – despite his inane answer that Mr Goh and company had not committed an offence as they were inside the polling station and not waiting outside it – could investigate the incident, surely AG Lucien Wong can investigate the present matter.

    The added problem, of course, is that AG Wong was the PM’s personal lawyer prior to his appointment. This crucial fact was not disclosed to the public at the time the appointment was made.

    Given the situation, the SDP has written to President Tony Tan to revoke Mr Lucien Wong’s appointment. Under Section 22(1) of the Constitution, the President is empowered to do so.

    Mr Lucien Wong was sworn in as AG on 16 January 2017. However, the fact that Mr Wong was the PM’s personal lawyer was revealed to the public only in June 2017. The President may not have been aware of this fact or its full implications.

    The association of Mr Wong with PM Lee prior to his becoming the AG has created an acute conflict of interest which cannot be ignored. It is important that President Tan does the right thing in the interest of the people of Singapore and revoke Mr Lucien Wong’s appointment as AG.

    Any further delay or refusal to act will cause even greater erosion of confidence in our public institutions.

     

    Source: http://yoursdp.org

  • Li Shengwu’s Eulogy To Lee Kuan Yew

    Li Shengwu’s Eulogy To Lee Kuan Yew

    A “doting grandfather”, a “man of tomorrow” and a “compassionate” nation builder – these were just some adjectives Li Shengwu, eldest son of Mr Lee Hsien Yang, used to described his grandfather Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

    “Ye Ye loved his role as a doting grandfather. It delighted him, at each Chinese New Year, when the grandchildren gathered to greet him and receive hongbaos,” Mr Li said in his eulogy during a private wake held at the Mandai Crematorium.

    Reproduced below is his full eulogy:

    “When the grandchildren were very little, Ye Ye would take us on walks to feed the fish at the Istana. We would perch on the edge of the pond, the ripples of our breadcrumbs breaking the mirrored surface of the water. He liked to have the grandchildren nearby as he rode his stationary bike on the green grass.

    “Sunday lunch with Ye Ye was an institution for our family. His voice and his hearty laugh would carry to the children’s table, talking about matters of state, recounting meetings with foreign leaders whose names we neither recognised nor remembered.

    “In a city of continual renewal, my grandparents’ house never changed. It was always the same white walls, the same wooden furniture, the same high windows letting in sunlight. The food stayed the same too; Singapore cooking that would not be out of place at a good stall in a hawker center. Ye Ye and Nai Nai would take the grandchildren on outings, to the Zoo, to the Science Center, to National Day. I remember that when I was a child, the chief benefit of his position was that it came with a great view of fireworks.

    “Ye Ye loved his role as a doting grandfather. It delighted him, at each Chinese New Year, when the grandchildren lined up to greet him and receive hongbaos. After Nai Nai had her second stroke in June 2008, he continued the tradition, preparing himself the hongbaos for his grandchildren.

    “As I grew up, sometimes I would talk to Ye Ye about politics and the State. Always he spoke with the courage of his convictions; with a certainty born of long consideration. As you might guess, we didn’t always agree. At the dining table, he never argued opportunistically – he never took a position he didn’t believe for a tactical advantage. The facts were the facts – our beliefs should accord with the evidence, and not the other way around.

    “To grow up in Singapore is to grow up in his shadow; to see in our skyscrapers, our schools, our highways, and our homes the force of his singular vision.

    “History is full of plans for the total transformation of society. Plato’s Republic. Abbe Sieyes’ What is the Third Estate? The Communist Manifesto. Few plans succeed, and many cause more bloodshed than happiness. As such plans go, his was compassionate – even humane. His objective was that his fellow citizens, you and I, would know peace and plenty. He believed that education, open markets, and clean government would make the people of Singapore a great people.

    “That his plan succeeded is beyond dispute. It succeeded so rapidly, so thoroughly, that to my generation of Singaporeans, the poverty and instability of our beginning feels almost unreal – like a fever dream chased away by the morning light.

    “He was our man of tomorrow. From the day he took office in 1959, he fought to bring Singapore into the future. In real terms, in 1959, the average Singaporean was as poor as the average American was in the year 1860. Today Singapore is one of the most developed countries in the world. The Singapore economy has advanced more in fifty years than the American economy has advanced in 150 years. This is a pace of progress that’s less like economic development, and more like time travel.

    “Once, at the suggestion that a monument might be made for him, my grandfather replied: ‘Remember Ozymandias.’ He was, of course, referring to Shelley’s sonnet about Ramses II, the greatest Pharaoh of the Egyptian empire. In the poem, a lone traveller encounters a broken statue in the desert. On the statue, the inscription: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains.”

    “I think his meaning was that, if Singapore does not persist, then a monument will be no help. And if Singapore does persist, then a monument will be unnecessary. And that assessment is accurate: His legacy is not cold stone, but a living nation. And we could no more forget him than we could forget the sky.

    “It is often said that my grandfather built great institutions for Singapore. But what is an institution? It is a way of doing things that outlives the one who builds it. A strong institution is robust – it is persistent. It does not depend precariously upon the individual personalities. It places the rule of law above the rule of man. And that is the sacrifice of being a builder of institutions. To build institutions is to cede power – is to create a system that will not forever rely on you.

    That this occasion passes without disorder or uncertainty shows that he succeeded in this task. We are bereft at his passing, but we are not afraid. The pillars that he built stand strong, the foundations that he built run deep.

    “The next task falls to us. I think my grandfather always saw my generation of Singaporeans with a mixture of trepidation and hope. We are children of peacetime, unacquainted with the long struggle to make Singapore a modern nation-state. We view stability, prosperity, and the rule of law as our birthrights. For good or ill.

    “We have our own visions for what Singapore will be. Some of those visions, our hopes may seem idealistic or far-fetched. But my grandfather’s vision must have seemed pretty outlandish too, when he stood in an impoverished backwater 50 years ago and promised that it would become a metropolis. He showed us that, with courage and clear thinking, Singapore can rise above its narrow circumstances and be a light to the world.

    “Ye Ye, you started by fighting for Merdeka – for our right to rule ourselves. I found out this week that Merdeka has its roots in an old Dutch word, the word means a freed slave. When Singapore was cut adrift from Malaysia, you adopted an orphaned nation and made us all your children.

    “Ye Ye, you chose to forsake personal gain and the comforts of an ordinary life, so that the people of Singapore could have a better life for themselves, and for their children and for their grandchildren. That Singapore is safe, that Singapore is prosperous, that Singapore is – for this we owe a debt that we cannot repay.

    “Ye Ye – We will try to make you proud. Majulah Singapura.”

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com