MHA Statement on the False Posts Which Misrepresented Minister K Shanmugam’s Comments in Parliament on 4 October 2021

1.   The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued letters to nine persons, namely Lim Tean, Andrew Loh, Kirsten Han, Martyn See, Julie O’Connor, Jolovan Wham, Kokila Annamalai, Lynn Lee and Facebook page Wake Up Singapore who had published false posts, completely misstating what the Minister for Home Affairs and Law, Mr K Shanmugam had said in Parliament on 4 October 2021. These misrepresentations were also published by Mothership in its article on 6 October 2021.

2.   The Minister had said in Parliament that Rule of Law is fundamental and basic for Singapore and its success, and the Government has always been committed to the Rule of Law and continues to be committed to it.

3.   He also said that there are countries around the world where the Rule of Law is a concept for lawyers, but does not operate in the real world, and their societies live in utter misery.

4.   The nine persons put up posts which attributed to the Minister the very opposite of what he had said. They suggested that the Minister had said that Rule of Law does not operate in Singapore. That is false.

5.   MHA has sent letters to them, requiring them to correct the false statements and apologise.

6.   As of now, seven have apologised for what they did and/or issued clarifications. Mothership has also published an Editor’s Note to clarify and correct the misrepresentation.

7.   Please refer to the link below for what exactly was said during Parliament: /media-room/newsroom/transcript-of-minister-comment-on-rule-of-law-during-the-second-reading-of-foreign-interference-countermeasures-bill

An earlier version of this statement had stated that seven of the nine persons had corrected their posts. It has since come to our attention that this is inaccurate, as one of the seven persons did not change her original post.