Jeyaretnam trial : Day 5
August 23, 1997
London Times:
Times quoted in Singapore damages call
FROM CHRIS LYDGATE IN
SINGAPORE
THE politically charged
defamation suit against Singapore's most prominent opposition politican, J. B.
"Ben" Jeyaretnam, ended its first phase yesterday with counsel for
Goh Chok Tong, the Prime Minister, asking for S$200,000 (£84,000) in damages.
Summarising the Prime
Minister's case, Thomas Shields, QC, said that he sought additional damages
because of the way that Mr Jayaretnam's defence had been conducted. George
Carman, QC, Mr Jeyaretnam's lawyer, has suggested the case was intended to
bankrupt his client, so removing him from parliament. He had also pursued a
withering cross-examination of Mr Goh, probing fundamental issues about the
functioning of democracy in Singapore.
Quoting both The Times
"QC speaks of climate of fear in Singapore" and the International
Herald Tribune "Goh's motives questioned in Singapore case" Mr
Shields said that the defence had tried to turn the case into "a sort of
show trial", attacking the Prime Minister's credibility.
Mr Jeyaretnam, 71, is
facing eight libel suits filed by 11 senior members of Singapore's ruling
People's Action Party, including Mr Goh and Lee Kuan Yew, the Senior Minister,
who was Mr Goh's predecessor.
The suits were triggered
by a remark Mr Jeyaretnam made at the last Workers' Party rally before the
January election, when he told the crowd he had just been handed two police
reports filed against PAP leaders by Tang Liang Hong, a party colleague. In
court, Mr Goh likened that announcement to a "Molotov cocktail"
lobbed in his direction.
Singapore newspapers had
given lavish coverage to the police reports, in which Mr Tang accused PAP
leaders of deliberately lying about his beliefs and painting him as an
"anti-Christian Chinese chauvinist" a damaging claim in an island
nation constantly engaged in a delicate ethnic and religious balancing act.
Mr Carman said Mr
Shields's line of reasoning was an "astonishing argument" which
implied that the media could not report on legitimate public events. He
appealed to the High Court to "look behind the libel game" at the
true motivation for the litigation, and to limit any damages to a single
dollar.
The case has generated
considerable interest both internationally and in Singapore. The Straits Times,
the island's leading morning newspaper, has carried reports on several pages
every day and, while the coverage has certainly been more favourable to the PAP
leaders than reports from foreign journalists, most of the issues raised by Mr
Carman have been faithfully covered, albeit usually in the back pages.
Mr Justice S. Rajendran
said that he did not expect to issue a judgment in the case until next month.
The other ten
plaintiffs, all senior PAP members, have agreed to be bound by Mr Justice
Rajendran's decision in the Prime Minister's case. Damages, if any, will be on
a case-by-case basis.
The plaintiffs have
already been awarded a total of S$5.6 million in damages against Mr Tang for
allegations by him, including those contained in the police reports mentioned
by Mr Jeyaretnam at the rally.