Tag Archives: POFMA

On 21 Sep 2020 New Naratif updated that Thum Ping Tjin (PJ Thum) had been hauled up by the police for questioning at Clementi Police Station over the ELD police report. After a lengthy hours-long police interview, the police brought PJ Thum home and his laptop was seized as evidence during this raid.

I refer to last Friday’s disastrous handling of an intoxicated man at the juncture of Collyer Quay that caused quite a stir on and offline which ignited a debate on police procedural tactics. It is a very curious case on why the 6 officers did not subdue the man much earlier and allowed the situation to escalate? Compare this with previous scenes of peaceful activists gathering for candlelight vigils and giving a non-violent address where hordes of officers would be dispatched to round and restrain them. It becomes very polarising when the public sees double standards for similar or worse situation.

A concerned citizen informed All Singapore Stuff that he had filed a police report against Bukit Batok PAP candidate Murali Pillai. According to the report, the concerned Singaporean took issue with Murali Pillai for his video about the "scurrilous attack" on his family and son. This person also claimed he forwarded the police report to the POFMA office for them to follow up.

The PAP has said that we should not become a western-style democracy because it creates gridlock if there are too many checks and balances. But what if the PAP loses its way, and we end up with a Trumpian style leader?

In the latest of the PAP government's spree on clamping down dissent, it has issued Dr Thum Ping Tjin and website New Naratif a POFMA correction order over an 8 May video about POFMA. The video, entitled “The Show with PJ Thum - Ep 8 - How bad laws are created and abused in Singapore (A POFMA case study)”, raised issues about the government's use of POFMA as a tool to silence criticisms against the government. Shooting itself in the face, the PAP government proceeded to invoke POFMA on Dr Thum's video.

Government sponsored content if done correctly can help raise the morale of the people. But being our government, they did it in a manner so out of touch with the common man that it immediately got condemnation from every kaypoh online. As it should. I mean "Fake News Buster" is clearly POFMA trying to rebrand himself as a force for security and totally not undermining the limited freedom of speech in this country.

On 19 April 2020 the POFMA office said "several online posts" had made false statements that Temasek Holdings Chief Executive Ho Ching had an annual salary of "around S$100 million". Minister of Finance Heng Swee Keat instructed four correction directions to be issued. One of those four include People's Voice Party (PVP) chief Lim Tean for “sharing the falsehood on his Facebook page”. Politician Lim Tean has shared that he will be challenging this latest POFMA. He questions the basis of using POFMA over an article when the truth or real information is not revealed. His view is that POFMA is being used to silence PAP critics and free speech.

This was AGC's response to a High Court judge's ruling that the Government must prove the falsity of a statement when its correction orders are challenged in Court. AGC insisted that the onus is on the party making the assertion to prove that the statements are true.

It has finally happened. Using the recent Wuhan Coronavirus emergency as a convenient excuse, the Singapore Government has lifted the temporary exemption of internet platforms form the POFMA requirements. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter and others were under this category of temporary exemption.

During the press conference by LFL, their advisor N Surendran spoke about LFL's legal suit against Mr K Shanmugam for issuing the correction direction. The suit also seeks a declaration that the Minister cannot take any action on LFL in Malaysia under POFMA.