PAP-controlled gutter press's smearing campaign against Dr Chee Soon Juan

[Source: SDP]


Supplementing the SDP's account (here) of The New Paper's smearing campaign against Dr Chee, here is an eyewitness account, and two commentaries (source).

Eyewitness account

Let me tell you what happened, my father and i were there then. The emcee announced that a visitor from Sembawang GRC wanted to garland Dr Chee, but the host said that it would be against the law if Dr Chee came up on stage to do it, and they are law-abiding citizens, so that did not happen.

Once Dr Chee appeared and the rally ended, he was completely mobbed by fans till the Winning Eleven could not even pass through the narrow barricades.

As for us, we were waiting for Dr Chee to autograph my book as well. When the crowd finally subsided, and i was one of the last to get a autograph, Dr Chee bade everyone “Thank you for coming and goodnight.” End of story.

The next morning, an ST article deliberately highlighting Dr Chee’s “chequered past” was published. And now, this report falsely accusing him of leading a march.

Coupling with the smear tactics and low blows against Dr Vincent Wijeysingha and Mr Tan Jee Say by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan and Mr Goh Chok Tong respectively, i can simply imagine the PAP trembling so hard at these formidable potential candidates.

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Commentaries


The New Paper (TNP) has sunk to a new low by hitting below the belt to smear the Singapore Democratic Party and its Secretarty-General Dr Chee Soon Juan.

TNP ran an article today with the misleading headlines: “Is he SDP’s loose cannon” which accused Dr Chee of leading a ‘protest march’ in a desperate attempt to character-assassinate Dr Chee and to link SDP with ‘illegal’ protests:

“The report said that “it appeared that he (Dr Chee) was about to lead the group in a march before other party members intervened to stop it.”

Thousands of Singaporeans were at the event and they could see for themselves that Dr Chee did not have any intention to start a ‘march’.

Dr Chee and the SDP candidates were thanking Singaporeans who attended the SDP rally at Yuhua stadium on 28 April as the crowd started to leave the stadium. Along the way many of them asked for Dr Chee’s autograph and wanted to take pictures with the SDP Secretary-General.

It is downright unethical and callous of TNP to turn an innocuous event into a ‘protest march’ so as to smear Dr Chee and SDP in order to influence voters in the coming polls on 7 May.

Singaporeans should send a strong deterrent message to SPH that such ‘gutter journalism’ is not to be tolerated and has no place in a First World nation like Singapore.

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SDP and Dr Chee seems to be the one that are seen to be the biggest threat to PAP – judging by Goh Chok Tong’s comments that it was ‘unwise…very unwise’ for Tan Jee Say to join the SDP – when Tan could have picked Chiam See Tong’s SPP instead.

Now the State Controlled Singapore Press Holdings is being mobilised to further tarnish the image of the SDP and that of Dr Chee as both have been immensely successful in reviving the SDP into a credible team to challenge the PAP.

While the State Controlled Print Media is going into overdrive to tarnish the SDP and Dr Chee, the broadcast media is giving as little air time as possible to SDP in particular without making it too obvious with its heavy hand in censoring SDP from its broadcast.

Desperation is driving the PAP to commit more foolish mistakes, and Singaporeans have the opportunity to see how the PAP will use its refined ‘Art of DUPLICITY’.

Can we depend on desperate politicians reacting irrationally to run the country and manage our billion dollar reserves ?