SINGAPORE – Someone had used Dr Lee Wei Ling’s name to pen support for an online petition calling for the People’s Action Party’s “personal attacks and character assassination” of Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chief Chee Soon Juan to stop.
Dr Lee, the daughter of Singapore founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, put up a post on her Facebook page this morning to declare that she was not the one who signed the petition, and that she has good reasons not to do so.
She wrote: “I have a very poor opinion of Dr Chee, and do not think he is fit to be in Parliament.”
Dr Chee is contesting in the Bukit Batok by-election in a straight fight against lawyer Murali Pillai of the People’s Action Party.
Some SDP supporters have been urging Dr Lee on her Facebook page to speak up in support of Dr Chee.
But she had remained totally silent until a Facebook user asked her this morning whether she had signed the petition, which was started by local actress Neo Swee Lin and 29 others from the arts scene, academia and civil society groups.
In her post this morning, Dr Lee said: “I will never support such a person. And I believe that his true nature should be fully exposed – cheating NUS, telling untruths all his life, slippery – And Singaporeans should decide whether such a person should be in Parliament. Is it possible that he has truly reformed? Just look at what he did last week.”
“Last week, he allowed his speakers to attack (former Bukit Batok MP) David Ong and then came on stage and pretended to be magnanimous and said we should not attack character. When pressed, he admitted he knew what the fellow speakers were going to say,” she added.
Dr Lee asked: “What do you say about such a man? And having made character attacks, when this is pointed out, he then played the martyr, saying his character is being attacked.”
Echoing what PAP politicians had said of how Dr Chee had ‘chut pattern’ in the 2015 General Election, she said: “The man has not changed at all, though he is now posing as a changed man, using his family.”
PM Lee: Chee is ‘completely hypocritical
Ms Neo, who was a surprise guest speaker at the SDP’s rally on Tuesday (May 3) night, had read out the petition and said character attacks on Dr Chee by PAP leaders were uncalled for. So far, more than 4,000 had signed the petition by this morning (May 5).
Dr Lee’s brother, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, had highlighted the hypocrisy of Dr Chee for urging people to refrain from mounting personal attacks on ex-PAP MP David Ong, after SDP rally speakers had done so.
Mr Lee said: “At the SDP rally, all the speakers fired away at Mr David Ong. And then came Chee Soon Juan at the end, and he said: ‘You must not hit somebody who is down, that is very bad.’ But that is completely hypocritical.”
“You get your guys to say all the bad things, then you come along and look magisterial and benign and say you must not hit somebody, having caused all your lieutenants to hit him as hard as they can. But, unfortunately, it’s in character,” he concluded.
chenj@sph.com.sg
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