New York Times clip uses false portrayal of S'pore to advance own agenda

A recent video by the New York Times (NYT) featuring economist Li Shengwu used a false portrayal of Singapore to advance the American publication's own agenda, said the Republic's ambassador to the United States Lui Tuck Yew.

Objecting to the opinion video titled How Tyranny Begins, Mr Lui said it is essentially a commentary on the current state of US politics.

"But you draw in Singapore via the misleading analogies provided by Mr Li Shengwu, masquerading as a persecuted dissident," said Mr Lui in a Jan 26 letter addressed to the NYT editor.

Singapore's Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) on Jan 27 released to local media this letter and another responding to a separate NYT article.

The NYT video, published on Jan 22, featured four people around the world who said they had been on the receiving end of political repression in their countries. One of them is Mr Li, an economics professor at Harvard University and the son of Mr Lee Hsien Yang - the brother of Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The others are from Hungary, Nicaragua and Russia.

Mr Li recalled how he was criminally prosecuted over a private Facebook post and had fled Singapore.

Among several claims in the video, he said his uncle, SM Lee, Singapore's third prime minister, had used police investigations and criminal prosecutions against his opponents.

"You want to think it's not happening, because otherwise, you might have to do something," said Mr Li in the video.

"It is better to fight rather than to give in and hope that somebody else will be the check and balance for you," he added.

Responding to Mr Li in his letter, Mr Lui said: "If he so wishes, he can contest in the next general election, which must be held before November this year."

Mr Lui noted that Mr Li "parlays his status as the grandson of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and lends himself to the Times to provide false analogies for US politics".

"It is deeply regrettable that he has chosen to denigrate the very country his grandfather had a pivotal role building," the ambassador said.

Mr Lui added that Mr Li has never been exiled from Singapore, jailed or stripped of his possessions, as might the other people featured in the video. "He remains a Singapore citizen and continues to travel freely on a Singapore passport."

Mr Li was in 2020 fined $15,000 for contempt of court over a private Facebook post he made in July 2017. He paid the fine but disagreed that he said anything illegal in his post.

There are no outstanding charges against Mr Li, and he has not been under investigation for anything else since, said Mr Lui. "He is free to return to Singapore any time he wishes."

Mr Lui noted that contrary to the "dark picture" painted by the NYT and Mr Li, Singapore ranks 16th on the 2024 Rule of Law Index, well ahead of the US for many years.

"The 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Singapore the fifth least corrupt country in the world - again, well ahead of the US for many years," he added.

In a separate Jan 15 letter, Mr Lui responded to a Jan 11 NYT article on 38 Oxley Road, titled "Why Singapore's First Family is locked in a bitter feud over a house".

The site of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew's house at 38 Oxley Road has been mired in dispute among the Lee family.

In 2020, the Court of Three Judges and a disciplinary tribunal had found that Mr Lee Hsien Yang and his wife Lee Suet Fern had lied under oath during disciplinary proceedings against Mrs Lee over her handling of Mr Lee Kuan Yew's last will.

The couple, who were investigated by police for possible perjury, have left Singapore claiming persecution - after refusing to go for a police interview that they had initially agreed to attend.

In his letter, Mr Lui said that Singapore does not have a "first family" as claimed in the NYT article, and that "nobody - least of all the offspring of Lee Kuan Yew - is above the law".

He noted a "befuddling but revealing correction" in the article, which stated that Mrs Lee "had given a contrived but ultimately untrue account of her role in the will".

"How is 'contrived and ultimately untrue' not a lie?", wrote Mr Lui.

"Like many others, the couple benefited from the system that Lee Kuan Yew helped build - in their case, more handsomely than most, given their abilities," he said.

"They now claim that system is deeply flawed; criticise both Lee Kuan Yew as well as his wife, whose legacies they claim to protect; and cynically lend themselves as proof that the Western liberal media is right to criticise 'authoritarian' Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore."

MDDI on Jan 27 also released to local media the Singapore Government's response to the NYT's queries in December 2024.

In its response, the Government noted that the article carried Mr Lee Hsien Yang's views on Singapore's political system, and quoted him saying: "The idea that one good man at the centre can control this, and you just rely on his benevolence to ensure that everything is right, doesn't work."

"That (Mr Lee Hsien Yang) should dismiss his father's political legacy in terms obviously calculated to win applause among some in the West will be regarded by most Singaporeans as deeply offensive to and disrespectful of his father," the Government said.

The article also stated that visitors noticed only SM Lee's photos were displayed in the family home at 38 Oxley Road, and quoted Mr Lee Hsien Yang saying his elder brother "was the apple of my mother's eye, and she had ambitions for him".

Mr Lee Hsien Yang went on to say: "I was never antagonistic with him, neither did I have any jealousy or envy of him."

The Government said based on the full facts of what has transpired, NYT's readers can judge what really prompted Mr Lee Hsien Yang to launch "this extravagant vendetta" against his brother.

"It has so consumed him that he has extended the vendetta into an international campaign against Singapore itself, as well as the legacy of his parents," the Government said.

"While claiming to fulfil his father's wish to demolish the house, he doesn't hesitate to demolish all that his father had built in Singapore."