Vincent Wijeysingha apologises to acting manpower minister

SDP treasurer Vincent Wijeysingha apologies to Acting Minister of Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin. (Yahoo! file photo)

Singapore Democratic Party's (SDP) treasurer Vincent Wijeysingha has apologised to cting Minister for Manpower and Senior Minister of National Development Tan Chuan-Jin for allegations made against him.
 
In a Facebook note on Saturday, Wijeysingha said he made allegations that were defamatory of Tan in a previous article entitled "You can resign and go to SBS".
 
Wijeysingha had written on 3 December last year an article on the complaints of striking Chinese bus drivers. The article has since been taken down.
 
The UniSIM lecturer had been instructed to remove the article and comments from his Facebook account, publish a full apology and pay Tan “suitable sums” for the damage and distress caused.
 
In a six-page letter of demand dated 22 December, Tan's lawyers from Alen&Glenhill said that in Wijeysingha's article, it is implied that Tan was dishonest and deceptive when the acting minister said he was not aware of the particular complaint by Chinese bus drivers which led to the strike.
 
"The Words are false, baseless and scurrilous allegations made by you against our client, and they constitute a very grave libel against our client, both personally and in his office as the Acting Minister for Manpower," his lawyers added.
 
In an unrelated incident, socio-political blogger Alex Au apologised to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Saturday for false and baseless allegations made on his blog Yawning Bread over a computer systems deal involving the ruling party.
 
Au took down the blog post and accompanying comments which Lee, through his lawyer, said were defamatory.

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