It was with much dismay that I read the report ‘Blogger
ordered to pay PM 150k in damages’ in the Straits Times of 18 December 2015. I
was less struck by the specifics of a court case that Singaporeans must have
been following with great interest over the months – the standpoints taken by the
contending parties, the various judicial processes, the assessment of damages
to be paid to the plaintiff – than by one stark fact: once again, Sir, your
powerful government is putting to use its most powerful instrument for
silencing critics, namely, the defamation suit.
