PAP MP for Sembawang GRC Vikram Nair is considering suing socio-political blog ‘The Online Citizen’ (TOC) for publishing a defamatory article about him.
The article in question was written by TOC editor Ng Ee-Jay and titled “Vikram Nair compares Chen Show Mao’s proposals to a Nigerian scam.”
Mr Vikram Nair was extremely upset with TOC for twisting his words to mislead Singaporeans and accused the site of attributing ‘lies’ to him.
In a detailed explanation posted on his Facebook, Mr Nair rubbished the TOC’s article:
“The key thrust of this article is that I considered investing in the elderly, the disabled, the poor and other needy Singaporeans as being akin to a Nigerian scam. The insinuation is that I do not care about these groups is totally false.”
Mr Nair added that he had never said anywhere in his parliamentary speech that “Investing in people = Nigerian scam” and described the attribution as ‘false’ and ‘misleading’.
In an interview with inSing News, Mr Nair said:
“I hope not to take legal action but if there’s lingering damage I might have to consider it. It also depends on what they (The Online Citizen) do and how they respond to the matter. I just want to clear my name.”
He added that his decision will also depend if the website takes down the article and apologises, stressing that he hopes no legal action will be required.
However, TOC does not seem to care a hoot about Mr Nair’s threat to sue them. When approached by inSing news, TOC said that the article was by a contributor and the views are of the contributor.
“It was not a TOC editorial, and hence does not reflect TOC’s editorial or organisational position. Therefore, TOC does not see the need to reply to Mr Nair’s Facebook note.”
TOC has a history of twisting and distorting the words of MPs. In December last year, it twisted the words of another MP Seng Han Thong made on BlogTV to make him sound like a ‘racist’, sparking an outcry among netizens who were misled by its article.
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