SINGAPORE: Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Wednesday (Jul 19) said it was “false” to suggest that he had tipped off a media outlet and provided information on the ex-driver of former Workers’ Party (WP) member Leon Perera.
Mr Perera was a Member of Parliament for Aljunied before he and fellow party member Nicole Seah resigned from the opposition bloc on Wednesday, in the wake of revelations that they were having an extramarital affair.
After a video showing Mr Perera caressing the hands of Ms Seah surfaced on Facebook on Monday, local digital platform AsiaOne posted an interview with Mr Perera’s former personal driver the next day.
The Online Citizen Asia (TOCA) blog then put up an article on Wednesday with the headline: AsiaOne’s quick access to Leon Perera’s former driver: Coincidence or calculated move?
The article questioned the timeliness of AsiaOne’s post and claimed that an AsiaOne employee, Edmund Chua, had been in contact with Mr Perera’s former driver for more than a year.
TOCA also said Mr Chua worked for “Chong Pang Grassroots Organizations” headed by Mr Shanmugam, and that the latter had visited AsiaOne’s new office days before the video made its rounds on social media.
Mr Shanmugam wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday night that TOCA’s article was “false in relation” to him.
“First there is a suggestion that an employee of AsiaOne, Edmund Chua used to work in my constituency. That is so. The innuendo is that I must have tipped off Edmund to contact the ex-driver of Mr Perera, and that is how AsiaOne managed to get him,” said the minister.
“This is false. I do not know the ex-driver, I do not have his contact or name, and I did not tip off or give any information on the ex-driver to anyone including AsiaOne.”
Mr Shanmugam said he had no such information and and had not dealt with or spoken with Mr Chua on the matter.
He also said his visit to AsiaOne’s office “was not days before the video surfaced” and that he was not in Singapore until Monday evening.
“I visited AsiaOne on Jun 13, to speak with its journalists. I also visited Mothership, in the same period, on Jun 22. This is part of my regular engagement with a broad section of society, including … journalists from mainstream and online media and so on,” said Mr Shanmugam.
“TOCA continues to publish recklessly, without any regard for the truth.”