Turritopsis Dohrnii Teo En Ming Donated SGD$5 to Leong Sze Hian on 27 Mar 2021

Subject: Turritopsis Dohrnii Teo En Ming Donated SGD$5 to Leong Sze Hian on 27 Mar 2021

The following is a Facebook post by Teo Soh Lung, which I reproduce below:DONATE TO LEONG SZE HIAN

Yesterday, the High Court delivered the judgment in the defamation suit brought by Lee Hsien Loong against blogger Leong Sze Hian. Lee was awarded $100,000 as damages and $33,000 as aggravated damages. Lee’s lawyers will soon present his bill and another hefty sum will have to be paid.

I have lost count of the number of defamation suits brought by Lee against politicians and ordinary citizens. I don’t know what he does with the out of this world damages. He probably does not need to use these huge awards. But if he does not need these monies, why does his lawyer try so hard to extract maximum damages? Why not show magnanimity and seek nominal damages?

Perhaps Lee does not know that the people he successfully sued will have a hard time trying to pay up and stave off bankruptcies.

I am reminded of Roy Ngerng, son of a carrot cake seller who is still paying the judgement debt of $150,000 and costs owing to Lee. A part of his hard-earned salary goes to Lee every month. He has been doing that for years and is still unable to discharge his debt. 

Roy became a marked person and lost his job as a social worker with Tan Tock Seng Hospital shortly after he received a letter of demand from Lee. He has not committed a criminal act and yet the hospital deemed it fit to terminate his employment. Thereafter, he could not find work in Singapore. He is now in Taiwan.

There are several lessons we must learn from Leong’s case:

1.  It is dangerous to share articles on facebook because even if you are not the writer, you can be liable for defamation.

2. It does not matter if you agree or disagree with the contents of the article. The fact that you republish defamatory statements is sufficient to empty out your bank account.

3. A person libelled chooses his victims. It does not matter if you are not the only person who shared an article.

4. A successful plaintiff who holds a high position in government will inevitably obtain high damages.

Whatever we may think of the exhorbitant damages that is awarded to Lee against Leong Sze Hian, we can try to assist by contributing towards the settlement of the damages. 

J B Jeyaretnam used to tell me that if every Singaporean gave him $1, he would not be made a bankrupt. Sadly, JB was eventually made a bankrupt because we did not care enough for him and our country.

Let us try to relieve Leong of his burden. Donate to Leong Sze Hian.

POSB Savings Account: 064064070

Paynow: S0009739Z

Paypal: ecuadortrade@yahoo.com.sg

Turritopsis Dohrnii Teo En Ming, 43 years old as of 28 Mar 2021, is a TARGETED INDIVIDUAL living in Singapore. He is an IT Consultant with a System Integrator (SI)/computer firm in Singapore. He is an IT enthusiast.

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[1] http://lists.linuxfromscratch.org/pipermail/lfs-chat/2021-March/029199.html