Fuel For Thought

K Shanmugam's "All are equal before the law" speech at the Rule of Law Symposium yesterday touched on corruption. Although he did not refer to any specific case, everyone in the audience knew the latter was about the two top civil servants hogging the headlines, subject of which Teo Chee Hean is steadfastly maintaining in parliament that there was "no delay" in releasing news of the CPIB coup to the information starved public. But when Teo said, "It was necessary to give CPIB time to gather evidence, seize documents, conduct interviews, etc", you bet there will be lots of speculation on the internet whether the extra time given to the CPIB will constitute "delay." As Bill Clinton will put it, "define delay".

Speculation on whether all is equal before the mainstream media brewed up another storm. A blogger wondered aloud about the MSM treatment of  the rumours concerning opposition MP Yaw Shin Leong. He got screwed because of some nutty posting by a "Scroobal". Shanmugam actually instructed Allen and Gledhill lawyers to trace and sue the pants off that character, but as the legal eagles put it, "the internet being what it is, Scroobal has been untraceable so far". All these publicity means there will be lots of speculation on the internet about what the fuss is really all about.

Apparently all the Scroobal postings have been erased. The blogger who received the lawyer's letter of advice also duly removed the comments from his website. What remains as fuel for speculation is the stuff printed by the Straits Times:

"Mr Au said that there had been "relative silence when it came to allegations swirling around K Shanmugam and Foo Mee Har at various points in the recent past.
That there were rumours is widely known, though as in the Yaw Shin Leong case, no one can point to any proof."

Man, that really takes the cake. We are told if we read it in the Straits Times, it has to be true, but K. Shanmugam and Foo Mee Har in a same story? Anyone with an imagination that wild surely deserves an Oscar for creative script writing. I think there's enough speculation even for the most avid of internet addicts. It looks like Yaw was wise to say, "We do not comment on rumours".

What the lawyers say is not okay to say