After selling her husband's Lornie Road property and evicting step-daughter Wendy Chan, Madam Eleanor, 79, Tan made her sign an agreement not to say or write anything defamatory or scandalous about Tan and her family in the mainstream media or the internet.
What got Wendy in the hot soup was her posting in a ChannelNewsAsia forum discussion about a parliamentary question on public housing prices ("Wow Ms Foo Mee Har wants to know is $1 mil HDb flat a norm in future"):
"I obviously cannot comment on your bimbo statement but it is a fact that she is with stan chart. A simple google search should also bring up her position in the bank."
Thanks to the Streisand effect, we now know The Member of Parliament for West Coast GRC is Tan's daughter-in-law. It's hard to read anything "defamatory scandalous, or untrue" into the question on HDB pricing, or her position in the bank. Nothing is mentioned about the rumor of her husband being declared bankrupt by said bank. But HDB may have been scandalised by the preposterous suggestion that public housing will be henceforth priced $1 million and up. In that case, HDB should be the one to drag the questioner to court.
Tan was well prepped for her day in court, answering difficult questions with "cannot remember" or "did not know". Perry Mason should be so proud. Then she was presented a statement that does not tax her senior citizen memory, "You have conflated a legal basis to come to court and an emotive desire to want the commenting to stop." Stripped of the high falutin legalese, that could be construed in laymen terms as, "Try to fool me, hah?" Tan responded with, "I really don't know, my feelings are all confused." The mother instinct could still well be alive.
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Even the private citizen has learnt how to put the gag on her detractors. Gag orders either legally obtained or by intimidation is nothing new in this little red dot. Didn't the former Attorney-General Walter Woon declare the other day that only liars need be afraid of the law?
ReplyDelete"Walter Woon declare the other day that only liars need be afraid of the law?"
DeleteWhat Walter Woon did not tell you it that certain liars need not be afraid of the law when they are above the law, rule by law rather than rule of law , like our god and demigod that cannot be wrong and exposed.
If his lies are also the truth, then he is not a liar and need not be afraid of the law. Who is so foolhardy to risk losing his pants to try expose even one of his truths as a lie?
DeleteNa, poor people also need to be afraid of the law. They either lose the case because they are too broke to pay legal fees or win but become bankrupt. Either way, the poor loses.
DeleteWilling to pay someone $1million just to shut her mouth, there must be a lot of skeletons or secrets to hide from the public ?
ReplyDeleteRemember someone said money is not the motive for becoming a Minister ....
can we ever believe whatever they say now?
Has Singapore reached the level that merely stating what is known as facts can also be defamatory or scandalous ?
ReplyDeleteThe million dollar question is what is Ms Foo Me Hard trying to do in parliament?
ReplyDeleteBeing productive lah!
DeleteEarn so much.
Do so little.
If this is not productivity, then I don't know what is.
Should it be the other way "If this is productivity, then I don't know what is not?
DeleteMs Wendy should have just followed Kevin Kwan's (author of Crazy rich asians) footstep by fictionalizing a novel to tell her story. That way, no one can accused her of biased memoir, let alone defamatory. I mean com'on, what kind of dysfunctional family will put a gag order on an adult who has her own mind. If she chooses to wash her laundry in public, then make sure you first keep your laundry white in the first place lah...!
ReplyDeleteDaft moves, and waste of taxpayer's money for the entire court process.
Ms Chan: "I don't even acknowledge she is my sister-in-law, in fact I defended her when someone called her a bimbo."
DeleteSeems like the fool is so atas, she can't bear to be associated with anyone earning less than a million dollars. Liddat how to relate to the mere mortals?
Wendy should be commended for working as a swimming instructor although she is already a millionaire. Compared to our Ministers, at least there must be enough dignity for her to remain passionate about her job unlike those who complained about losing the capacity to earn more, as if they did not earn enough as a Minister.
DeleteIt's truly a gag order gone wrong. The court case is reported prominently in the newspaper and internet. The history of the dispute and the family tree and more details are being reported. Madam Tan should has fired her lawyers if her intent is to lead a quiet life.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the stepdaughter have to say about the MP in white
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