When we thought we could finally say good riddance to the Ridout Road Saga, Kenneth Jeyeratnam seems to bounce back with a vengeance.
In case you don’t remember, Kenneth Jeyeratnam was the one who posted the infamous article on The Ricebowl Singapore (TRS) that sparked CPIB’s investigation into K. Shanmugan and Vivian Balakrishnan’s rentals of the Ridout Road Bungalows.
Since the start of the Ridout Road Saga, Jeyeratnam has been very vocal in questioning every minute detail about renting the No. 21 and No. 36 Ridout Road bungalows.
For his speculating and cooking up conspiracy theories, the Reform Party member has received not one but two correction directions from POFMA about spreading false claims related to the rental process.
(Maybe he thought POFMAs were like rare Pokemon because it seems like he’s trying to catch them all.)
Jeyaretnam’s Second POFMA Correction Direction Involved Speculation About MPs Renting Bungalows Below Market Rate.
The most recent case in which Jeyeratnam got POFMA’ed was when he released a Facebook and LinkedIn post on 27 July 2023.
In those two posts, Jeyeratnam falsely stated that there was a “difference between what the land should have yielded on the open market and the rents Shanmugam and Balakrishnan are paying”, suggesting that the two ministers had rented the two bungalows below market price.
He tried to back up his claim by referring to Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean’s statement that “the huge tract of land which Shanmugam was able to annex adjacent to his mansion at 26 Ridout Road was virtually valueless”.
However, it seems that Jeyeratnam took Teo’s statement out of context, as the corrections made to his post clarified that Teo had also stated that the rental paid by both Ministers (the adjacent piece of land included) “were at fair market value and not below market valuation”.
As a result of those false claims, The Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law, Edwin Tong, instructed the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act Office (POFMA) to issue a Correction Direction to Kenneth Jeyaretnam.
This was not the first time Tong had instructed POFMA to issue a correction direction to Jeyeratnam. In fact, Jeyeratnam received another correction direction on 16 July 2023.
Jeyaretnam’s Previous POFMA Correction Direction Issued For False Claims About Livspace. Livspace CEO is Shanmugan’s Son.
Remember Jeyeratnam’s blog, The Ricebowl Singapore?
The first time Jeyeratnam got POFMA’ed was due to an article he published on TRS titled ‘Will SLA Issue a Statement Denying the Rumours That They Have Awarded Any Contracts to Shanmugam’s Son’s Company?”.
Yup, it wasn’t for the first article that sparked the entire Ridout Road saga.
According to a post made on gov.sg, Jeyaretnam’s article made a false claim that the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) gave the contract to renovate 26 Ridout Road and 31 Ridout Road to Livspace because Livspace’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the son of Minister Shanmugam.
However, this claim was soon disproven when Edwin Tong stated in Parliament on 3 July 2023 that SLA appointed neither Livspace nor Minister Shanmugam’s son to carry out works for 26 Ridout Road or 31 Ridout Road.
Here is a recap of the incident.
Jeyeratnam has since taken down the article he posted on TRS in response to the correction directions. He also edited his Facebook and LinkedIn posts that he made on 27 July.
This has not dampened his drive to question the Singaporean government, however. One quick look at his Facebook account shows a string of complaints in response to being POFMA’ed.
The question is, will he make any false claims about POFMA that will get him POFMA’ed again?
For context, you can watch this video to know more about the conclusion of the Ridout Road saga: