J. B. Jeyaretnam - Defamation Suits

Defamation Suits

Though Jeyaretnam was barred from contesting the 1988 general election, he spoke at election rallies held by the WP during the campaign. At one election rally, he challenged the PAP's claim to being an open and transparent government, and asked whether any investigation had been conducted as to how the former Minister for National Development, Teh Cheang Wan, had obtained the tablets with which he had committed suicide in the midst of being investigated for corruption. He also asked whether Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had replied to a letter written to him by Teh. Following this, Lee commenced proceedings for slander against Jeyaretnam, alleging his words at the election rally implied that he had committed a criminal offence by aiding and abetting Teh to commit suicide, and thereby had tried to cover up Teh's corruption. The action was heard by Justice Lai Kew Chai, who found against Jeyaretnam and ordered him to pay damages of S$260,000 plus costs to Lee. Jeyaretnam lost an appeal against the judgement. He had wanted to appeal to the Privy Council, but to do that, he had to obtain Lee's consent before the hearing by the Court of Appeal. This was because the law relating to appeals to the Privy Council had been changed after the Privy Council's judgement restoring Jeyaretnam to the roll of advocates and solicitors. Appeals to the Privy Council by lawyers from any order made by a court of three judges under the Legal Profession Act were abolished. In criminal cases, the right of appeal from the Court of Criminal Appeal to the Privy Council was also abolished. In civil cases, an appeal was allowed only if the other party consented to it. Lee did not give his consent.

In 1995, Jeyaretnam authored an article in the WP's newsletter, The Hammer, which alleged that a number of those involved in an event called the Tamil Language Week were government "stooges". For this, he was sued twice for libel by Indian PAP leaders, resulting in total damages of S$465,000 and S$250,000 in court costs.