Grandson of Singapore’s founding leader to pay fine for Facebook post criticising judiciary

The grandson of Singapore’s founding leader Lee Kuan Yew and nephew of the current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday said that he will pay a fine for a 2017 Facebook post that criticised the city’s judiciary system. 

Li Shengwu, an academician based in Harvard University, has been ordered to pay a Sg$15,000 ($11,000) fine or serve a week’s jail by the High Court last month over the post in which he described the Singapore government as “very litigious and has a pliant court system”.

Li said that he would pay the fine to seek peace and to avoid giving the government an excuse to attack him and his family but did not admit any fault while the Attorney-General’s Chambers had described his post as “an egregious and baseless attack” on the city’s courts.

In a Facebook post, he said, “The government claims that my friends-only Facebook post ‘scandalized the judiciary’. The true scandal is the misuse of state resources to repress private speech.”

He added, “I disagree that my words were illegal. Moreover, civilized countries should not fine or jail their citizens for private comments on the court system.”

Li had made the Facebook post as their family feud raged publicly following the death of the Lee family patriarch in 2015.

He is the eldest son of business executive Lee Hsien Yang, who has been at loggerheads with his brother, PM Lee Hsien Loong, over their father’s legacy.

Lee Hsien Yang joined an opposition party before Singapore’s election last month and campaigned for its candidates, but did not run the elections.