INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE APOLOGISES TO SINGAPORE LEADERS

By Zakaria Abdul Wahab

SINGAPORE, March 25 (Bernama) – The International Herald Tribune (IHT) has
apologised to Singapore leaders for a recent article that referred the
city-state as one of many countries that practised “dynastic politics”.

In an apology published in the IHT Wednesday, the newspaper apologised to
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and former prime ministers Lee Kuan Yew and Goh
Chok Tong.

IHT said in 1994, Philip Bowring, a contributor to the IHT’s op-ed page,
agreed as part of an undertaking with the leaders of the government of Singapore
that he would not say or imply that Hsien Loong had attained his position
through nepotism practised by his father Kuan Yew.

In that year, Bowring, a former editor of The Far Eastern Economic Review,
made the undertaking after the Singapore leaders threatened legal action against
him as a freelancer for writing a column in The Herald Tribune that also
referred to “dynastic politics” in East Asian countries, including Singapore.

But in last month’s Feb 15 article, IHT said Bowring nonetheless included
these two men in a list of Asian political dynasties, which might have been
understood by readers to infer that the younger Lee did not achieve his position
through merit.

Saying that the “inference was not intended”, IHT nevertheless apologised to
Hsien Loong, and the former prime ministers “for any distress or embarrassment
caused by any breach of the undertaking and the article”.

Although the apology did not mention any financial settlement, some local
media reported that the IHT would also pay a total of S$160,000 in damages to
the three men - S$60,000 to Hsien Loong, and S$50,000 each to Kuan Yew and Chok
Tong.

-– BERNAMA