SINGAPORE – Reform Party leader Kenneth Jeyaretnam has been issued a fourth correction direction under the law against fake news, this time over his comments on the National Day Rally.

These include false claims about unemployment, the Ridout Road property rentals by Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, and the Government’s inaction against money laundering and foreign tax evasion.

The Ministry of Law (MinLaw) said on Wednesday that Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong issued the instruction under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) to Mr Jeyaretnam.

Mr Jeyaretnam is required to put up correction notices on his article on The Ricebowl Singapore’s website, his Facebook post, his post on X (formerly known as Twitter) and his LinkedIn post on Aug 21.

The notices must state that the article and posts contain “false statements of fact” and provide a link to the Government’s clarification on its fact-checking website Factually, which “will allow readers to read both versions and draw their own conclusions”, MinLaw said.

Among the false claims he made in his article, Mr Jeyaretnam stated that the Government does not expect to fully disburse money that had been set aside for funds to support the Majulah Package, the Pioneer Generation Package and the Merdeka Generation Package, said the Government in its clarification on Factually.

He also claimed that the Government has been keeping people from being counted as unemployed so that the ruling People’s Action Party can state that the unemployment rate is low, citing the false claim that students in full-time education are regarded as employed.

In the Factually article, the Government said that whether a student is considered to be employed depends on whether the person is working while studying.

It also refuted Mr Jeyaratnam’s statement that the labour force participation rate for Singapore citizens over the past five years could be below 50 per cent.

The labour force participation rate for Singapore citizens over the past five years has consistently stayed well above 50 per cent, according to the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) statistics. In 2022, it was 68.3 per cent.

The labour force participation rate is the proportion of the working-age population that is engaged actively in the labour market, either by working or looking for work.

The Government noted that MOM does not usually break down resident labour force statistics into statistics for Singapore citizens and permanent residents.

“This is because Singapore citizens make up a large majority of the resident labour force, at about 85 per cent. The permanent resident population has also remained stable over time.

“These two facts taken together mean that for the most part, resident data mirrors citizen data, and having citizen data in addition to resident data provides little additional information. For Singapore, the labour force participation rate for residents (at 70 per cent) is also close to the rate for citizens (at 68.3 per cent),” it added.

In an additional clarification on the Factually article, the Government said it is untrue that the financial support for unemployed workers is not intended to help them find jobs but to keep them from being counted as unemployed.

“The Prime Minister had stated at the National Day Rally 2023 that the aim of the Government’s financial support for workers who lose their jobs is to ‘ease the immediate pressure that job seekers experience so they can focus on upgrading their skills for a better long-term job’,” it added.

The Government also said Mr Jeyaretnam falsely stated that the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) had rented out 26 and 31 Ridout Road at the rates it did because Mr Shanmugam and Dr Balakrishnan were going to be its tenants and Mr Shanmugam controlled the SLA.

Mr Jeyaratnam had falsely stated, too, that the Government uses the principle of market value when valuing land for sale to the public, but it did not do so for renting out the land that was part of the 26 Ridout Road property and that Mr Shanmugam was allowed to annex additional land to the property he rented.

And Mr Jeyaratnam falsely claimed that Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean had said in Parliament that the additional cleared land that was now part of 26 Ridout Road was virtually valueless.

The Government said: “Senior Minister Teo made no such statement in Parliament. He had explained at length that the guide rent was assessed by professional valuers. He had also referred to Minister Edwin Tong’s explanation on how market value was arrived at.”

Mr Jeyaratnam also falsely stated that the Government had deliberately not taken action against money laundering and foreign tax evasion, allowing huge inflows of “dirty money” into Singapore.

Outlining its regulatory framework to counter money laundering, the Government said this is untrue, because it acts when an offence is disclosed and there is sufficient basis to act against the offence.

Other clarifications on GST (goods and services tax) Voucher Fund disbursements, Singapore’s reserves, Build-To-Order flats and Housing Board flat sizes were also published in the Factually article on Wednesday.

The recent correction marks the third Pofma correction notice that Mr Jeyaratnam has been issued so far in August.

On Aug 3, he was given a correction notice on his social media posts about the rental of the Ridout Road bungalows by the two ministers.

On Aug 22, he was issued a correction direction over comments on the arrests of 10 foreign nationals during an islandwide anti-money laundering blitz, the corruption probe into Transport Minister S. Iswaran and tycoon Ong Beng Seng, and the Ridout Road saga.

Mr Jeyaratnam received his first correction direction on July 16 for his comments on the Ridout Road rentals.