SDP urges MOM to retract Pofma correction directives; ministry asks party to follow appeal process
The Singapore Democratic Party was directed to correct two Facebook posts and an article on its website, the authorities said in December 2019.
SINGAPORE — The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) has called on the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to retract correction orders issued against it under the fake-news law, with MOM responding that the opposition party could follow an appeal process to cancel the directives.
In a statement on Thursday (Jan 2), the SDP argued that its two Facebook posts and an article on the party’s website that were targeted by the directives had been “true and correct”, and urged Manpower Minister Josephine Teo to apologise.
Under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma), which kicked in last year, organisations or individuals who want to challenge a minister’s correction order can apply to the Government and, if the application fails, to the courts.
SDP had previously complied with the orders by publishing a correction notice with its posts, but had said it would apply to Mrs Teo to cancel the directives.
However, an MOM spokesperson said on Thursday that the ministry has not received any application to vary or cancel the three correction directions issued by the Pofma Office.
“If SDP takes the position that the (correction directions) were wrongly issued, there is a process under Pofma for them to follow. The facts remain that SDP published specific falsehoods,” the spokesperson said, adding that the SDP had been informed of this procedure.
WHAT MOM SAID
SDP’s two Facebook posts on Dec 2 and Nov 30 last year contained links to a June 8 article on the party’s website titled, “SDP population policy: Hire S’poreans first, retrench S’poreans last”. The posts concerned the employment of Singapore and foreign professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs).
Last month, MOM said that the posts had contained falsehoods. An article was also published on government portal Factually to rebut SDP’s posts, showing graphs and statistics from MOM that dated back to 2015.
The ministry took issue with an SDP infographic depicting falling PMET employment for residents here, and a line in the article which said: “The SDP’s proposal comes amidst a rising proportion of Singaporean PMETs getting retrenched”.
MOM had said that employment of Singapore PMETs has risen since 2015, citing its Comprehensive Labour Force Survey. The Factually website stated: “In fact, as a proportion of the total local workforce, the local PMET share has increased from 54 per cent in 2015 to 58 per cent in 2019.”
There is also no rising trend of PMET retrenchments among residents. “The number of local PMETs retrenched in 2018 was, in fact, the lowest since 2014. Local PMETs retrenched as a proportion of all local PMET employees has also declined since 2015,” MOM said previously.
The ministry added: “These false and misleading statements by the SDP have a singular objective — to stoke fear and anxiety among local PMETs. It is important to set the facts straight so that Singaporeans are not misled.”
WHAT SDP SAID
In defence of its posts, SDP said that “MOM had accused the SDP of making statements that we did not make or cited different sets of data which it then used to accuse the SDP’s post as false”.
Regarding the graphic, SDP said it was clearly about unemployment of Singapore PMETs, but said that in its correction orders, “MOM changed it to ‘retrenchment’ — two different subjects — and then accused us of making a ‘false statement of fact’”.
Citing data that the party insisted came from MOM, SDP then said that the number of unemployed Singapore PMETs between 2010 and 2018 has been rising.
The party added that its article, which stated that there was a “rising proportion of Singapore PMETs getting retrenched”, was factual as it had referred to the proportion of Singapore PMETs getting retrenched to all local workers who had been laid off.
However, MOM’s directive was based on Singapore PMETs retrenched “as a proportion of all local PMET employees”, SDP said.
“As one can see, the SDP’s post and MOM’s statement are based on two separate and distinct sets of information — both of which are true depending on which denominator is used. How can the MOM choose a different statistic and then use it to say that the SDP’s post contains ‘false statements of fact’? Again, this is an abuse of Pofma,” the party said in its statement.
Again, citing MOM data dating back to 2010, SDP said that there is “in fact a rising trend of PMET retrenchments in Singapore”, rebutting a statement on the Factually website that there is no rising trend in PMET retrenchments.
The party said: “If the SDP’s posts are considered falsehoods, then MOM itself would be similarly guilty with reference to its statements.
“MOM’s lack of intellectual rigour in presenting its case is regrettable. A student presenting such work would get an F grade.”
Urging Mrs Teo to “issue an immediate, unambiguous and public apology to the SDP”, the party then said that Pofma has been used “for political-partisan purposes to stymie legitimate criticism of the People’s Action Party’s foreign PMET policy”.
“If Pofma is to have legitimate authority going forward, then Ms Teo must apologise to the SDP,” the party added.
