Nephew says he won’t return
Panda birth ‘further link’ between Paris, Beijing
THE nephew of Singapore’s prime minister, who faces contempt of court proceedings for comments he made suggesting the city-state’s courts were not independent, said he would not be returning to Singapore.
The office of Singapore’s attorney-general said on Friday it would begin contempt of court proceedings against Li Shengwu, a Us-based academic, over Facebook posts he made on July 15.
The move is the latest twist in a family feud over the fate of the house left by founding father Lee Kwan Yew that gripped the nation last month.
In his post, Li, nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and a son of Lee’s brother, Lee Hsien Yang, described the Singapore government as “litigious” and its courts as “pliant”.
Li, 32, is a junior fellow at Harvard University and said he expected to start an assistant professor’s position with the university in the autumn of 2018.
He said he would defend himself through legal representation in Singapore but not return to the country.
“I have no intention of going back to Singapore. I have a happy life and a fulfilling job in the US,” he said.
Li said the prosecution against him was “politically motivated”.
“The attorney-general’s chambers explicitly mentioned both my family relationships and recent political events in their cease and desist letter,” said Li.
“I would like to spend my time doing research, but have somehow been swept into my uncle Lee Hsien Loong’s personal political vendetta.”
A spokesperson for the prime minister’s office declined to comment on the matter.
In a statement on Friday, the attorney-general’s chambers said it had previously instructed Li to remove the post and issue a letter of apology acknowledging that his comments about the judiciary were baseless.
It said since Li had failed to meet those requirements by the stipulated deadline of 9am GMT, Friday, which had been pushed back from July 28 at Li’s request, it had filed the contempt proceedings in the high court.
Earlier on Friday, Li said on Facebook he had amended his original July 15 post to clarify any misunderstandings.
However, he said he did not believe the post was in contempt of court.
Li’s July 15 post was shared on a privacy setting that allows content to only be viewed by his Facebook friends.
He said on Friday the intent of that post was to convey the “international media were restricted in their ability to report” on a recent feud between Prime Minister Lee and his siblings “due to the litigious nature” of the government.
“It is not my intent to attack the Singapore judiciary or to undermine public confidence in the administration of justice,” he said.
The public spat between the Lee siblings, children of Lee Kuan Yew, flared in June over the future of the family home, in which Lee Kuan Yew, who died at the age of 91 in 2015, lived for most of his life.
Lee Hsien Yang and sister Lee Wei Ling accused their elder brother of abusing power to try to save the house as a historic monument in defiance of his father’s wishes.
That prompted the prime minister to call an extraordinary special sitting of parliament in July to “clear the air” over an issue that some people say has tarnished Singapore’s image. – Reuters PARIS: Chinese Ambassador to France Zhai Jun yesterday hailed the birth of giant panda Huan Huan’s cub, saying the first panda born in France represents “further link” between Beijing and Paris.
The giant panda, on loan to Beauval zoo park in the Centre-val de Loire from China, gave birth to twin cubs late on Friday, but one died.
“Congratulations on the birth of the baby panda at the Beauval zoo park. It is a great success for the zoo park and for our two countries,” the Chinese diplomat said.
“I hope that the baby panda grows up in the best conditions. A new symbol of Sinofrench friendship, it will be a further link between our two peoples.”
In her first delivery, Huan Huan “was very calm” and has given birth to two cubs at an interval of a few minutes, the zoo said.
The first panda cub was born at 10.18pm local time, and the other 14 minutes later.
In the wild, female pandas raise only one cub, the “strongest”, the one that has the most chance of survival, and abandon the second.
Huan Huan took care of the first cub immediately after its birth, but chose the second cub and abandoned the first after the second cub was born.
France’s first lady Brigitte Macron will be named godmother of the first cub born in France.
Huan Huan and her male partner Yuan Zi arrived in central France’s Beauval zoo in January 2012. There are about 2 000 pandas in the world. They are classified as “vulnerable” species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. – Xinhua