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AsiaOne & Shanmugam Responded to The Online Citizen Asia’s Allegations About Leon Perera’s Driver’s Interview

2023-07-20 , 11:09 am

In the latest Netflix hit, Sex-in-the-City Singapore version, a new catfight appears on the scene.

This catfight is so serious even the Goody Feed blue cat would stay far away, especially when the “L” word was mentioned.

Speculations About Leon Perera’s Driver’s Interview

In the Workers’ Party press conference, Mr Pritam Singh was asked about his thoughts behind the coincidental timing behind the leaked video and the resignation of the PAP members.

Then, Mr Singh said he does not want to engage in speculations, but acknowledged it was something on everyone’s minds.

Well, Mr Singh may not have wanted to engage in speculation, but that’s not the same for The Online Citizen Asia.

According to a TOCA article published on 19 July, it was suspicious that a media publication, AsiaOne, can reach “a central figure in a high-profile scandal within a day of the story breaking”.

AsiaOne had published an interview with Leon Perera’s ex-driver a day before on 18 July 2023.

During the interview, he had talked about how he exposed the affair and how the Workers’ Party did nothing.

He had also detailed about Seah and Perera’s intimate interactions during his employment.

Pointing out that the driver, now identified as Wong, said he only decided to come forward after several media outlets reached out to him, it is “intriguing” that media outlets knew who to reach out to in such a short moment of time.

An Alleged Connection

Most people would’ve attributed it to the good men and women within AsiaOne, but not The Online Citizen Asia. They decided to dig and found an alleged “potential connection”.

Citing souces, it claimed that the head of AsiaOne’s Consumer Insights and Analytics Office may have been in touch with Perera’s ex-driver for over a year.

AsiaOne allegedly denied the allegations when it first reached out but stopped responding after it reached out once again with the correct name.

The Online Citizen Asia also did some background investigation on the AsiaOne employee and found him to have links to Minister for Home Affairs and Law, Mr K Shanmugam.

Other Allegations

The Online Citizen Asia claimed that the former driver was the elderly man captured in an altercation with a young man on the MRT.

It’s not just the timing of the leaked video the publication has issues with.

It claimed that the video couldn’t have been captured without the use of a spy camera, nor could it be planted without knowing where Seah and Perera would be at.

This suggests that the footage was taken with permission from someone with authority, especially given that the use of tailing and spy cameras against MPs is “explicitly disallowed in Singapore”.

It was also claimed that Mr Shanmugam had visited AsiaOne’s new office “just days” before the video was leaked.

Mr Shanmugam and AsiaOne Responds, “L” Word Mentioned

Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam clarified that he had visited the new AsiaOne office on 3 June 2023.

Remember what I said above about a catfight? AsiaOne decided to respond with an article on their own website.

The response started off with a strong sentence:

“The Online Citizen Asia (TOCA) has published a scurrilous piece on AsiaOne’s video of Mr Leon Perera’s ex-driver.”

For those who’re wondering what “scurrilous” meant, I’ve Googled it for you: it means a rude or offensive piece meant to damage one’s reputation.

And because The Online Citizen Asia exposed their employee’s information, they decided to do the same with the CEO of The Online Citizen Asia.

Tit-for-tat, after all.

How They Contacted Perera’s Former Driver

AsiaOne clarified that their employee was not in contact with the former driver, and this had been made clear to The Online Citizen Asia.

The former driver was first interviewed by 8World on 17 July 2023. AsiaOne conducted ground enquiries and managed to find him on 18 July to conduct an interview.

They also deny obtaining any information from the government and called the The Online Citizen Asia article “an insult to the men and women who dedicate their professionalism to journalism”.

Regarding the minister’s visit to AsiaOne’s office just days before the leaked video surface, it was also untrue.

“AsiaOne notes that the TOCA article is cleverly worded to make insinuations while trying not to be libellous.”

And yes, they’ll be speaking to their lawyers.

You can read their full response here.