Chua J:

[1] This is a defamation action brought by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the Prime Minister of Singapore, against Mr Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, the Secretary-General of the Workers' Party, arising out of a speech made by Mr Jeyaretnam at a rally held in Fullerton Square during the course of the last General Election in December 1976.

[2] The plaintiff, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, qualified as an Advocate and Solicitor and was admitted to practise in August 1951. Besides practising law, he was active in politics and was appointed Secretary-General of the People's Action Party (PAP) when it was founded in November 1954. In March 1955, the plaintiff was returned as a member of the Legislative Assembly. In September 1955, he established the firm of Lee & Lee in partnership with his wife and his brother, Mr Lee Kim Yew. He continued both to practise law and engage in politics though he increasingly devoted more time to politics. This went on till the General Election of 1959.

[3] In May 1959, the PAP won the majority of seats in Parliament and the plaintiff formed a government. Since then the PAP has been successfully re-elected to power at general elections and remains the party of Government to this day.

[4] Upon assuming office for the first time as Prime Minister in June 1959, the plaintiff ceased to be a partner in the firm of Lee & Lee and his name was scratched off the firm's letterhead and since then he has no association with the professional activities of that firm. His wife and brother continued and still continue to practise law under the style of Lee & Lee.

[5] The defendant, Mr JB Jeyaretnam, is also an Advocate and Solicitor and was in the Singapore Legal Service and had held various posts including those of Registrar of the Supreme Court and District Judge & First Magistrate, before deciding in 1965 to engage in private practice. He joined Mr David Marshall as a partner and after a year he joined the firm of Donaldson & Burkinshaw and in March 1968, he set up his own law practice with his wife, who is a solicitor, as a partner under the style of JB Jeyaretnam & Co and they still carry on that practice.

[6] After the failure of certain constitutional talks in London in 1956, Mr David Marshall, the Chief Minister of Singapore, resigned from the Labour Front and later founded the Workers' Party. Mr Marshall resigned from the party in 1962 following the arrest of certain party members. In 1971 the defendant became the Secretary-General of the Workers' Party. He has also been active in politics and has stood for Parliament on three occasions, in 1972, 1976 and a by-election in 1977.

[7] In December 1976, the Government called a General Election. Polling day was to be on December 23. Both Government and opposition parties opened their campaigns with speeches which were critical of each other.

[8] On December 13 the plaintiff held a press conference and it was reported in the Straits Times of December 14 (AB7). The following passages appear in the report:

"The People's Action Party would welcome an opposition in Parliament, but, unfortunately, the leaders of the present opposition parties are inconsequential men with a common denominator — they liked to be elected into office but they did not know what they wanted to get into Parliament for....

The Prime Minister said most of them wanted to give everything away — lower taxes, lower rents and lower public utilities rates....

He did not believe that the public would go in for the give-aways proposed by the opposition. As an example he said that none of those who proposed to give things away, either by their management of their own parties or even of their own personal fortunes, had shown they could accumulate anything.

In contrast he referred to what the PAP had built up in the Government — over $8,000 million....

In reply to another question on an opposition to PAP, Mr Lee said that the pity of it was that nobody in the present opposition had it in him to oppose.

'They want to do what they thin