Ex-NMP Calvin Cheng ‘deeply remorseful’ over comments on pro-Palestine activists

SHOULD HAVE BEEN “MORE SENSITIVE”: CHENG

Mr Cheng said on Thursday that he should have been “more sensitive” with his remarks and that he had spoken to members of the Malay-Muslim community over the past week. 

“I should not have said (even in jest) that people should go to a conflict zone,” he added.

“I am deeply grateful that Ustaz Pasuni and Ustaz Hasbi were willing to meet me, and listen to me and speak about reconciliation and healing. I thanked them for their kindness, understanding and compassion.”

He also said that during the meeting, he stated why he was taking legal action against several people and platforms, noting that “some people had wrongly attributed some other statements to me which I did not make”.

“I explained that I had to start legal actions because such untrue statements were very damaging to me,” he added.

In a Facebook post on Apr 2, Mr Cheng said former Singapore Democratic Party chairman Jufrie Mahmood had lodged a police report accusing him of Islamophobia.

He also named Reform Party leader Kenneth Jeyaretnam, activist Martyn See, alternative news website The Online Citizen, and one Mohamed Khair as having expressed or republished similar views.

“I have sought legal advice from Senior Counsel and have been advised that these statements are highly defamatory of me,” he wrote then.

“I have instructed my lawyers to write to Mohamed Khair, Jufrie Mahmood, Martyn See, Kenneth Jeyaretnam and The Online Citizen, to require them to retract the statements they have made and apologise.”