SINGAPORE, Aug 20: In a day of high drama, top British libel lawyer George Carman suggested today that Singapore prime minister Goh Chok Tong was using the courts as an instrument of political oppression against the opposition.Cross-examining Goh on the second day of the defamation case against Workers' party leader Joshua Jeyaretnam, Carman asked the PM whether the claim of ``aggravated damages'' sought by the plaintiff was a ``strategy'' aimed at reducing Jeyaretnam to a state of bankruptcy, and thereby barring him from continuing as a member of Parliament.

In response to Goh's denial that this was so, Carman said: ``You and your 10 political colleagues saw this as a method of causing financial oppression on this 71-year-old man because you wanted him out of Parliament and thought the court would provide a convenient method.''

The Singapore PM said that he had no such motive in mind while claiming damages, and that it was only an attempt to ``vindicate'' the deep injury the defendant's action had caused to his ``reputation and integrity'' in both domestic and international circles.

Summing up the case for the defence at the end of the day's proceedings, Carman said that the charge against Jeyaretnam amounted to ``making a mountain out of a molehill.''He said that the claim of aggravated damages for defamation was untenable, since his client's statement that his fellow WP candidate Tang Liang Hong had filed police reports against the PM and other ministers, were made during the last five minutes of the rally preceding the January 2 elections.

As the statement did not contain any details about the contents of the report, in which Tang had charged the PAP ministers with ``lying'' and ``criminal conspiracy'' for calling him an anti-Christian, anti-English educated, Chinese chauvinist, it was far less damaging than the reproduction of the police report in the two national dailies the next day, argued Carman.

His contention was that the PM and senior minister Lee Kuan Yew were more culpable on this count since they had made the report available to the press - a fact that had been concealed in their affidavit, but which was revealed by Goh in the course of today's cross-examination.

Carman's plea was that even if his client were to be found guilty of the charges of defamation, the damages should be mitigated to 50 cents, since the reputation and integrity of the PM and other plaintiffs had already been vindicated by the award of S$8 million in legal damages earlier this year.The PAP won the January 2 polls with an overwhelming majority capturing 81 of the 83 seats in Parliament.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.