SPARKS flew and insults were traded on Tuesday as opposition politician Chee Soon Juan squared off with Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in court over a defamation case.
'Mr Lee, we meet at last,' said Mr Chee, secretary general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), as he cross-examined MM Lee, 84, at a hearing in the Supreme Court.
'You have been avoiding me,' Mr Chee told MM Lee, who was on the stand at a hearing to assess the amount of damages to be awarded to him and his son, PM Lee, 56.
This set the stage for a series of heated exchanges between the protagonists and their counsels.
'You have nothing of substance against me,' MM Lee told Mr Chee in one of the clashes as Mr Chee groped for questions.
At one point, MM Lee called Mr Chee a 'liar' a 'cheat' and a 'near-psychopath'.
MM Lee and PM Lee have already won a summary judgement against the SDP, Mr Chee and his sister Chee Siok Chin.
The two leaders had sued over allegations of government corruption made in an SDP newsletter ahead of general elections in May 2006.
In Tuesday's hearing, Mr Chee was repeatedly admonished by the judge to ask questions relevant to the case, but the opposition politician continued to take MM Lee to task about his 'authoritarian' rule, how he has jailed political opponents and muzzled the press.
At times he cut MM Lee off as he started to answer his question, prompting MM Lee to demand that he be allowed to finish.
'You continue to run your political opponents down in the most undemocratic ways,' Mr Chee said at one point, prompting MM Lee's lawyer to rise to his feet to object to the line of questioning.
The Lees' counsel, Davinder Singh, accused Mr Chee of turning the hearing into 'political theatre' in a bid to 'insult and scandalise' his clients.
'I have been a member of the bar for 25 years and not once did I come across such conduct under the guise of cross-examination,' Mr Singh said.
MM Lee defended his record, pointing to Singapore's rise as an economic success, and at one point showed the court a document by Transparency International Malaysia which gave him an award for his role in stamping out corruption.
Mr Chee called the citation a 'ridiculous piece of paper'. -- AFP.
