BANGKOK - Singapore’s government has been trying for two weeks to get Harvard University economist Li Shengwu, a grandson of Singapore’s founder, Lee Kuan Yew, to apologise for comments he made in a private Facebook post that were seen as critical of the country’s leadership.
The Singapore attorney general’s office even drafted an apology letter for Mr Li to sign, in which he would admit to contempt of court and to making what it called "false and baseless" statements.
But on Friday, Mr Li declined to give in to the demands of the government, which is led by his uncle, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and refused to sign a letter of apology. In the Facebook post last month, he said that some foreign news outlets engaged in self-censorship when covering the prime minister, because of the threat of legal action in Singapore.
The dispute is the latest in a bitter family drama that has riveted the city state and raised questions about the legacy of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister, and how the nation should be governed after 58 years of one-party rule.
In rejecting demands that he apologise, Mr Li explained Friday in a new Facebook post, this one public, that his criticism of Singapore for suppressing press freedom was aimed at the government, not at the courts.
"It is not my intent to attack the Singapore judiciary or to undermine public confidence in the administration of justice," he wrote. "Any criticism I made is of the Singapore government’s litigious nature, and its use of legal rules and actions to stifle the free press."
The sparring comes as Singapore’s most prominent family has been battling over Lee’s wish that the family home where he lived for nearly 70 years be demolished after his death. He died in 2015 at 91.
Two of Lee’s three children have accused their elder brother, the prime minister, of abusing his power to try to save the house as a historic monument, in defiance of their father’s will.
The prime minister’s motive, they said, was to bolster his own legitimacy and further the possibility of a Lee family dynasty, charges that he has denied.
The dispute turned into a public spectacle last month when Lee Hsien Loong devoted two days to parliamentary discussion of his siblings’ complaints against him.
"In Singapore, everyone is equal before the law," he told parliament. "When the dust has settled on this unhappy episode, people must know that the government in Singapore operates transparently, impartially and properly."
The government has continued to monitor criticism, including from the prime minister’s nephew at Harvard.
Li is the son of Lee Hsien Yang, the prime minister’s younger brother and chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore. He has said he plans to leave Singapore indefinitely for fear of retribution.
Singapore’s leaders have long turned to the courts to limit free speech by filing costly defamation lawsuits against citizens and international news outlets.
In the Facebook post last month viewable only to friends, Mr Li referred to this practice and included a link to a 2010 commentary in The New York Times on the government’s use of the law to limit criticism.
After someone took a screenshot of the post and circulated it, state-run news media picked up on it and published widely.
A week later, the attorney general’s office sent Mr Li a strongly worded letter, signed by Francis Ng, a senior state counsel, saying the post was "an egregious and baseless attack on the Singapore judiciary and constitutes an offence of contempt of court."
The attorney general’s office asked that Mr Li "purge the contempt" by deleting the post, sign the letter of apology and post it on his Facebook page.
The letter also demanded that he delete "any other social/online media and other documents in your possession, custody or control".
Mr Li declined to take such actions. In his post Friday, he responded that he had not attacked the judiciary.
"I intended to convey that the international media were restricted in their ability to report on the recent crisis, due to the litigious nature of the Singapore government," he wrote. "The government makes use of these legal rules to restrict unfavorable reporting."