By Tiffany Gwee
Earlier today, Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore had sent a message to Reform Party’s Kenneth Jeyaretnam to inform him that the Party’s website had been hacked into. According to Mr. Jeyaretnam’s Facebook page, IDA mentioned to him that their website had been “defaced and the government have ordered it taken down”.
The way in which the website was “defaced” was that it had a distorted version of the Singapore flag and an “Indonesian Group” taking credit was “designed to get the government to act and take (them) out of circulation”, as stated by Mr. Jeyaretnam on his page.
(Image by Jack Ong)
Death Threat issued
The hacking took place a day after his wife had received a death threat by email. The group threatened to kill their son, and calls themselves ‘Hijirah Maker’. “They are still active and have not yet been identified by law enforcement’, Mr. Jeyaretnam revealed through his post.
He sounded evidently frustrated about the threats sent to his family. Simultaneously, he was also determined that he will not waver regarding his aspiration of “fighting for transparency, democracy and prosperity for Singaporeans” despite receiving the threats.
Revelation of the email
Mr. Jeyaretnam had also revealed the email that had been received by his wife the day before. He initially did not want to publish it to “protect (his) son’s right to privacy” but decided that the only way to bring an end to this was to be more “transparent”.
This was also not the first time that he had received such disturbing threats. When his wife’s mother passed away recently, he also received extremely “graphic and obscene sadomasochistic imagery”. This has been ongoing for over a year, and the messages were all “very well thought out and carefully researched”.
The screenshot below is the email that Mr. Jeyaretnam’s wife received from an anonymous source yesterday, as made public on his Facebook page today.
Thanking the Police
Mr. Jeyaretnam also thanked the Police for their continual diligence in helping crack the case.
“I wish to thank the SPF for their hard work and continued dedication in attempting to solve this crime which has been ongoing for a year now.”
Screenshots taken from Mr. Jeyaretnam’s Facebook Page
Cover photo taken by Ashleigh Sim