This op-ed was published in The Straits Times on April 14, 2018.
By Viswa Sadasivan
The word "truth" featured prominently in the recent Select Committee hearing on deliberate online falsehoods (DOF). I was uncomfortable that it was viewed as a binary imperative.
This came through especially in the session where committee member, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam, and historian Thum Ping Tjin debated whether Operation Coldstore was effected on legitimate, objective grounds or was politically motivated. Each asserted his truth as the truth. But those watching will need to come to their own conclusions.