I have received an official clarification from A*Star about the defamatory remarks in the AcidFlask incident in 2005, and I have decided to reproduce their reply below. This is because in this official reply, A*Star has granted permission for the defamatory remarks to be reproduced (under certain conditions), so the issue can now be openly discussed and objectively judged by everyone.

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The Truth about the postings on A*STAR by Chen Jiahao/AcidFlask and those parts of the postings that were defamatory have been reproduced here in the interest of showing the gravity of these untrue allegations and the damage that they had caused to A*STAR, its officers, scholars and partners.

To this day, Chen Jiahao/AcidFlask appears to have taken the position that he was not aware of the defamatory statements made by him, but he nevertheless apologized on 9 May 2005. This was notwithstanding the fact that his attention was specifically drawn to his blog of 3 March 2005 in which the defamatory statements were made, when A*STAR sought from Chen/AcidFlask the retraction and apology.

Contrary to suggestions and reports that the statements complained of by A*STAR pertained to his criticisms of A*STAR’s GPA requirement before its scholars could apply for PhD funding, it is clear from the excerpts published below that the statements were indeed defamatory and went well beyond fair comment.
The defamatory statements made in Chen/AcidFlask’s posting have no basis in fact, are wholly untrue, and completely damaging to the good name, reputation and integrity of not only A*STAR and its officers but also its scholars, the universities attended by our scholars and their faculty members.

A*STAR therefore has no option but to set the record straight.

On the statement that -:

“…a*star feels justified in bribing universities for taking in PhD students.”

Fact: A*STAR has never offered to pay or actually paid any university bribes or any other form of incentives to admit our scholars. All our scholars gain admission on merit and in accordance with the usual admission requirements applicable to all other applicants who apply to pursue PhD studies at the universities. A*STAR has neither asked for nor have our scholars been offered or given any special dispensations in this regard. Through our scholarships, and like any other scholarship body, we fund the applicable tuition and other compulsory fees charged to the students by the universities. We have no need to offer any bribe – our scholars apply to the best universities and with their outstanding credentials and the strong undergraduate academic performance our scholars are able to gain admission to these universities without special favours. A*STAR’s GPA benchmark ensures that only the best and scholars who show real potential to be able to undertake the rigors of PhD studies are given the privilege (and not an entitlement) of fully funded public scholarships.

On the statement that -:

“…a*star gives out generous funding grants to specific faculty members (to the tune of us$150k/yr or so) for accepting up to three a*star scholars into their labs,…”

Fact: A*STAR does not provide any such funding grants to overseas based universities, and certainly not as incentives for them to admit our students to their labs for PhD studies. A*STAR funds the local universities and locally based entities under our extra-mural grant programmes but these grants are unrelated to our students and our scholarship programmes.

On the statement that -:

“…giving out gobs of honey to universities who will sign back-door agreements for taking in scholars without going through the formal application procedure.”

Fact: A*STAR has not signed any agreement with any university to permit our scholars to be admitted without going through the formal application procedure – all our scholars are required to apply to the universities and subject themselves to that university’s usual application procedure. If they are not accepted by a particular university, then they will simply have to gain admission to another through the usual admission process. A*STAR has no “back-door” arrangements with any university nor has A*STAR paid any university in order to by-pass the usual admission criteria required by the university.

On the statement that -:

“A fellow alumna of UIUC once attended a Chemical Engineering class…suddenly the professor remarked: Oh, by the way, if any of you are in need of money, you should consider applying to this agency called A*STAR in Singapore. They offered my $150,000 for my research with no strings attached, plus an extra $35,000 for every one of their students that I accepted into my group.”

Fact: A*STAR has never offered to or actually funded any professor or research lab in any overseas university. Neither has A*STAR offered professors of universities cash payments to take our scholars into their labs.

On the statement -:

“…that “a certain high-up” in a*star has a tendency to recommend scholars to go to some institutions, like UIUC, U of Wisconsin, and UCSD.. perhaps it is those very schools that a*star has those connections with? and perhaps the reason for asking scholars not to go to the top universities is that they tend to be awfully expensive when it comes to tuition fees too (like Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Princeton).”

Fact: A*STAR has a list of selected universities. Our scholars are free to choose to go to any of them.

http://www.a-star.edu.sg/astar/studentsandscholarships/action/scholarship_info_grad_biomed.do
http://www.a-star.edu.sg/astar/studentsandscholarships/action/scholarship_info_grad_sciengr.do

The details of the distribution of A*STAR PhD scholars at US universities can be found at our web-site at
http://www.astar.edu.sg/astar/attach/textlet/0e44d2035bWE/(US)NSS(PhD)_Scholars’_Choice_of_Uni_20062007_US.pdf
One only needs to look at the statistics and it will be clear that A*STAR only has 2 scholars at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1 at University of Wisconsin-Madison and 3 at University of California at San Diego. On the other hand, A*STAR has 25 PhD scholars at Stanford, 18 at MIT, 5 at Harvard, and 4 at John Hopkins, 2 at Princeton.

The statements made in Chen/AcidFlask’s blog mean or would be understood to mean that A*STAR has acted corruptly in its dealings with universities and that it’s Chairman and officers have procured it to act corruptly or condoned such acts. The statements also cast serious aspersions on our scholars to the effect that they were not admitted to their universities on merit but only because their universities were bribed by A*STAR to do so.

All these allegations are totally false and as a result, A*STAR had no but option to require Chen/AcidFlask to remove these postings and apologise.

A*STAR did not at any time require Chen/AcidFlask to shut down his entire blog-site. We had asked that the offending and defamatory postings in his 3 March 2005 blog be deleted. Chen/AcidFlask chose to shut down his entire blog-site on his own volition. Any imputation that A*STAR had demanded that Chen/AcidFlask shut down his blog is untrue and misleading.

The above clarification is made for the purpose of setting the record straight and because there have been lingering impressions that A*STAR had taken exception to comments about A*STAR’s GPA requirements. This is not the case and serious defamatory statements were made that damaged A*STAR’s good name and reputation. A*STAR has agreed to the disclosure of the defamatory postings for this purpose alone. Any or all of the defamatory postings must not be reproduced except in their entirety and must be accompanied by the whole text of the apology dated 9 May 2005 from Acid Flask as well as the full text of the clarification above. Selective reproduction of any part of the defamatory postings outside of their full context and without the full apology and the above clarification may constitute separate and actionable libel, thereby exposing the person publishing the same to the risk of potential legal action by the person or persons whom may be defamed and suffer damage as a result.

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The Truth about the postings of Chen Jiahao/Acid Flask.

Postings by Chen Jiahao/Acid Flask at http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~chen6/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=318 (now defunct).
caustic.soda by AcidFlask

liminal musings of a graduate student
this is “a*star in parliament” by AcidFlask at 03 03 05 – 13:03. please leave a comment.

a*star in parliament
-03 03 05 – 13:03
Science, Singapore

which is perhaps why a*star feels justified in bribing universities for taking in PhD students. staggeringly enough, the cost quoted is very likely to be grossly understated, since I have been told that a*star gives out generous funding grants to specific faculty members (to the tune of us$150k/yr or so) for accepting up to three a*star scholars into their lab, as well as giving out gobs of honey to universities who will sign back-door agreements for taking in scholars without going through the formal application procedure. to the cash-strapped universities in America, the unbelievable godsend that visiting a*star contingents herald is something they can’t get enough of/f. after all, who else would be so incredibly naive and stupid as to throw money at other people instead of investing money to fund their own local research and developing their own r&d communities?

to quote a certain high-up in a*star: “if you don’t like it, then leave!” which perhaps explains the quiet turnover of more than one a*star scholar within the last twelve months. but at last, perhaps quiet no longer.

I would gladly do so, except that my sources are very likely to suffer the kind of spiteful retributive backlash that characterizes the public service. Therefore they can only remain hearsay and rumour under the current circumstances.

[AcidFlask] (email) (link) – 03 03 05 – 17:39

Lest I set myself up for libel, let me state what I know about this.
I do not recall the exact sums involved but this is the gist of what I had been told.

A fellow alumna of UIUC once attended a Chemical Engineering class in this university sometime in 2003. The subject of the lecture somehow went on to funding crunches faced by researchers in the US due to post-9/11 budget cuts when suddenly the professor remarked: Oh, by the way, if any of you are in need of money, you should consider applying to this agency called A*STAR in Singapore. They offered me $150,000 for my research with no strings attached, plus an extra $35,000 for every one of their students that I accepted into my group. Singapore seems to be a very rich country; they have money to throw at you, all you have to do is ask for it!

[AcidFlask] (email) (link) – 03 03 05 – 20:30

going further down the list.. a*star scholars seem to know that “a certain high-up” in a*star has a tendency to recommend scholars to go to some institutions, like UIUC, U of Wisconsin, and UCSD.. perhaps it is those very schools that a*star has those connections with? and perhaps the reason for asking scholars not to go to the top universities is that they tend to be awfully expensive when it comes to tuition fees too (like Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Princeton).

[AcidFlask] ( email) (link) – 04 03 05 – 11:30

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Mon 9th May 2005

http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~chen6/blog/

APOLOGY

I recognize and accept that a number of statements that I made on my on-line journal “Caustic Soda”, in particular the blog post of 3 March 2005, were defamatory of A*STAR, its Chairman, Mr. Philip Yeo and its executive officers.

I admit and acknowledge that these statements are false and completely without any foundation.

I unreservedly apologize to A*STAR, its Chairman Mr. Philip Yeo, and its executive officers for the distress and embarrassment caused to them by these statements.

I undertake not to repeat the statements, or make further statements of the same or similar effect in this or any other forum or media. I further undertake to remove any such posting anywhere that has not been deleted.