A Few Bad Guys

It gives cause to wonder if intellectual property laws are selectively applied in Singapore. First they rip off Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance", and mangled the lyrics into an ode to a NDP Fun Pack. Now one of the best Jack Nicholson movies is endangered by some brown nosing MediaCorp executive's dubious attempt to "honor" three characters. The common denominator in the triumvirate is that each has had his grubby hands, at one time or the other, on our secretive reserves, a significant component of the pricing for a public housing flat. We thank Mah Bow Tan for that gem.

The original play by Aaron Sorkin tells the story of military lawyers at a court-martial who uncover a high-level conspiracy, in the course of defending their United States Marines clients who are accused of murder. We know how a Singapore version will end: public prosecutors withhold evidence, wrongfully extracted confessions, and victims are narrowly saved from the gallows after an appeal by a saint of a solicitor working pro-bono - there are a few good lawyers in town. Maybe there's hope after all, we won't be downgrading from First World to Third.

Some lines which require minor tweaks, and we should have an Oscar contender on our hands:

Kaffee: Is the colonel's underwear HDB flat pricing a matter of national security?

Kaffee: Maybe, if we work at it, we can get Dawson charged with the Kennedy assassination. fix the opposition and rule forever.

Kaffee: You don't need a patch on your arm to have honor. of detaining innocent people without trial.

Kaffee: This code of honor of yours makes me wanna beat the *shit* outta somebody. [no change required]

Kaffee: I want the truth! about our reserves!
Col. Jessep: [shouts] You can't handle the truth! You can't even handle my "Hard Truths" book!

Lt. Weinberg: Cmdr. Galloway, Lt. Kaffee is considered to be the best litigator in our office. He successfully plea bargained sued and bankrupted 44 cases political opponents in 9 months.
Kaffee: One more and I get a set of steak knives. and I get a National Day Award.

Col. Jessep: I run my unit how I run my unit. You want to investigate me, roll the dice and take your chances. Remember, one freak election result, and I get to send in the army.

Downey: What did we do wrong? We did nothing wrong.
Dawson: Yeah, we did. We were supposed to fight for the people who couldn't fight for themselves. We were supposed to fight for Willie. Singaporeans, not the foreign talent crowd.

Col. Jessep: We follow give orders, son. We follow give orders or people die your asset values will be in peril, your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people's countries, foreign workers. It's that simple. Are we clear?
 Kaffee: Yes sir.
Col. Jessep: Are we clear?
Kaffee: Crystal.