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| Demonstrating the elasticity of law |
The Singapore Medical Council (SMC) suspended the plastic surgeon from practice for 4 months for getting his 76-year-old employee to "save his own skin" (pun from the tribunal proceedings) instead of owning up to driving his custom job Mercedes over the city speed limits.
The celebrity 54-year-old doctor had pleaded guilty to "abetting" senior citizen Kuan in providing misleading information to the Traffic Police on two occasions, about the 11 September 2005 and 10 November 2006 speeding transgressions, and was given a maximum fine of $1,000. Many in the legal circles, including ex-police woman Sylvia Lim, opined that he should have been charged under Section 182 of the Penal Code. The AGC refuted the experts, "On the facts of this case, as there was no major accident or injury". Even when precedents were highlighted where Section 182 had been invoked in several cases not involving major accident or injury.
The Disciplinary Tribunal (DT) who made the decision to suspend Wu on 21 February 2014 did not come to their weighty conclusion because of any Hippocratic Oath type consideration about saving lives. The tribunal cited his lack of integrity and lack of remorse as the primary reasons for the suspension: “Instead of setting a good example for younger practitioners to emulate, the Respondent’s dishonesty had tarnished the good name of the profession."
That plus Wu's personal address to the DT just before the proceedings concluded, stating that he thought it was a common practice to furnish false information to the Traffic Police (in Singapore) for such offences and that "even some senior medical practitioners were doing so.”
In plain language, it's all bad for business. All those medical tourists might just decide to skip the cowboy town and hop over to Thailand or Malaysia. Where medical doctors and law enforcers have a healthier respect for the law.
The unruffled Woffles is taking the minor upset as just another speed bump. His Aesthetic Surgery & Laser Centre clinic will be manned by locums (ironically defined as a person who temporarily fulfills the duties of another, driving duties hopefully excluded), while he goes on holiday and prepare for the World Masters Squash Championship in Hong Kong in July.
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Its Wayang only lah. There is no reason why it takes so many years to bring him to justice. Usually only serious crimes like murder etc that will take years to decide on the punishment but just a bloody cheat??? Hello, do you think we don't know is Wayang??
ReplyDeleteIrony of ironies. Everyone seems to be doing it, he testifies. And getting away with it.So is the system at fault or the individuals( taking the cue from the PM)?
ReplyDeleteOur mata is very short handed. Under supplied by 1000. As such, even there are senior practitioners who did it *(and got away) we will never know lah.
DeleteBesides, they are probably saving lives machiam doing national service you know. Whereas Mr Wolf is saving his own skin lah...
Let's move on..we will never who these elites who committed the crimes and in Mr Shanmugan's legal parlance - they didn't volunteer the misleading information...their drivers did.
Do you need 100 MIB to handle 100 rioters?
DeleteAccording to CP Ng, we need 1000 MIB to handle 1000 rioters.
Why don't Gan Kim Yong use this same kind of math to work out how many beds for x patients or how many doctors /caregivers for x number of population huh?
This is what happens when you live in a meritocracy... Evidently some people merit more clemency than others.
ReplyDeleteEven the law minister lend his weight to the wolf. What do you think?
ReplyDelete"even some senior medical practitioners were doing so.”
Deletemethinks mr shan will say they didn't all provide the misleading information themselves. All their personal drivers have this auto immune reflex to volunteer themselves to be the culprit when reporting to TP...huat ah!!!
The moral of the story is that at least the Local Medical Council sees it fit to censure him whereas our AGC has better things to do instead. So much for our rule of the law.
ReplyDeleteNext time if anyone meet with the same circumstances, can they question the Attorney General's discrimination if the outcome is different ?
"... ... ... the Disciplinary Tribunal may —
Delete(a) by order remove the name of the registered medical practitioner from the appropriate register;
(b) by order suspend the registration of the registered medical practitioner in the appropriate register for a period of not less than 3 months and not more than 3 years;
... ... ..."
In other words, Woffles the Poodle got only one month more than the minimum sanction that could be handed out. Given the disrepute he has brought, not just to his profession, but to the standing of Sinkie police and judiciary, as well as his flagrant disregard for the rules of conduct of a civilised society and lack of remorse, he should have been suspended for 2 years and 11 months - one less than the maximum!
The SMC is a joke. It can't even differentiate right from wrong. It takes immediate actions against Dr Susan Lim who is free to determine her own prices for her private practice, but fiddle its thumbs when it comes to the politically well-connected wolf to deliberate on an obvious misconduct. Everything is politics. The SMC is being manipulated same with the law society. It is not the Hippocratic Oath that they are following but the hypocrite.
ReplyDeleteAt least the SMC knows what Waffles did was wrong and censured him. At least there is some semblance of justice from SMC........
DeleteIt is sickening to know that a poor student who cahrged his handphone in the MRT station is charged while a Doctor who cheated and lied are not punished accordingly. Furthermore it too almost 5 years to set a sentence.
ReplyDeleteWhere is justice? Poor be punished, the Rich get away?
All animals are equal but some animals are more equal. Power corrupts and 50 years of absolute power will corrupt even a saint. But our so called "founding" father was ain't know saint even then and abuse of power always came easy for him. Read the archives and this was already pointed out by the British. So what do you expect now, a pope
ReplyDelete"Some seniors medical practitioners were doing the same thing" but unfortunately for Dr Wu, they did not get caught. I wonder if he could be implying that one or two of those who sat in judgement of him might just be a guilty as he was.
ReplyDeleteHe is a business man not a doctor. Ask his patients. He doesn't care what you want or can afford. He makes sure he milks you enough before you walk out of his clinic. SOB.
ReplyDeleteIt's only a token of punishment meted out to pacify the backlash by netizens. It do help to be rich and has connection with the right people.
ReplyDeleteEven in communist China, they need to lock up a few of theirs every 10 years to appease the masses. Here, you are guaranteed to be above the law (for the masses) as long as you are an insider, and the insider circle is really getting quite big, as long as you don't get caught having extra marital affairs (like gay and Lim). That is a pet peeve of Old fart, like under-wear with aircon is his pet fetish.
ReplyDeleteHis underwear-with-aircon has already come true in case you are still wondering.
ReplyDeleteThat is just their codename for 'underground-living-with-aircon' when they start their underworld living to include 7m by 2030 lah.