That's not stopping the Ministry of Health (MOH) from blabbing about it. Worse, as Ravi pointed out, MOH is not party to Mr Ngerng's contract of employment. Tan Tock Seng Hospital's (TTSH) sacking may be a case of jumping the gun, given the lawsuit - which neither involves TTSH and MOH - has yet to run its course. Having said that, we know that an opposition political leader did lose his job over taxi claims.
TTSH and MOH are not legal experts, so maybe we can cut them a little slack. But that leeway cannot be extended to the National University of Singapore (NUS) which is supposed to have a reputable Law Faculty.
Professor Tey Tsun Hang is back in the limelight, after filing papers in an attempt to get the High Court to force NUS to reinstate his position as tenured professor. One fine point of law has to do with carrying out displinary proceedings against him before initiating the firing. The sacking was another instance of jumping the gun, as he was free to appeal, and which happened to turn in his favour. The decision was "illegal, irrational and procedurally improper," Tey claims.
We are dealing with academics here, and their interpretation of the law may be different from practitioners. Here we have NUS appearing to be cognizant of sub judice, saying "As Mr Tey's application to the court is a legal matter, we have referred this case to the lawyers", right after going on in lurid detail about misconduct and impropriety. When do these guys ever learn to shut up?
Which reminds us of a practising lawyer who also failed to zip up, and went down defending a "public dialogue" on CPF titled “CPF – An Honest Conversation”. Let the lawyers define "public" and "honest". Mere mortals have better things to do, you know, take care of the mortage, put food on the table, get to work on time and avoid being sacked at the drop of a hat.
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You stand corrected. The MOH has at least one legal officer attached to it. If TTSH does not similarly have one, they have access to legal advice from its panel of lawyers. Their latest response to Ravi's letter shows a distinct lack of understanding of the legal intracies of defamation law, by their reliance on Roy's admission. The admission is not the end of the dispute. There are defences to the claim even in the face of the admission. Finally, in the absence of the jury in Singapore, the judge is both the finder of fact and law whether the publication bears the defamatory meaning alleged, without regard to the admission. The MOH and TTSH would do well to seek the advice of the A-G's Chambers before commenting further.
ReplyDeleteCounter-sue for defamation ???
DeleteList of subsidies Singaporeans give the PAP government
ReplyDelete===========================
1)CPF money
2)National service
3)Private tuition to subsidize sub-standard teaching
4)Paying rent 99 years in advance for HDB flats that we do not own.
Can others please help me add to the list.
Thank you.
5) Subsidies to the Ministers' salaries in order for them to be 100% honest (or not to be corrupt)?
Delete6) Subsidy to the lone MP in Parliament who does not need to attend MPS or perform other duties ?
ito be exact , item 6) subisidy on not only MP allowance,but pension , security and adminstrative staff , official car and traffic escorts even when not holding any position or performing any duties
DeleteWhere else in the world would we find that?
hmmm...
ReplyDelete5) COE - some of it definitely go into their pay + allowances.
6) GST - same as above.
7) ERP - same as above but at it least it Everyday Rob People (unsure if the elites/PAP also pay when their vehicles pass the gantry).
8) Defending loyal Singaporeans from PAP law suits.
Delete9) donations to schools to make up for insufficient funding by the PAP Education Minister ?
Delete10) looking after our elderly parents because PAP government say it is not their job.
Delete11)Paying the Filial Piety tax (maid's levy) when we hire a maid to assist in looking after our parents
12) Pay for capital expenses of publicly listed SMRT to keep it afloat so that they can issue dividends to Temasek.
Delete13) Sell Changi Airport to Temasek at far below market value to boost Temasek's return and subsidize Temasek's other losses.
13) 400 admin service oppicers increasing at rate of at least 50 a year, each at least in superscale (lowest basic salary with 13 mth is above $400k p.a - almost higher than the President of the USA!) plus GDP bonus up to 36 months. And nope, they only replaced the GDP bonus for the politicians with a national bonus (a better version of GDP bonus), the senior civil masters kept their GDP bonus..
DeleteMaybe they just want to give the Prof "extra monies" to cover his daily expense...remember Toh Chin Chye suing the New Paper...
ReplyDelete8)PMO - highest paid PM on the planet and he needs 6 ministers in his office on tax payers' money to help him out , to do what ?
ReplyDelete9) President - collecting millions of tax payers' money to look after our reserves but has yet to justify his pay and earn our trust.
10) PAP Mayors - collecting millions of tax payers' money to supervise PAP MPs ? And are these buggers value for money ?
I guess Hri Kumar will be looking for a new job soon.
ReplyDeleteI heard those Nigerian online scammers are looking to hire. Perhaps someone can forward his picture and find out where he stands with the job offer.
DeleteI like the first question. "What is a dishonest conversation?" only idiots would believe that a conversation is honest just because it says so. On the contrary, it always put me on guard when people tell me to trust them or say that they are being honest. Self branding is no branding. The honest label is more likely a scam than anything else.
ReplyDeleteResidents invited by Hri Kumar should first verify with him whether a conversation that is not labelled as "Honest" should be treated like a Nigerian Scam i.e. residents must be extremely suspicious and take everything with a bucket of salt.
DeleteBetter still, submit the questions 2 weeks in advance for vetting to see whether they are honest questions.
DeleteSo if he does not speak *honestly* at the meeting, can we call him a liar? He should just admit that he does not know sh*t about CPF to give an honest answer.
DeleteUnder the labour law TTSH did not do anything wrong, employers could fire anyone they like even if nothing goes wrong, no entity can persuade TTSH to rehire him. Tripartite is always weak against the workers because workers are not united.
ReplyDeleteBy putting that moniker "Honest" infront of Conversation...it already implies going to be dishonest already...LOL
ReplyDeleteIs this an Honest Con ???
DeleteThey thought they could fix the opposition using so many underhand dirty tactics. Maybe their mothers never taught them a thing or two about not causing harm to others otherwise will get retribution.
ReplyDeleteThen karma worked in such mysterious ways without the opposition even needed to lift a finger against them. There was this "FUCK PAP" almost as if it came down from heavens through the lightning bolt, the one we can find in the kindergarden logo.
And now we have a fool who instead of pretending to be honest in the first place ended up being dishonest himself. The Chinese do have a saying 害人害己 (harming others will harm oneself in return)， maybe he urgently needs the old man to teach him the confucian teachings before the old man finally kicks the bucket.
Does it not appear as if they are all making a total mess of our judicial system ? They can terminate first even before one is found guilty by the courts ? They can also punish first .... even before the honorable judge makes the final judgement ? And the best of all, they can even demand for aggravated damages even before the honorable judge hears the hearing ?
ReplyDeleteAnd they seem not to give a damn by acting in full contempt of the courts and our Attorney General's Office appears as if they act blur and then they still can claim this is our Rule of Law ?
Correct me if I'm wrong. Aren't they scandalizing the court by lowering the court's authority?
DeleteThey don't view it as scandalizing or in contempt because it is manned by their pet kangaroos.
DeleteTouché!!
DeletePAP Chicken Joke
ReplyDelete----------------------------------
Why did the chicken cross the road?
AMERICAN CITIZEN
Why not?
SINGAPOREAN CITIZEN
Government say can meh? I better wait for another chicken to cross the road before I try.
WORKERS PARTY
We take our cue from the driver. When the driver stops, then we cross the road.
PAP's Death Spiral looks like an ants' death spiral.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2119412/How-make-ants-commit-suicide-going-spiral-death-doesnt-ant-iclock-wise.html
Et. There was the head of journalism professor at the Wee Kim Wee School at NTU whose tenure was not renewed, stating: "The tenure review process is purely a peer-driven academic exercise comprising internal and external reviewers." Someone speculated that George’s career is being “derailed by the political elites”.
ReplyDeleteEt. There was the psychology lecturer who was fired from NUS in 1993 for misappropriating research funds of $200 in courier charges, and in false taxi claims.
Constructive politics or gutter politics?
It seems that in Singapore the law is : "You are guilty unless proven otherwise." Many instances some are quoted in this forum demonstrate that.
ReplyDeleteThis I believe lead to Singaporeans being kiasu. First cover your ass. Every minute things will be covered, questioned or scrutinized.