Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Laws Of The Jungle

The headline of a 21 October 2014 online post in the People's Daily, China's Communist Party mouth piece, captured Xi Jinping's place in history after only 2 years in office: "Mao Zedong made Chinese people stand up; Deng Xiaoping made Chinese people rich; Xi Jinping will make Chinese people strong." Our own version of an epitaph after 50 years pales by comparison: "Lee Kuan Yew got us kicked out of Malaysia; Goh Chok Tong merely kept the seat warm; Lee Hsien Loong dropped the ball." To be fair, the latter had his surgically removed.

Perhaps if the prime minister had studied law instead of mathematics, he would have recognised the shame of a nation when the law enforcement agency of the land refers you to to a third party for a legal position. If he's any good as his supporters claim, he should be able to make a million bucks in the lucrative business of providing private tuition in math.

Suddenly, it makes sense why the Thaipusam procession supporters were harassed by men in plain clothes, why the Hong Lim Park protestors were accosted by men in mufti. They themselves were uncertain if their thuggish tactics were legal in the first place; to put on a uniform would be justifying a farce. They were merely following orders blindly.

One former nominated member of parliament claims that the impartiality of the police force and the judiciary in Singapore are being questioned. We have to agree with Calvin Cheng that faith in our legal system and our police force underpins our hard-won social harmony and stability. The difficulty here is that the Singapore Police Force is seen to be washing their hands off the issue at hand. An issue which had a legal precedent in December 2010. Pontius Pilate could wash his hands off a bloody affair because he was not a Jew, but can a policeman really walk away from the law?

13 comments:

  1. In Calvin's Switzerland, This Cheng fellow would have been burnt at the stake.

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  2. //Lee Kuan Yew got us kicked out of Malaysia;...//

    To be fair to Chan Chun Sing, LKY was also a political failure in not getting us the merger, before he redeemed himself later part of life. Not sure if the ventilator will fail this time though.

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    1. Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s condition has worsened due to an infection, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement today (March 17).

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  3. History is written by winners or laws are written by winners?
    In any case, mothers love winners

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  4. you should list your favourite books to read. wanna learn how to write witty like you......


    my favourite site already. now reading the old 2012 and 2011 articles......

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    Replies
    1. Agreed! I'm a die hard fan here. I always check every day for the latest post. Our local William Safire!

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  5. //to put on a uniform would be justifying a farce//

    Indeed! Our keystone cops should be called the "Singapore Police Farce".

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  6. The PAP has frequently pointed out that if you vote the wrong people in, your country will collapse. Is this happening now - socially, morally, nationalistically?

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    Replies
    1. Do you actually mean to say "Is this not happening now ...... ?

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  7. If the Law Enforcer does not know the Laws and has to refer the public to a Lawyer to find out the true meaning of a certain law, then how is he going to uphold the Law?

    If the Police cannot even protect themselves in the Little India Riots, how are they going to protect the public?

    If the Police have arrested, charged and put someone into jail because of distributing flyers critical of the government, then why are they not arresting, charging and putting someone other people doing the similar thing in this instance?

    Will some Authority (we have so many power crazy AUTHORITY's in SIN City) please enlighten me?


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  8. I think I can understand why they had to distribute those flyers. It just showed up how damn sore they must have been in losing the seat especially resulting in their Miinister being booted out despite the old man threatening the voters with 5 years of repentence.

    One can also interpret it as simply the old man is no more significant to Singaporeans nowadays. I suppose it must have made him or his son pretty damn sore losers, judging from the series of subsequent actions being followed up.

    But I think this will only make the Aljunied constituents more pissed off with the bullies. There is always what we call a place in our hearts that we usually tend to sympathise with the ones being bullied. This the arrogant Pappy bullies will never understand.

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    1. Politics is about having total control to govern.
      No such thing as:

      never mind, let the opposition win some seats.

      They will try all means to win seats.. and I dare say most will be dirty methods. Anything to win those votes back. No quarter given. No prisoners either.

      That is politics... its not some school society election for office holders. We are talking about billions of dollars at stake... billions. Once in power you get to eat real meat and see data only ghosts get to see.

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    2. //I think I can understand why they had to distribute those flyers.//
      But I can't understand why they didn't insert them in the allocated letterboxes. I can't understand why they had to go about it in the dead of the night. If it's all perfectly legal, why do they have to sneak around like petty criminals?

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