One Man Justice

When Howard Shaw, grandson of Asian movie mogul Runme Shaw, turned up in court on Wednesday to plea guilty to the charge of having paid sex with a 17-year-old in October 2010, he was accompanied by a different lawyer. Well, if one is going to throw oneself at the mercy of the court, any lawyer will do. No point paying top dollar for a dream team like OJ Simpson did, not in Singapore where the jury system has no place.

Senior Counsel Harpreet Singh Nehal's best shot to stave off jail time was that Section 376b of the Penal Code was intended for sexual predators who deliberately target minors. Not guys who are misled by an online pimp and his stable of underaged whores. But he was on precarious ground when he argued that the girl's "physical attributes" are "solid grounds" for his client to be led to an "honest and reasonable mistake". Ignorance in the eyes of the law has never been an acceptable excuse.

Judge See Keen Oon has his hands tied too, he has already sent one clean cut solid citizen, elementary school principal Lee, to 9 weeks' jail for the same offence. In doing so, he has set a precedent for the rest of the 48 charged so far. It's awkward to dwell on mitigating arguments when the stink from the Woffles Wu decision is still in the air.

Explaining his view on the jury system to BBC in 1977, Lee Kuan Yew said his defence of 4 murderers "using simple tricks of advocacy - contradictions between between one witness and another, contradiction between a witness and his previous statement to the police and the preliminary enquiry" made him sick after his clients were acquitted.

"I decided when we became the government, we will not allow this foolish, completely incongrous system which will never take root here, because no juror will take upon himself the onus of saying, 'Yes, he will go to jail'."

Doubtless, there will be lawyers who have differing thoughts about the subject. David Marshall did, and his outrage on the abolishment of the jury system in 1969 still resounds, "The last nail has been driven into the coffin of justice". He also said during an interview in 1994, "For me, the punishment must not fit the crime, the punishment must fit the criminal and the punishment must fit the needs of society." Too bad he's no longer around, his holistic approach sounds more humane.

The Fallacy Of Man

It's a little known fact. When TT Durai sued Susan Long and Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), latter tried to settle out of court. There is no golden tap installed at the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) office. After the hue and cry raised by a disraught contractor, the faucet was replaced by a chrome plated one with gold trimming.

Durai's misfortune was being cross examined by Senior Counsel and MP Davinder Singh, who shrewdly used the court of public opinion to crucify him. That's why Mrs Goh Chok Tong was so disgusted with the proceedings, she stormed out with the infamous "peanuts" comment.

Durai did himself in when he tried to explain how business class entitlement was used to fly first class. All because in April 1997, NKF volunteer Archie Ong personally sighted Durai seated in a Singapore Airlines' first-class cabin. Ong was sued for defamation and ended up paying out an undisclosed sum in damages. Aero-modelling instructor Piragasam Singaravelu was hauled to court in 1998 for saying similar, and ended up with same fate. The peeve about this case is that the truth could have been established with a simple phone call to SIA. Once you are on their Priority Passenger list, they have all your personal details on tap (pun intended) - including seating preference.

The prosecutor's case against City Harvest's Kong Hee hinges on the allegation that funds collected from church members were diverted to promote wife Ho Yeow Sun's singing career. Problem here is that the "Crossover Project" was already announced as a ministry to reach out to the secular crowd. The 33,000+ strong congregation willingly empty their wallets in good faith, believing their pastor knows best how to utilise the monies collected. It can be argued that the creative accounting measures are but means to the same end - reaching out to the infidels. The uninitiated may not realise that "love offerings" collected in churches are not always used to feed the hungry that Mother Teresa dedicated a life time to. Sometimes money is spent on a new car, because the pastor's vehicle is "already 5 years old". One pastor's overseas family holiday was entered in the books as a sabattical. God proposes, Man disposes - you are right, it should be the other way round.

The albatross hanging around Kong Hee's neck is that in 2003, member Roland Poon accused the church leadership of misusing funds to fuel Ho's aspirations and ended up paying for retraction apologies in The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao, Lianhe Wanbao, Shin Min Daily News and The New Paper. Denying Poon’s allegations, Kong Hee stated then that "no church funds had been used for Ho’s pop career promotion, and that it was normal practice for the church to support and celebrate the secular success of its members".

There's good reason why DPM Teo Chee Hean took pains to highlight that the charges filed by CAD are against five individuals, and not the City Harvest Church itself. Unless the public prosecutor does a good job - please do consult the NKF court transcript - this one could turn ugly.

The Gospel truth according to Pastor Kong Hee

High Fliers In Hot Soup

We kid you not. Some children in Singapore are so poor, they don't stay back after school for remedial lessons because they can't afford to eat at the canteen. That's what financial lifelines like the Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund are meant for. Imagine what sort of despicables would stoop to rob from such impoverished unfortunates.

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) senior vice-president Peter Khoo was charged in court yesterday for misappropriating shopping vouchers to the tune of $23,000 while he was the organising chairman of the activities and events for the School Pocket Money Fund. That plus obtaining monetary gratifications from related shady business deals between July 2006 and August 2010.

The nation had yet to come to grips with last week's exposé regarding Chief of Protocol with Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lim Cheng Hoe's fiddling with his expense claims for overseas trips. A guy who was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 2009, and careerist veteran of 38 years playing host for countless VVIP visits. No information is given about the monetary sums involved, but whatever amount he pocketed, he will be paying for it in spades.

It is doubtful either high flier will come close to pilfering anything like the $14 million Public Utilities Board deputy chief Choy Hon Tim parked away in a Hongkong bank account in 1995. Or the $800,000 Minister for National Development Teh Cheang Wan's palms were greased with in 1982. Those were the real pros.

The new record breaker has to be the pastor of City Harvest Church, out on bail for misconduct and mismanagement of $23 millions, bulk of which went to bankroll the raunchy music career of the rock-star preacher's wife, pop singer wannabe Ho Yeow Sun. Unfazed by the revelations, entrepreneur and founder of 77th Street Elim Chew, 45, reinforced her endorsement of the super couple, declaring "a family comes together in challenging times".

Sigh, the antics of these characters really make it difficult to hold one's head high as a Singaporean. Thanks to them, "Most probably you're from China" would soon be welcomed as a compliment.

Green Card Options

Before Nero fiddled while Rome burnt, Roman citizens in the know must have started packing in advance to vote with their feet. If you are thinking America, the 25 June 2012 copy of TIME has a keeper of an article about signposts to a new life  in the land of the free, and home of the brave.

The first step to being a citizen of the Great U.S. of A is getting hold of a green card, the document signifying the U.S. government has granted you permanent resident status, permitting you to live and work in the country.

The Sure Deal
Easiest way to being an American citizen is to born in USA. Like mainland Chinese flying into Hong Kong to make deliveries. Just make sure your doctor and/or airline allow you to fly when mom is about to pop.

Relative Already In Country
To apply for the green card on the basis of family, you need to be a spouse, parent, parent, child or sibling of a citizen. The U.S. has a quota of 25,000 green cards per country per year. China (pop. 1.3 billion) is entitled to the same number as Singapore (pop. 5.1 million - depending on whose number you trust, MOM, IRA, MOF, etc). It makes statistically sense for a PRC guy to pick up a red passport first, then hop into the original country of intent.

Highly Skilled Through Train
Priority is given to those with crucial job skills, medical professionals, advance degree holders or executives with MNCs. There's no waiting list for these favoured types. Or you could be super rich like Australia's youngest billionaire, Nathan Tinkler, 36. Strangely, the young man with a colourful vocabulary chose to move to Singapore. Is this also a stopover manoeuvre?

The Yaacob Way
Mentioned briefly in the weekly magazine,marriage with a U.S. citizen is also an option. It is not known if his Puerto Rican wife gave up her American passport to be a Singapore citizen, but expatriates here have shared that USA does not require her citizens to surrender their passports. Once an American, always an American.

It really boils down to whether you value your bak chor mee over freedom of assembly and expression, stuff which some people claims will not fill an empty stomach. Like the woman once said, “People can board the train, it is whether they choose to.”

Blinded By Groupthink

Recently we have seen how top civil servants make stupid mistakes and say the stupid most things in public. Given these are supposedly the best talents in the land, at least best as public money can buy, how did this come about? One is reminded of the briefing RAND Corporation's Daniel Ellsberg gave to the then newly minted head of the National Security Council, Henry Kissinger:

"You've been a consultant for a long time, and you've dealt a great deal with top secret information. But you are about to receive a whole new slew of special clearances, maybe fifteen or twenty, that are higher than top secret...
     First, you'll feel exhilarated by some of the new information... you will forget there was ever a time that you didn't have it, and you'll be aware of the fact that you have it now and most others don't... and that all these other people are fools.
     Over a longer period of time... you'll eventually become aware of the limitations of this information... In the meantime, it will become difficult for you to learn from anybody who doesn't have these clearances.  Because you'll be thinking as you listen to him, "What would this man be telling me if he knew what I know?" And that mental exercise is so torturous that... you'll give it up and just stop listening...
     The danger is you'll become something like a moron.  You'll become incapable of learning from most people in the world, no matter how much experience they may have in their particular areas that may be much greater than yours."

Two years later, Kissinger dismissed the advice of a team of consultants about the dangers of escalating the war into Cambodia because "They never had the clearances". The consultants turned out to be right, Kissinger wrong.(extract from "Econned", Yves Smith)

When the elitist mandarin class monopolise the discussions in their closed door meetings, the additional danger is that the these privileged few become overconfident in their groupthink and start drinking their own Kool Aid. That's when the country starts to fall apart.