Damsels In Distress

Class 95 FM plays old songs like "Papa Don't Preach" and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". Whether you listen to Madonna or Cyndi Lauper, you can get into trouble with the law. Even if you wear a skirt.

Sacked

Amy Cheong was driven bonkers by the ruckus in the void deck. If she had bitched about the decibel level in another country, she could have earned herself a fatwa. But in multi-racial Singapore, she was castigated in one single day in October 2012 by the likes of Tan Chuan-Jin (1.30 pm), Tharman (4.30 pm), Shanmugam (5.30 pm) and Lee Hsien Loong (6.30 pm). When "Zorro" Lim Swee Say personally sacked the NTUC Assistant Director of Membership, Singapore permanent resident Amy decided to take refuge in quieter Perth. Long after apple polisher Lionel de Souza, secretary of the Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circle made a police report, Cheong was issued a "stern warning" via long distance and the case was closed. Time for the wheel of justice to turn: approx 5 months.

Stuck

Ms Lo, a.k.a. "Sticker Lady", ran afoul of the law when she spray painted "My Grandfather Road" on a section between Robinson Road and Maxwell Road in May 2012. And she tickled the funny bones of many with circular stickers captioned with Singapore truisms like "Anyhow Press Police Catch" and "Anyhow Paste Kena Fine".  She will be charged in court, after about 9 months, for 15 counts of mischief. She was originally arrested for vandalism on June 3, which implied caning as potential punishment, except she's a girl, unlike poor Michael Faye. Whether the intervention by Law Minister K Shanmugam changed the course of events is unconfirmed. His ex-wife Jothie Rajah, writing in her book "Authorian Rule of Law", opines that justice here tends to be politically motivated, citing examples like:
- Vandalism Act was aimed at Barisan Socialis’ street messaging;
- Newspaper and Printing Presses Act 1974 was aimed at securing control of the print media;
- Legal Profession (Amendment) Act was aimed at the Law Society’s criticism of the government’s attempt to extend controls to foreign media;
- Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act 1991 was aimed at the 1987/1988 detentions of social justice activists who supposedly had the support of the Catholic Church;
- Public Order Act 2009 was aimed at the pesky streetside protests of opposition leader Chee Soon Juan, who was fast gaining (foreign) media attention.

Framed

Lynn Lee, who left The Straits Times in October 2011 after 8 long years, was named in a Wikileaks release. It quoted her exchange with a political officer of the US Embassy in 2008, saying she would “never write about racially-sensitive issues”. What she did say was she would not want to write articles containing racially-charged remarks that could incite hatred or create rifts within society. Her filmed interview about SMRT bus drivers' complaints (alleged police quote:“Do you know I can dig a hole and bury you? No one will be able to find you.”) has landed her in hot soup. In February the plainclothes policemen who attempted to confiscate her phone, laptop and iMac in search of footage of the interviews could not tell her which section of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) authorised them to effect the seizure of private property. The Ministry of Home Affairs has said the authorities are investigating and taking a serious view of the allegations of police brutality. But pressed for explanation in parliament, Senior Minister of State for Law Indranee Rajah would only mouth, “So the intention is not to not give an answer". Male or female, the high handedness is much in evidence.