Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Innocence Lost

The film maker's home was raided, her computers seized and her person dragged into a police station like a common criminal. But now the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) have, after a long review at great expense to the taxpayers, determined that her perceived transgression does not merit a court prosecution. Instead, the public prosecutors has decided that a letter of warning "would suffice in her case".

Her case was a matter of producing documentary videos highlighting the allegations of police brutality aired by two Chinese national bus drivers involved in Singapore's first industrial strike in 26 years. The 28 January blog post title featuring the charges, "I Have Ways To Make You Confess", may be a tad provocative, but truth is always an attention getter when it cuts through the fog of official agenda. The AGC was not acting out of admission of judicial overkill, but hinted darkly at vindictive convictions. Among the factors considered in their deliberations, said the AGC, was the guilty plea of the bus drivers. In other words, if the strikers had refused to bow down to the system, the film maker might not have been let off "so easily". Shylock would demanded have his pound of flesh.

So did the Chinese nationals plead guilty so that an innocent party need not be keel hauled for being sympathetic to their cause?

"Killing the Chickens, to Scare the Monkeys" is a 2011 short film directed by Jens Assur. Set in the People's Republic of China, it consists of nine scenes where national politics and strategy unleashed unforeseen consequences on a young teacher. And there's the Chinese proverb that holds that it’s smarter to punish or do away with a lesser animal (a chicken) as a lesson to a higher or more important one (a monkey) that you can’t afford to get rid of. Hopefully, the monkey will take the hint and fall into line.

The law makers are using the episode to warn the public, "In appropriate instances, AGC will not hesitate to take firm  action... to protect the integrity of the judiciary's role in determining the facts". Expanding, the AGC spokesman added that the public can criticise judicial decisions "only after these have been given." Talk about locking the barn doors after the horse has bolted. That may work for those who subscribe to the wayang of the ongoing charade, but others are mindful of the quote attributed to Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.”

10 comments:

  1. this woman is just trying to gain free publicity to promote her so called "film-making" career.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How do you know for sure it is for publicity? Dear idiot.

      Delete
    2. Proud of her Singaporean6/19/2013 8:28 AM

      Anony 1231pm. She's a brave woman speaking up for the weak.

      Delete
  2. True or false?
    The army is the PAP gahmen and the PAP gahmen is the army?
    Is this why we have so many army generals in parliament?

    ReplyDelete
  3. “政者,正也。子帅以正,孰敢不正

    自身的行为端正,就是不发命令,下面的人也知道该怎么做;自身的行为不端正,即使三令五申也没有人听从。

    上梁不正下梁歪,中梁不正垮下来

    ReplyDelete
  4. Seems like pre-emptive strike, juncture are foreign to our learned eagles. Am a lay person, so excuse my understanding of legal affairs.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey Tattler, besides blogging, as a good man, what are you going to do about this?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ghost of Shane6/18/2013 3:07 PM

    When a junior officer can deviate from SOP, which in their terms becomes "Subjective Operating Procedure", what do you think when it get to the highest level?

    "Screw Operating Procedure"?!!?

    ReplyDelete
  7. //Among the factors considered in their deliberations, said the AGC, was the guilty plea of the bus drivers. In other words, if the strikers had refused to bow down to the system, the film maker might not have been let off "so easily". //

    When I read that release, this too was the implicit meaning I took away.

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  8. 1) Sub judice applies for the accused.

    2) Ministers' premature statements are OK, but not citizens'.

    3) The AGC has given itself the powers of the court.

    ReplyDelete