Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Caught Between A Rock And a Very Hard Place

On 2 June Amos Yee was sent back into remand for an additional 3 weeks because District Judge Jasvender Kaur wanted more time to contemplate his suitability for the Reformative Training Centre (RTC). While she was thinking, the boy was cuffed spread eagle to an iron bed. Well, come Tuesday 23 June, the report is in, and it says the kid is physically and mentally suitable for reformative training. The monkey wrench in the works is that on Monday 22 June, the United Nations Human Rights Office had asked Singapore courts to "drop the demand for sentencing (Yee) to the RTC" and called for the "immediate release of (Yee) in line with (Singapore's) commitment under the UN Convention on the Rights of Child".

So a Dr Munidasa Winslow suddenly pops up to suggest that Yee may be suffering from autism-spectrum disorder (ASD). Now ASD is a complex disorder of the central nervous system, which often first appears as delayed speech in children around 18 months of age. Anybody who has seen and heard the articulate boy pontificating on his YouTube videos, including the one about the horrible dead guy who kicked the bucket, will wonder if Winslow has his head screwed on right. More important, the SingHealth website openly declares that there is no known cure for autism. Therapies do NOT cure autism, although they MAY bring about marked improvement.

This Mandatory Treatment Order (MTO) which the learned judge is juggling with is merely an option that could be meted out in lieu of imprisonment. Introduced as part of a series of community-based sentencing (CBS) options implemented since January 2011, the positive experience of this route - how we hate this phrase - is that the criminal record will be rendered spent, and the offender deemed to have no record of a conviction whatsoever. In other words, the child is no longer a criminal under the infamous Singapore system of justice, and the United Nations can call off their intervention force with the famous blue helmets.

But that does not change an iota about Madam Mary Toh's precocious son having to spend 3 + 3 + 2 weeks in a lock-up - the last sojourn in a mental institution with electroshock therapy options. Judge Kaur has painted herself in a corner, and a notorious niche in the international hall of shame. Bet you she's willing to forgo her SG50 $500 bonus and have someone else assigned to the case.

32 comments:

  1. Won't be surprised if the judge takes long leave of absence. Another judge would not have to carry the baggage of her past decisions. Wonder if the finding that Amos is fit for RTC consistent with the diagnosis of ASD by the psychiatrist? Surely not!?

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    1. Sabatical leaves is a common trend for the high ass..opps I mean high horse.

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  2. Free Amos........wonder if this is Sg we are living in, with this sick thing going on, ruining the life, health and future of a child?

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    1. .... ruining the life, health and future of a child?
      You're referring to MOE sending 12 year olds to earthquake zones?

      Delete
    2. Yup, the govt is the sicko. one looses all respect from the LHL govt in the inept and cruel manner it has chosen to punish an adolescent for calling his dead father names. No doubt, like father like son. What his father did to grown ups, small lee is meting out to a boy. What a bloody shame of an excuse of a prime minister of Singapore.

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  3. Judge Kaur has painted herself in a corner, and a notorious niche in the international hall of shame. Bet you she's willing to forgo her SG50 $500 bonus and have someone else assigned to the case ....Tattler

    I do not agree with the writer that the good judge find this ca case onerous.
    On the other hand, she may have orgased to kama sutra heaven for given the task. A godsend opportunity for recognition and reward for doing what the masters want.

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    1. IMO, the case should've been dismissed or not even brought to mention.
      And because Amos insulted some divinity (no prizes for which one), the punishment or the pre sentence punishment is already inconsistent with the offence. After years of brainwashed , enticed and cowed by carrot and stick approach of the State looks like those speaking out against this injustice are far and few in between

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  4. The Singapore system of "Too little people with too much power". And how did they get their Authority ?

    Gerrymandering, Fear mongering, Organization, Laws and slowly boiling Singapore frogs.

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    1. Some frogs deserved to be boiled, the 60% goons and the guy who slapped Amos with murderous force.

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  5. Don't tell me that LKY's legacy can't even be gracious enough to deal with a teenager like Amos?

    The next big question would be would you ever vote for PAP again if you don't want your child, relative or friend to be treated like Amos?

    Looks like all these millionaire ministers can't even deal properly with a child like Amos? Or they just simply don't have the guts to handle the case sensibly?

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  6. There is a contradiction in terms. How could a boy who MAY have an autism spectrum disorder be found to be suitable got RTC? Dr. Winslow does not say he had the disorder but MAY. What is the basis for him to say that? Is further incarceration the only way to assess Amos? If that is the only way then all suspected kids should be incarcerated for assessment. The Court should have granted him bail pending sentence. As it is they have turned Amos from a bright, cheerful if irreverent kid into what the MSM described as "wan and unkempt and ... unsmiling" (ST) and " unkempt and tired... and had his head bowed low" (Today). How low can we get?

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  7. Dear daft 60% Singaporeans.
    How many more examples like this do you need to change your vote?'
    How much more Singaporean blood do you want on your hands when you go to cast your vote?

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  8. I am utterly ashamed that this is happening in Singapore. We may be superficially be in the first world but really, a soul of third world.

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  9. It is extremely hurting to see the boy so badly treated.

    How the so many involved with handling him could act together to deal him the cruelty is beyond belief.

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  10. From day one I have been saying there are Many Teachers, Cousellors, Psychiatrist even Police who are able to handle a rash teenager like Amos. In fact they are handling such at risk youngsters on a daily basis many of us call us rude names to our faces. Amos story is truly appropriately titled Between a Rock and a Hard Place .

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  11. `Let the jury consider their verdict,’ the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.

    `No, no!’ said the Queen. `Sentence first–verdict afterwards.’

    `Stuff and nonsense!’ said Alice loudly. `The idea of having the sentence first!’

    `Hold your tongue!’ said the Queen, turning purple.

    `I won’t!’ said Alice.

    `Off with her head!’ the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.

    — Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

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  12. We want “realistic and correct salaries” in government: Lee Hsien Loong

    http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2014/11/we-want-realistic-and-correct-salaries-in-government-lee-hsien-loong/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Who is this "we" that PAP's Prime Millionaire is referring to?
      Is it PAP or Singaporeans?

      Delete
  13. I used to respect our judiciary but after a few cases involving the Papies where the decisions smacked of being bent in their favour , I now think otherwise. Singapore is no longer whiter than white..not anymore. Similarly, I was a supporter of PAPies but recent events eg AIM , the attack on AHPTEC and now Amos, have made me changed my position.

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    1. Don't just stop here.
      Convert your family and friends to also vote Opposition.
      60% of them voted PAP in GE 2011.
      Just focus on converting one.
      If 40% of us do this.
      40% will become 80% in GE 2015.

      Delete
  14. Maybe Dr Munidasa Winslow was trying to give an easy way out for Amos by suggesting that he may be suffering from autism- spectrum disorder (ASD). Because has any 16 year old kid with ASD ever been sent to an RTC to be brainwashed? They have the option of going to an autism centre. It's like sending someone suffering from megalomania or delusional disorder to IMH and is still able to hold the highest office in the land.

    Is Amos the one caught between a rock and a hard place, or the ones trying to put the fix on him for his blasphemy? Who is now caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, by the kid not going with the flow? Like they say, you sow what you reap.

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  15. We should all be holding a watching brief to see what finally happens to Amos in the hands of the we now clearly can see, extremely biased and discriminatory AGC, police, Prisons and judiciary. Don't forget what happened to Dinesh who was chocked to death bt several burly prison wardens who subsequently resigned and disappeared after their misdeed.

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  16. Are we looking at another legacy of LKY?
    This can't be true.

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  17. He was only cuffed so that he could sit up, pee or even poo. He himself said he was suicidal.

    So what should we do - leave him alone and let the lazy bum sit at home the whole day and make hate videos?

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    Replies
    1. The horrible person could not even stand up on his own two feet. So what did we do? Continued to pay him $16,000 a month when he didn't even bother to show up for his meet-the-people sessions.

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    2. You are SICK!

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    3. Right, it was a hate video....directed at the PAP. Is that a crime? So it seems, because they threw the book at him, to silence him. They dropped the third charge which "accuses him of making an online video containing offensive remarks about the late founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew".....because it was too blatantly obvious.

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    4. "the third charge"

      Why did they put up this charge, and then drop it? Well, in the rush for judgement, and the race for who can "angkat bodek" the most in the aftermath of the demise of the horrible person, they must have left their brains behind. The foreign media can see through all the smoke and mirror and the 153rd ranked press, and tell it as it is without fear or favour.

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  18. All the foreign media echoes what Forbes says: "16-year-old Singaporean blogger Amos Yee is facing up to three years in prison for uploading remarks and images critical of the late Lee Kuan Yew, the founding Prime Minister of Singapore."
    Only the 153rd ranked media is broadcasting the “wounding religious feelings,” and "obscene imagery" lies.

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    Replies
    1. 153rd media is told what to print.
      But the people are not that stupid to know the difference.
      Or aren't they??

      Delete
  19. Our PAP Ministers are so greedy in demanding 1st World pay for themselves. Yet they are offering 3rd World shit service when it comes to protecting basic human rights for Singaporeans?

    Why for heavens sake would anyone still want to vote PAP for such shit coming from them?

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