I am utterly disappointed by the Minister for Home Affairs (who is also the Minister of Law, which I always feel is totally inappropriate as it may constitute a conflict of interests but this article is not about this) Mr. Shanmugam's statement made in parliament with regards to the case of Benjamin Lim Jun Hui.
Instead of addressing the many valid pertinent concerns raised by the public, on and off-line, he has put up a barrage of fire attacks at The Online Citizen (TOC) and the President of Law Society, Mr. Thio Shen Yi with totally irrelevant petty details of bickering.
Whether there were 4 or 5 policemen went to the school, wearing police uniforms or plain clothes are really irrelevant to the pertinent questions asked by TOC, Mr Thio and the public at large.
It is even more ridiculous for the Minister to cast doubts on TOC's intent by raising the fact that it has reported that the Police refused to comment on the matter when approached!
For whatever reasons the police refused to comment (such as those reasons presented by the Minister himself), it should just say so when TOC asked them! A good and competent Public Relations Officer from the Police would have made simple comment like "We cannot comment on this case as internal investigation is still ongoing." or "We cannot comment on this case as there will be Coroner Inquiry, please wait for the result of Coroner Inquiry"...etc.
The total ignore or silence from the Police is smacked of either arrogance or complete incompetency in Public Relations communication.
The Police has its own Public Relations officers. If the Police refused to answer to TOC's inquiries, then the Minister cannot blame the TOC for reporting so (the truth that the police refused to comment) and the public will have their own discretion to form their own opinion.
So my dear Minister, it is the FAILURE of Police Public Relations officers in responding to the matter in timely manner that created public perception, not TOC. TOC merely reported the NO RESPONSE from the police!
It is of course the prerogative of the Police in keeping silence but it must also understand that keeping quiet will have its consequences and implications.
By the way, the Main stream media also reported 5 officers went to the school! Please lah! Why not fire at the Main stream media as well?
As for the President of Law Society, the point made was the necessity of the police making the arrest at the school! So, don't try to divert from this pertinent question by going into the irrelevant bickering. Do you think it is appropriate or necessary for the police to send 4 or 5 police officers to the school to make the arrest?
There are more important questions raised by the public and I expect the Minister to address them, instead of using diversion tactic to dodge from these questions and public anger:
1) Does the Minister think it is RIGHT (never mind if it is legal or not) for policemen to go to school to arrest students who are just suspects of crimes?
2) Does the Minster think it is RIGHT (never mind if it is legal or not) for the police to interrogate minors without the presence of guardian or legal representative? In fact, is it right for police to deny legal representation or aid to suspects, regardless of age, during interrogation?
These are the two important issues raised by the President of Law Society and they are valid questions to be addressed fully. These questions raised does NOT constitute sub judice but it is of GREAT PUBLIC INTERESTS.
I hope the Minister could address these real issues instead of wasting time trying to divert attention to inconsequential minor details and bickering.
Oh, by the way, the poor boy was just investigated but NO OFFICIAL JUDGMENT has been made about him just yet. I do not understand why the Minister would insinuate him as "guilty" in parliament just because, according to the police interrogation, he "confessed" to the crime. His confession could be contested in court if there was really a court case but unfortunately, he won't have that trial now. So I would urge the Minister not to put judgment on the poor dead boy in parliament even though he is also the Minister of Law, but he is not the judge nor the case has been heard.
Goh Meng Seng
Posts
20 comments:
Hi, can I ask for your permission to reproduce this post on our education portal http://www.domainofexperts.com? Explicit mention shall be made of the fact it first appeared on your site, and we shall cite Goh Meng Seng as the author. Hope to hear from you again :)
Yes, you may.
Goh Meng Seng
humans versus plants!!
a man stole $12,000 of bonsai plants jailed for 12 months.
a mother's love is unconditional and no amount of money can replace their child let alone the insulting legal games.
facts and figures just don't fit.
Another humorous incident.SINGAPORE - A man who stole milk powder some two months after his release from a long prison term was jailed for six months on Thursday. Probly cannot get job so no food Whichever way he is hungry.
Woman's hand severed after lift accident in October last year. The lift and chrome dome got away ????? What law ?
SINGAPORE—A maid who stole almost $400,000 worth of jewelry from her employer then pawned it to fund her gambling habit was jailed for two and a half years
a man stole $12,400 of bonsai plants jailed for 12 months.
$12,000 of plants VS $400,000 jewelry .
1 year VS 2 1/2 years.
Foreign Embassy might interfere.
👎👎👎👎👎👎Some judges sleep with both their eyes h👎lf close. They never know if they will w👎ke up the next morning. Some sleep with one eye open.In their uppermost minds would be if their f👎mily members would meet a f👎t👎l or leth👎l
And power without compassion is the worst kind of evil there is.
– E.J. Patten
The brand with a heart?
The voyage of making a mockery of themselves to safeguard the burning of the Singapore flags. Only selective gets a a life for a life. When a lady is 69, obviously she had maids almost all her life, but none killed her so viciously, Its a case of who someone is and not what someone is. Poor Little Red Dot?
Dear Dominque, The whole world is not gullible. Your death has left a hole that was not filled. The life of such a young man was taken away mercilessly and the pain that was left to your family must be immeasurable. Your mum being divorced had no one to share her grievances and with your brother had to endure the injustices from the top the the bottom of the chain. Whenever other countries had their casualties, Facebooks posting of < I am saddened by the...........> As in your case not one postings of this and no one visited or did little follow-up to your anguished mum? It so happened that the Minister-in-Charge happened to be one of the indispensable. Not even one was willing to . If the murderers have kept to the supposedly number of smoke-bombs and you died, than maybe the blame should be shared by both sides. It was not even a case of sharing blame all around ,some 20%, another 40%. Your family had to take it all. You can rest in peace that those who just played musical-chairs by pushing and the honorable PM had nothing to say so as not to offend some of their circles, be assured that there is a GOD. The next results would be 51.9% if God is fair. By a concern human being.
As in Dominique's case the elevator did not go all the way up to the top. The highest elevator level one can find coherent word 'OVERDOSE'.
Lawyers are like doctors. They've each a secret language of their own so that if you get a letter from one lawyer you've got to take it to another to get it read, just like a doctor sends you to a chemist with a rigmarole that no one else can read, so they can charge you what they like for a drop of colored water.
HAROLD BRIGHOUSE, Hobson's Choice
In this world there is the LAW. In the next world there is JUSTICE.
Anonymous said...
Practice what you preached and lead by example. Who owns the land and new HDB? Reduce the price of land and the new BTOs and the rest will automatically follow? Simple logic. Don't put excuses prices are not coming down all because of your own doing
Got law to protect the rest or just some elite with powers to deliver what they think, how they think and when they think?
Smells like sh@t!
Partners in Crime!
GAGS
Are suitable for groups with NO strength of character .
No intention or capabilities to do a all round good job which reflects back on his boss.
The boss is only as good as his team.
only good in scape goat "undersex" men, broke up how many lives and families.
Norwegian meets his 2 Samaritans for first time.
"But I did not know what to do with the information."
Mr Ayub's first efforts to seek justice for Mr Corneliussen fell through the cracks. He called some newspapers and, when that went nowhere, he made a " police report."
The court heard that when he did not get a response from the POLICE, he did not give up.
For the simple part of our culture, it must first be woven into a public known scenario news bulletin before it was investigate. It is what jobs are about. The least the work the easier lives are.
Majority work for their bread & butter. If the minority work hard will be called "poh lan pah" . The result where got good workers.
Caning is barbaric and should be left to dark ages.
Post a Comment