Ladies and Gentlemen,
For those following the Singapore government's so far unsuccessful attempts to "punish" me for criticizing their state controlled judges which resulted in disbarring me from practicing law in their island, which by the way, has no effect on me whatsoever since I don't live there, they have not managed to enforce any part of their judgement against me outside Singapore.
1. As I practice law in California, USA, I am required to report any finding of wrongdoing in any part of the world to them as my right to practice here is dependant on my continuing to maintain good moral character both in California or elsewhere. Since my reporting to them of this fact in July 25, 2011, the date of my Singapore disbarment, I have never heard from the State Bar of California. I suppose they have a different view of what unethical conduct is from that held by Singapore. Neither have I heard from the Bar Council England and Wales of which I remain a member in good standing.
This refusal of the State Bar of California to take any steps against me, does not reflect well on the reputation of the Singapore legal profession to say the least; as this is an indirect way for them to tell the Singapore authorities that they have a set of ethical rules which do not comport with that of California.
In fact they are saying that even though I have been disbarred in Singapore, another so called common law jurisdiction like California, being the most severe of penalties that can be imposed by any legal body on a lawyer (disbarment); as far as they are concerned, I don't even deserve to be given the lightest of punishments, not even a warning!
2. Second, the Singapore court in these disbarment proceedings ordered that I pay the costs of the Singapore Law Society in addition to my being disbarred (Please see court order of disbarment, earlier published). To date, Singapore has not written to me to pay any amount respecting their costs as required by their court order. I expect these costs to have run into hundreds of thousands of dollars as these proceedings extended more than a year. From their silence I can only assume that the Singapore Law Society has decided to forgo their costs to which they claim they are entitled; perhaps because they are not confident that their judgement would be enforceable in a jurisdiction such as California which has the rule of law.
3. Also about the same time, when I was tried for contempt of court in 2008 in Singapore for criticizing their corrupt judges who misuse the law to please the Singapore strongman, the court ordered that I pay costs of $5,000.00. Even though I did not pay the costs in Singapore, they made no attempt to stop me from leaving the country without paying in November 2008. Up till now they made no attempt to recover this sum. Again I can only assume that they have decided to forgo this amount too for the same reasons stated above.
4. In the more distant past in 1991 they ordered me to pay about $110,000 for costs in respect of my suspension from practicing law in Singapore for enquiring of the case of JB Jeyaretnam to the then Singapore Attorney General and another case of contempt also in the same year for making an election rally speech in Bukit Merah which they did not like where the court ordered me to pay about $13,000.00 in costs. To date I have not paid either of these amounts and neither have they made any attempts to recover them.
It appears to me that Lee Kuan Yew's court judgements in Singapore are so much of paper and nothing more. He only abuses the law and hurts you when he can get you. If not he remains silent.
This is not the rule of law. It is banana republic law.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Blog: http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/
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