Singapore. Lee's sidekick Law Minister K Shanmugam clever attempt to hide unequal treatment in the courts

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Not too long ago, a well connected Singapore doctor, who funnily calls himself "Woffles" Wu, was caught twice cheating the Singapore Traffic Police by paying someone else to admit to driving over the speed limit for him.

Besides being a clown for choosing a name like that, Woffles of all things, this doctor is a downright crook who in any other place would not only be severely punished but would have his medical license struck off. You see, in any other place, which has an honest government and a judiciary that believes in the rule of law, a professional like a doctor is held at a higher standard of responsibility from others, for a very good reason; a highly educated man such as that is expected to know better.

But we see time and time again, that that sort of reasoning does not apply to Singapore, where the more money and influence you have, the better you are treated.

So in this case, where the offense was serious and egregious where especially in this case, committed by a doctor no less, he should have been sent to jail for a considerable period, his driving privileges removed and his medical license should be at least suspended.

Not in this Singapore case. Woffles Wu, not surprisingly, was given a small fine and let off without more.

Even in a place like Singapore where the people have been so intimidated by the Lee Kuan Yew family into accepting without complaint anything that happens, it was surprising that there were a number of bloggers who voiced their outcry against this judicial corruption; nothing short of Kangaroo courts.

Singapore’s Lee ruling family not only demand that they and their courts should be allowed to do anything, they also insist that no one should complain about it as well. When a blogger who calls himself Alex Au (he, an ethnic Chinese, has a real Chinese name which for some reason he rather not use) wrote of this shameless injustice, the Attorney General promptly demanded that he remove the offending material and forthwith apologize failing which he will be sued.

Now you know what happens when the Lee government sues you of course. As sure as the sun rises, you will lose, made to pay several hundreds of thousands in damages and bankrupted. You will be lucky if you are not jailed as well. So understandably this man immediately apologized, removed his blog post and timidly asked this almightily government if he could do anything more if it pleases them. Had Lee demanded that he do 3 somersaults and bend over backwards, I suppose he would have gladly done that too.

Quite clear that the Singapore population is not impressed by the government’s repeated claims that they have an independent judiciary, especially since innocent men such as Chee Soon Juan and JB Jeyaretnam have been sued bankrupted and jailed for just being law abiding citizens, K Shanmugam, Lee's sidekick decided to make a speech in parliament claiming there was no bias in the Woffles Case.

See Straits times Report of Aug 13, 2012 headed "Judgment in Woffles Wu case in line with previous cases: Shanmugam"

Shanmugam's speech was nothing but a clear attempt to mislead Parliament. What else can you expect when the judicial misuse is so glaring? The newspaper report says he had "presented six cases where drivers had committed the same offence and were fined".

But he very cleverly fails to mention who these 6 people are, and very cleverly again fails to mention the other innumerable cases of ordinary people who were jailed and disqualified from driving for the same offense.

Sure, if he were to tell you who these 6 drivers were, which he has conveniently failed to do, you would very probably find that they are all highly connected government cronies who as a matter of general understanding in Lee's Singapore enjoy preferential treatment in the law courts.

And I am sure, if he would have told you the details of the numerous other ordinary people who were jailed and disqualified from driving for doing the same thing, you would see the glaring shameless double standards in Lee's one party totalitarian police state, which is, one law for the well connected and another for the ordinary Singaporean ethnic Chinese, Ah Meng (the Singapore equivalent of the ordinary Englishman Joe Blokes).

Of course K Shanmugam can say anything he wants in his master's parliament about anything and everything with no consequence one way or another. After all if you own the island and it's people, you can do and say anything you want with them and about them with no consequence whatsoever. That is the privilege of running a one party totalitarian police state.  

So much for Lee Kuan Yew's justice in cases where one man pays another to pretend that he committed the driving offense instead of him. “Woffles” Wu I suppose is woffling with glee.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107 or 510 491 4375