Singapore's Tamil Law Minister K Shamugam praises retiring Lee's attack dog, Judge Chan Sek Kiong

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore’s state controlled newspaper Straits Times of Nov 5, 2012 has the story "Shanmugam pays tribute to retiring Chief Justice". Chan Sek Kiong the chief justice of Singapore or rather the man to ensure that no one challenges Singapore’s Ruling Family is finally retiring.

And Singapore's Minister for Law, a Tamil, in a predominantly ethnic Chinese island naturally has flowing praise for him, surely. What else did you expect? All these characters such as this Tamil Minister for law and the retiring Chief Justice don't have any legal acumen in any sense of the word, as they have done nothing to further the citizens’ rights, in their entire career. Instead they have made sure that anyone who criticizes the Lee Ruling Family for whom these characters really work, are promptly destroyed by bending the law to any extent necessary for the dirty work to be accomplished.

The report says

"The changeover of Chief Justice will see the office pass from one of Singapore's top jurists to one with a track record that few here can match.
Law Minister K. Shanmugam, commenting on the change, said CJ Chan Sek Keong "had achieved everything a lawyer can hope to achieve".

The 75-year-old will retire on Tuesday and Judge of Appeal Sundaresh Menon, 50 - who takes over on the same day - will be sworn in as the new Chief Justice on Wednesday.

CJ Chan " is an outstanding jurist whom history will undoubtedly record as one of Singapore's most brilliant jurists", said Mr Shanmugam in an e-mail response to The Straits Times on the changeover."

Very nice words indeed for this fellow Chan Sek Kiong. Unfortunately for him, none of us can ever recall any instance, not a single one, of average jurisprudential competence , let alone excellence, that this Tamil Minister finds. Indeed what we remember of him is a person who either completely lacks any understanding of the law or that he is a complete rascal, ever willing to abuse the law to please his masters.

Recall 1997, Cheng San (a constituency in the island) elections in Singapore. Everyone who has been following Singapore is aware of Chan's utter disgrace. Singapore Parliamentary Elections Act prohibits any politician from coming to within 100 feet or so of a polling station during elections so as to prevent undue advantage to anyone by persuading electors to vote for them. A very rational and logical piece of legislation. In complete violation of this law, the Prime Minister and several other government ministers were not just found within 100 feet of the polling station on polling day, they were actually found within it, a complete violation of this law. At this time, this man, Chan Sek Kiong was the Attorney General.

When an opposition politician JB Jeyaretnam, now deceased, complained to the Parliamentary Elections Body over the government ministers violation of the law, Chan wrote an opinion claiming, incredibly, that the Prime Minister had not violated any laws!

He said, believe it or not, that it was perfectly legal for them to enter the polling station because the law only made it illegal to come within 100 feet of the station. Presumably, according to him, as long as politicians can somehow cover the distance of 100 feet or so without being detected, and enter the polling station, they will no longer be in violation. It would appear from his reasoning that the trick lies in covering that short distance undetected, since once it is crossed, you are perfectly within the law!

And this man according to this Tamil Minister is none other than "is an outstanding jurist whom history will undoubtedly record as one of Singapore's most brilliant jurists",

Mind boggling indeed! If this is the great legal brains that we need, what need then for idiots.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean by birth in exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375