TS Sinnathuray a disgraceful judge who used his judicial office to please the Singapore Lee Kuan Yew dictatorship dies

Ladies and Gentlemen,

State controlled Singapore newspaper Straits Times of today, Jan 19, 2016 reports "Former Supreme Court judge TS Sinnathuray dies. Notable cases include Adrian Lim murder" http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/former-supreme-court-judge-t-s-sinnathuray-dies-notable-cases-include-toa

Retired Supreme Court judge T S Sinnathuray died of pneumonia on Jan 19, 2016.PHOTO: ST FILE

It seems this man had died yesterday in Singapore after many years as Lee Kuan Yew's hatchet man to remove all political opponents.

I have known him while I was practicing law in Singapore island from 1979 to 1991. This is one man who had no principles whatsoever. Absolutely none. His only purpose sitting as a judge in the Singapore courts was just one thing, that is to please Lee Kuan Yew who put him there. And anyone who opposed his master would be promptly bought before him and destroyed as was Lee's bidding.

I too had the misfortune of being hauled before him. In 1991, at the general elections in that island, I stood as the Workers Party candidate (an opposition party) for Bukit Merah. During one of the rallies at which I spoke, I stated that the rules that allow Subordinate Court Judges to be removed by the Legal Service Commission (a government body) whose chief was the Attorney General, showed lack of independence. This was at the suggestion of the late JB Jeyaretam who was the head of the party. I asked that the same rules that apply to High Court judges, of security of tenure, should equally apply to Subordinate Court judges.

For having said this, a totally innocuous statement, Lee's Attorney General brought contempt of charges against me. The accusation was that I had suggested that the Subordinate Courts were not independent, a very long stretch of imagination indeed, and brought before this judge for punishment. It was quite evident, as with all cases against political opponents in the island, that they didn't care how silly they looked. The primary objective was the intimidation and silencing of anyone who criticized.

This was how it was done. You take English cases which have not the slightest comparison to mine, and then you selectively take some dicta from that case such as "disrespect to the court deserves punishment" and conveniently say I disrespected and therefore I should be punished!

I remember the cases that the prosecution relied on to achieve their intended objective. In one case, many years ago in England, a man had brought a bomb into the court! In another case, another man had strewn a great deal of garbage into an English courtroom! In another a disgruntled litigant had hurled abuses and obscenities at the judge in open court! Naturally in these sort of cases, the judge would have said that disrespect to the court should be punished. But there was not the slightest comparison to my case. Well that's how, Lee Kuan Yew's Kangaroo judge, TS Sinnathuray does it, as it is with every other Singapore judge.

Needless to say I was convicted. The plan was to give a clear signal not to mess around with the dictator Lee Kuan Yew or else. I was fined $8,000.00 (Singapore) or else spend 3 months in jail. My ex-wife who now lives in Singapore, Elizabeth Cardoza who was working for the Singapore government had more money than I had. She helped pay the fine. I avoided jail. This case was in 1991, just before I permanently left the island for San Francisco California in December 1991.

I remember another case a few years before this. I represented an Indian woman who was married to a New Zealand soldier who was stationed in Singapore at Dieppe Barracks. As the Singapore woman had a child from an earlier marriage, she needed the court's consent to take the child to New Zealand. I argued that it was far better for the child to be brought up in New Zealand rather than Singapore. After all New Zealand is a proud democracy unlike Singapore. This judge got very mad at that. He said I shouldn't say that New Zealand was any better and Singapore was the best. Of course not wanting to be cited for contempt, as anything could happen in the island Kangaroo courts, I naturally agreed that Singapore courts was the best in the world. If needed I would have even said the he was the best judge in the world as well! My memory fails me but I do believe that she did take the kid to New Zealand after all.

It is ironic that he said this to me, when this state controlled newspaper reports that his 41 year old daughter Shamona is a lawyer. A quick check on the Internet reveals a Shamona Ranee Sinnathuray with an address in London England. It seems sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander. In spite of defending his master Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore, his own daughter has found life in Singapore rather stifling, perhaps.

The punishment that I received was nothing compared to what he did to JB Jeyaretnam, a highly respected opposition politician whom he repeatedly persecuted to please his master. Each time Lee Kuan Yew brought his politically motivated defamation lawsuits, it was mostly before this disgraceful man to shamelessly abuse the law to destroy him. As a result JB Jeyaretnam was made to pay as much as a few million dollars, yes a few million dollars, to pay Lee Kuan Yew, not for a purpose to compensate him but to destroy Jeyaretnam. Jeyaretnam has since died.

This dead man, Sinnathuray, is not only a disgrace, he was also a fool. Did he really benefit by the millions Lee paid him for his dirty work? True money can make life a little better perhaps, but it can never make one happy.

Happiness lies in those men who live honorable lives. Where he can look into the mirror and be proud of who he is. That is happiness. Not the way this man has prostituted his judicial office for personal gain.

And finally all your might and power only applies in that tiny island. This blog is being read widely in Singapore. Why don't Lee Kuan Yew's son, the Prime Minister now, come after me here? It won't work would it? I live in a democracy with independent judiciary. Not the Kangaroo ones like this guy.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com