Will Singapore's corrupt legal system send drunk driver Dr. Irene Lim Kay Han to jail? I think not.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore's online edition of their state controlled newspaper the Straits Times of Oct 22, 2009 has this story "Doc jailed for drink driving". She is a physician, Dr. Irene Lim Kay Han, a senior consultant radiologist at the Kandang Kerbau maternity Hospital there. On April 26, 2009 at 1.30am early morning, she was found in her stationary car in the middle of Pan Island Expressway, obviously dead drunk; since you need to be completely off your rocker to be doing this! Naturally when the police arrived, they need not ask her what was she smoking. She was reeking to high heaven with alcohol.

I don't know, and neither do I want to check the maximum penalty for this sort of thing, but I would expect an ordinary Singaporean without Lee Kuan Yew's political connections, would have seen jail time of perhaps 2 years!

But you see, in Singapore justice is brazenly and shamelessly selective. First, if you have political connections with Lee Kuan Yew and his friends, a couple of phone calls to a particular judge in the quiet will do wonders. Instead of going to jail, which you deserve, you may never have to go to jail at all.

Let me give you an recent example. About 6 months ago, I would say, this Singapore's state controlled newspaper reported the case of an ethnic Chinese woman editor of a Singapore Chinese newspaper, driving her car, of killing a woman pillion rider on a motorcycle and serious injuring the driver, at the intersection of Adam and Bukit Timah Road because she was not paying attention; she was talking on her cell phone. What is more she ran the red light. A very very serious offence which rightfully deserved a long period of jail time. Yes, she was sent to jail for, if I recollect, 18 months. But you know what, on appeal she did not have to go to jail at all! The judge merely said it was not her fault, this was a mere mistake, never mind the dead woman and running the red light and so on. She walks. But I am sure, if you were thinking like me, you would know why. She is connected. A card carrying sycophant of Lee Kuan Yew. What else did you expect?

And I guess in this specialist doctor radiologist's case it is going to be the same sort of justice. She has said she will appeal. And on appeal, the Singaporean judge will come up again with some nonsense like, this was an honest mistake, she has suffered enough because she had to have sleepless nights over this , etc etc. You see, if she is convicted and sent to jail, she will lose her job as the senior radiologist. As a result instead of emigrating to some other country; if you let her go, she may stay. Her career would not be finished. And you guessed it, she will walk.

You know in any other respectable legal system, instead of people like this being let off scott free, they would receive higher sentences, precisely because they are in positions of authority and should have been more responsible. But it is the other way around in Singapore. The courts don't care anymore care what you think. This is a dictatorship. They rule. And you obey. They are past all that. It's their world now, not yours.

And you find the same misuse of the law when it comes to rich foreigners. I remember some time ago a Scotsman engineer who was dead drunk in Orchard Road, stole the keys to a truck and caused serious damage while on a rampage. Nothing happened to him really. All he had to was to pay a small fine. After all he was a Scots engineer with an important job in Singapore.

A Japanese business owner, thoroughly drunk assaults a taxi driver. Singapore judge lets him off with a fine. Had it been a humble Singapore citizen, unconnected that is, he goes to jail for a long time.

But the severest punishment will go to Lee Kuan Yew's political opponents. If Dr. Chee Soon Juan did any of that, which he will not of course, he would have to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

From this disgraceful pattern of one law for some and another law for others, you can see why the Singapore Judiciary has been thoroughly disgraced. And the International Bar Association had said just that in their 72 page report that the Singaporean judiciary systematically misuses the law selectively, in most cases to silence dissent.

I think this disgraceful message has got through to the Singapore population as well. A proof of this is the fact that no one wants to be a lawyer. There are just more than 3600 lawyers in this city state of 5 million people, which claims to be involved in international banking commerce insurance and trade. Lee Kuan Yew's recently handpicked Minister for Law K Shanmugam compares it to, believe it or not, London, New York and Rome!

With 3600 lawyers for 5 million people in a city like London! Are you kidding!

Gopalan Nair
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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