TR EMERITUS

I can tell you what the "review" will conclude, and it is the same for any govt failing: "The system worked fine as shown by Parti Liyani being acquitted by the courts. What went wrong was not a systemic problem, but due to human factors." Then, steps will be taken to prevent this, scapegoats found, and then, case closed. Yes, I am cynical about the "review". What should be done is for an independent body to conduct the review, not a former PAP MP who is now the dep AG. Ok, I'm taking bets now, for those who disagree with my prediction.   Andrew Loh      Read More →

Ms Parti Liyani The case involving the former Chairman of the Changi Airport Group, Mr. Liew Mun Leong and his Indonesian maid has helped to spark off the old age debate on equality in Singapore. If you read enough of the online chatter, you will notice that there is common thread – Singapore is an increasingly unequal place and this small island is increasingly two societies – those with $50 million in the bank and the rest of us. Many of us who have taken to the online space (myself included) are often filled with examples of how there seems to be one set of rules of the rich and well connected and another set of rules for eh rest of us. We say a lot but then resign ourselves to the fact that, well this is the way life is and you either learn to live with it or leave. It’s a case of thinking that this is the way things are and going to be, so what else can you do other than complain about it in cyberspace and the Powers that Be are happy to let us have our grumbles on cyberspace because it allows us to let off steam rather than get organized into anything in particular. For many of us, the acquittal of Parti Liyani comes as a relief to many of us because it seems to be something like a big stop into the slide into decline that many of us believe our society is going through. This story of David beating Goliath gave us, the little people, a sense of hope that we have the chance to get our voice heard. If you ask enough Singaporeans, most of us will say that we don’t need to hear the side of the story of Mr. Liew and the rest of his friends because they are the ones writing the story for everyone else. It is, contrary to what Mr. Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, CEO of Temasek International, would tell you, it is the story of the likes of Ms. Parti Liyani that need to be heard. As Mr. Anil Balchandani, the lawyer for Ms. Parti Liyani argues, she is only one of many cases that goes unheard. Mr. Balchandani’s interview can be seen here. We need to remember that the main point of this case was the fact that it involved a lot of pain and hard work from various parties. The reality of taking on the powerful is that its often a thankless and expensive task. As Mr. Balchandani says in the interview, plenty of foreign workers will plead guilty to accusations because in the cost-benefit analysis of things, it’s the easier option. Let’s remember, Parti Liyani, an Indonesian maid who never earned more than $600 a month, had to stay in Singapore for four years to fight those charges. Even if she didn’t pay a single cent towards her living expenses in Singapore, she was unable to earn money to send back home, which is the very reason why people work as maids or construction workers in a foreign country. While one might argue that “well, nobody asked them to plead guilty,” we have to understand that most of us who read this post, have very rarely been in a position where we’ve been the significantly weaker party in a negotiation, particularly when it’s a negotiation where the lives of our loved ones is at stake. Like it or not, foreign workers and maids are the forgotten people of our society and we tend to dismiss the work of Organizations like HOME, ACMI and TWC2, because, well they are trying to give a voice to the people whom many of us don’t bother thinking of. However, we can’t ignore the abuses against the downtrodden based on the fact that they’re not from around here. We need to care about abuses against them, because, well – if the system that is beholden to a rich and influential man like Liew Mun Leong can be used to against a maid, it can be used against us. The fact that Parti Liyani can win against Liew Mun Leong is hopeful because it says, we can win should we be able to win too, should we ever be in that situation. Yet, we need to remember that there was hard work involved. While we do have laws to protect us on paper, getting the laws to work for us, is a painful process especially when you have the might of the State or someone like Mr. Liew against you. The cost of having a lawyer fight for you in the court system is prohibitively expensive. “Cheap” lawyers in Singapore cost around $500 an hour and lawyers don’t solve things in a single hour. Then there’s things like having to take time off just to deal with lawsuits. Parti was lucky that her resolve to fight the charges against was supported by the likes of HOME and Mr. Balchandani, who worked tirelessly for her case without measuring the benefits to them. How many of people end up giving up because they don’t get the help. Think of what happened in 2010, when Dr. Waffles Wu, had an elderly employee take the rap for him for a traffic offense. Sure, Dr. Wu did not go out of his way to get someone more vulnerable to take his place on the wrong end of the justice system. Dr. Wu was finned a grand (spare change to Dr. Wu) and had his license suspended for four months. Dr. Wu has said that he was investigated and feels bad for it [LINK]. However, for most members of the public, this incident was a case of the powerful working under a different set of laws from the rest of us. If you want Alex Au’s opinion on it, you’re going to get Alex’s apology [LINK]. So, what can we do? Perhaps, we just need to do the simple things like trying to support the good works of NGOs and Civil Society moments like HOME. We should also go out of our way to try and support small businesses like Mr. Balchandani’s. Why do we need to do this? The answer is simple, these are organisations that support us. The people who supported a maid, the lawyer that took a long case for maid free of charge against the full weight of the state, will be the people who stand up for us should we ever be at the wrong end of the system.   Tang Li *Although I’ve been based mainly in Singapore for nearly two decades, I’ve had the privilege of being able meet people who have crossed borders and cultures. I’ve befriended ministers and ambassadors and worked on projects involving a former head of state. Yet, at the same time, I’ve had the privilege of befriending migrant labourers and former convicts. All of them have a story to tell. All of them add to the fabric of life. I hope to express the stories that inspire us to create life as it should be.        Read More →

Justice Chan Seng Onn We can trust him with veto powers over the use of national reserves and the appointments of key positions in the civil service and statutory boards. We can look to him to be the People’s President. If we want a non-puppet for President, Justice Chan Seng Onn is the man. In acquitting Parti Liyani of theft at the home of Liew Mun Leong, Justice Ong was without fear or favour. His 104-page judgement was scathing of the Liew family and scathing of how the case was handled. Justice Chan was among the class of 1972 President’s Scholars – the year that produced many well-known personalities. His fellow scholars that year included Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean, former Ministers George Yeo and Lim Hng Kiang and Lee Wei Ling, estranged sister of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Wei Ling wrote about it in one of her newspaper columns: “I was among 11 students in the class of 1972 who received the scholarship . . . Three – Teo Chee Hean, George Yeo and Lim Hng Kiang – were also Singapore Armed Forces scholars. As many Singaporeans know, the trio became household names after they entered politics and rose to become senior Cabinet ministers. A fourth boy, Chan Seng Onn, is currently a Supreme Court justice.” Justice Chan came from a poor family. His father was a sewage pump attendant and his mother a housewife. He once said of his parents: “Even though they were not very well educated and were financially constrained, they had a strong sense of right and wrong. They imparted the right values to us.” Incidentally, the trio of Justice Chan, Anil Balchandani, defence counsel for Parti Liyani, and Liew Mun Leong have something in common: they are all engineers by training. Justice Chan and Balchandani both switched mid-career to law while Liew turned businessman. The difference is that while two of them engineered their rise to public acclaim, the third one engineered his own downfall. Anyway, who better than the man of the moment to be the next President of our country? When the time comes, just remember to give it a shout – Justice Chan Seng Onn for President. The people ought to have a say.   Augustine Low      Read More →