by Roy Ngerng Yi Ling
In defending the man who filmed a female student while she was showering, the Singapore police said: “A prosecution, with a possible jail sentence, will likely ruin his entire future.”
When the Prime Minister sued me, did the government think about how it would “ruin my entire future”?
When the hospital I worked at fired me due to political pressure, did they think about how it would “ruin my entire future”?
When the prime minister sued Leong Sze Hian, did the government think about how it would “ruin his entire future”?
When Jolovan Wham was charged and now faces jail, did they think about how it would “ruin his entire future”?
When Seelan Palay was charged and jailed, did they think about how it would “ruin his entire future”?
When Soh Lung Teo was jailed on fabricated lies, did they think about how it would “ruin his entire future” as a lawyer?
When Vincent Cheng was jailed on fabricated lies, did they think about how it would “ruin his entire future” as a church worker?
When Dr Chee Soon Juan was sued, charged and jailed, did they think about how it would “ruin his entire future” as a university professor?
I can go on and on.
There have been too many, too many people who have had their futures ruined because the police chose to ruin their futures, because the PAP government chose to ruin them.
Good people. All ruined. Because the police. Because the People’s Action Party.
It disgusts me to the core for the Singapore police to have the audacity to make claims it has very weak moral authority to make.
I cannot.
If you want to apply the law, apply it fairly. If you cannot apply the law fairly, then don’t make the claim you can. When you cannot.
Singaporeans have eyes to see.
I think, it saddens me that Singapore’s laws and its police have become a joke. The PAP has influence over how the law should be used, how it should be used to persecute, and when they think people should be let off when they should not be.
In the fake news law the PAP has proposed, they have decided to make “fake news” a crime, but yet have given themselves the power to decide who should not be punished for it.
How, how, how can you accept a government which believes it can play god with your lives, I cannot.
I don’t know where to start. It makes me angry.
I have always believed in forgiveness, in believing that people have a chance. And people should have chances.
But we have a system of justice, and people who have done what is socially deemed as wrong should undergo a system that has been built, and even as the intention should be to rehabilitate, they should go through the process of understanding what they did, how their actions were unjust, how they should understand how it feels from the victim’s perspective, and how this understanding will prevent them from causing harm or hurt again.
We have a system, and the system has to be properly respected for it to work.
But if we use the system to persecute people who should not be persecuted, while letting those who should be prosecuted go, then can we still have faith in a system that we know cannot protect us?
This is not to defend the prison system which can be overbearing in its punishment of people, while not giving people the opportunity for proper rehabilitation. But the point is, there is a system. If it is not good enough, we change it for the better.
But fundamentally, if truth, justice, fairness and honesty can be bent and changed as and when, then is there still truth? Can there still be justice?
And what of the people who have been put in the prison system unfairly, or if they are poor, or people who fall into crime because the system failed them?
What is our system today which does not protect the weak and vulnerable, which let those in power or in the wrong get away, or elites who have the power over those who have not, what is this system we thought we could trust, when it starts failing in front of our very eyes?
I am angry. I want change. Because it is unfair. And it should not be this way. It does not have to be this way.