Wrong race man. She should have gone for malays. But mom and dad were anti umno..
This mysterious Indian
gentleman handsome or not ?
Wrong race man. She should have gone for malays. But mom and dad were anti umno..
This mysterious Indian
gentleman handsome or not ?
No or hardly any Malay doctors then.Wrong race man. She should have gone for malays. But mom and dad were anti umno.
I heard it was a Paki, not an indian. Indian was one thing but Indian Muslim like that Paki BF really pushed Old Fart over the hill. Heard he had depression when he found out
DId she 'skip belts'?
at SGH - moustachioed South Indian chap. It was known by the nurses.Did she meet that Indian gentleman, when she was at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children?
What field? Neurology?at SGH - moustachioed South Indian chap. It was known by the nurses.
at SGH - moustachioed South Indian chap. It was known by the nurses.
Yes in SGH.What field? Neurology?
Ask the older nurses (if you can find any left)Errr... is he still working there
at SGH . ?
Tang case: No one is above the law
I REFER to Dr Lee Wei Ling's article yesterday, 'Why mete out even a 'token sentence'?'.
Mr Tang Wee Sung pleaded guilty to two charges. He was fined $7,000 for the first charge relating to an arrangement to buy a kidney under the Human Organ Transplant Act (Hota). There was no sentence of imprisonment.
Dr Lee's assertion that Mr Tang was 'sentenced in court to a day in jail for trying to buy a kidney' is therefore factually wrong.
The second charge was for making a false statement in a statutory declaration under the Oaths and Declarations Act (Oda). When one makes a statutory declaration, one is making a statement on oath. The duty to tell the truth on oath is a basic principle of law.
Mr Tang made the following statements in his statutory declaration:
'I confirm that no money or financial gain has been or will be paid by me or on my behalf to the donor to procure his/her consent to the donation of his/her kidney and tissue to me;
I confirm that Sulaiman Damanik's aunt (mother's sister) married niece's (sister's daughter) brother-in-law.'
None of this was true. In short, he lied on oath.
The Oda prescribes a mandatory jail sentence for lying in a statutory declaration. The prosecution did not press for a custodial sentence beyond the minimum. The shortest sentence a judge can mete out is one day's jail. This is exactly what the learned District Judge did. It was not 'a token sentence'. It was the minimum sentence prescribed by law.
Dr Lee wonders whether the charges against Mr Tang were a matter of political correctness. The essential point is that everyone is equal before the law. The rich buyer faced exactly the same charges as the poor donor - one charge each under the Hota and the Oda. Representations were made to the Attorney-General's Chambers to drop the charge under the Oda. These were not acceded to precisely because of the fundamental principle that all must be treated alike. There cannot be one law for the poor and another for the rich.
The final point is Dr Lee's assertion that 'any one of us would have acted as Mr Tang did if we had been placed in the same predicament'. It is presumptuous of her to assume that she knows how other people would act, or worse, that they would act the same way as she would. Insofar as she suggests that it is permissible to break the law when 'placed in the same predicament', this must be emphatically refuted. Everyone, rich or poor, is obliged to comply with the law. It is not open to anyone to say, I disagree with the law enacted by Parliament, therefore I shall ignore it. If Dr Lee disagrees with the Hota, she is at perfect liberty to campaign to have it amended. If she feels that, in some circumstances, it is perfectly acceptable to lie in a statutory declaration, she may try to persuade Parliament to change the law. But until Parliament amends or repeals the Hota and the Oda, they remain the law of Singapore.
The Rule of Law means that compliance with Acts of Parliament is not a matter of choice. No one is above the law.
Prof Walter Woon
Attorney-General
http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2422&Itemid=181
Friday, 23 April 2010
Singapore Officials Show Some Spine… Not that it does them any good
The Singapore government has declined to reappoint Attorney General Walter Woon after his two years on the job expired earlier this month. Woon was earlier criticized by Lee Wei Ling, the daughter of Singaporean patriarch Lee Kuan Yew. Wei Ling is the head of the National Neuroscience Institute.
In 2008 Woon brought a case against CK Tang department store chairman Tang Wee Sum for attempting to buy a kidney for transplanting. Both Lee Wei Ling and Lee Kuan Yew voiced public disapproval of Woon for bringing the charges against Tang. He answered back, pointing out what he called a number of misconceptions she held as to the facts and the law, and emphasizing that he had brought the case in a move to implement the law without favor. (Tang got a day's jail and a small fine, the poor young Indonesian would-be donor got two weeks).
The law was changed in March of 2009 to align with Lee Wei Ling's position. (Asia Sentinel, 21 January 2009) Singaporeans can now pay for organs which in practice means from poor people in neighboring countries but where organ sales are illegal.
In a defiant interview in the Straits Times newspaper, Woon, a professor of law with a distinguished record with the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, Dean of the Singapore Institute of Legal Education and as a former ambassador to Germany and Belgium, was asked if he thought he had "annoyed the powers that be."
"It's not unlikely that I have," he said. "Look, to be fair, nobody called me in the middle of the night to say ‘you must do this, you must do that. If they were unhappy, they did not make it known to me while I was AG."
But, he added, "'Whether or not they're happy with me - this one you've got to ask PM (Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong). This is a mutual parting of ways. Best to leave before you outstay your welcome, although I think amongst some people, I've already outstayed my welcome."
Later, in the interview, he called the two-year term "The longest two years of my life… 'It was not a job I really wanted or enjoyed. I did it because I was asked to do the job. So I did my best under the circumstances with what I had."
Woon was hardly a liberal. He sued the Dow Jones Publishing Co. for contempt of court for material published in the Wall Street Journal Asia and filed against Gopalan Nair, a US-based lawyer who ventured into Singapore and was arrested for insulting a judge. He also prosecuted three young Singaporeans for wearing tee-shirts imprinted with the image of a kangaroo dressed in a judge's gown outside the island republic's Supreme Court building.
The incident involving Woon, however, was a reminder of the pursuit at the behest of Lee Wei Ling of former Neuroscience research head Professor Simon Shorvon, brought from London in 2001 to lead Singapore's efforts in the field. But he had the misfortune to fall out with Wei Ling, who accused him of unethical conduct in his research.
Singapore's Medical Council unsurprisingly agreed with Ms Lee, who then attempted to pursue Shorvon in the UK. But Shorvon was judged innocent of unethical practice by the UK's General Medical Council. Singapore challenged this in the High Court in Britain but was subject to a humiliating rebuff which confirmed Shorvon's professional integrity. He is now a professor at University College London. Lee Wei Ling meanwhile had become head of the Neuroscience Institute.
Woon's testiness over the kidney decision was the second in which a Singaporean legal figure has appeared to differ with the ruling Lee family. Last year, District Judge John Ng acquitted five members of the Singapore Democratic Party of holding a procession without a permit when they attempted to walk from Singapore's Speaker's Corner to Queenstown Remand Prison in September of 2007, saying he couldn't see how the activity of walking down Orchard Road, Singapore's main shopping thoroughfare, fit the definition of a procession.
The Attorney General's chambers almost immediately appealed Judge Ng's decision. On April 2, High Court Judge Choo Han Teck overruled Ng and ordered him to sentence the activists. Accordingly, Ng on April 20 fined them S$500 each in lieu of five days in jail. Gandhi Ambalam, the leader, was fined S$600 or 6 days jail.
Singaporean judges have been extremely cautious about their decisions since January of 1984, when then-Senior District Judge Michael Khoo acquitted the late JB Jeyaretnam, Singapore's lone opposition member of parliament and mortal enemy of then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, of making a false declaration about the accounts of his Workers' Party.
Shortly after that, Khoo lost his job as senior judge and was unceremoniously moved to the attorney-general's chambers, widely considered to be a much lower posting. The Jeyaretnam episode is the last time on record that a high-profile case ever went against any members of Singapore's ruling Lee family or the government.
High Court Justice Choo Han Teck has made sure it won't happen again for now. Singapore's blogosphere is alive with speculation over whether John Ng will retain his position as a district court judge.
One has to imagine and consider, how it feels and how to integrate and to accept if one of our children dates and considers marrying an individual of Indian descent, or Pakistani descent or Black descent.I heard it was a Paki, not an indian. Indian was one thing but Indian Muslim like that Paki BF really pushed Old Fart over the hill. Heard he had depression when he found out
This is an interesting subjectThe Indian bf was the son of a famous Singapore high court judge.
Other doctors and some patients also found her arrogant.Another interesting fact: She hated all Sinkie doctors found them arrogant - which they are - would only talk to doctors who graduated from overseas medical shools.
Grandmother was Peranakan, so she had Malay genes in her anywayWrong race man. She should have gone for malays. But mom and dad were anti umno.
She was in on some of the deals when they got bulk discounts on condo purchases.She may not know how much she was earning, and all their assets.
partial knowledge, but as time passed, as the old man relinquished power, so did she lose her grasp on her brother's life. One gets a sense she was cut off most of the time, even by her own relatives. She came across as one who was desperately trying to explain the truth even though few gave her credibility. It was never clear why she had to make her battles with Pinky public, but it was always clear her agenda was driven by struggles and feuds within the family.She was in on some of the deals when they got bulk discounts on condo purchases.