Serial burglar stole $1m in 2-year spree His latest crimes began just six months after he served 9-year sentence
By Elena Chong, Court Correspondent
Bay Buck Siong
A SERIAL burglar for whom jail terms and corrective training stints have merely been breaks between his housebreaking sprees has been put away for a long time - 13 years.
Odd-job worker Bay Buck Siong, 48, will also have to suffer 24 strokes of the cane for having stolen almost $1 million in cash and property over two years.
His latest series of break-ins involved about 140 flats from Ang Mo Kio to Tampines and Woodlands between February 2009 and January this year, and began barely six months after his release from a nine-year and 24-stroke sentence.
He sold most of the stolen items in Chinatown and Geylang, and gambled away all the cash.
When he vowed yesterday not to commit any more offences, District Judge Paul Quan was sceptical.
The judge said to him: 'Your track record does not give me the confidence that you will not re-offend.'
Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times. [email protected]
Yap Keng Ho, 47, is better known as activist and blogger Uncle Yap. His website which can be found at www.uncleyap.name does raise a few eyebrows, but eloquent and incisive as his writing may be, he certainly doesn’t want us calling him “uncle.”
By Ramesh William | published Oct 16, 2008
Yap Keng Ho is better known as activist and blogger Uncle Yap.
Uncle Yap was the ID I used when I set up an email account to communicate with my nephews and nieces. I then used it for several online forums and lo and behold, people started calling me Uncle Yap. I never intended it as something to make me look or sound more important than I am. Actually, I find it embarrassing sometimes; even someone as senior as the late Mr. J.B. Jeyaretnam (JBJ) used to call me Uncle Yap.
I’m an electronics engineer and now run my own IT consultancy business. I worked in Silicon Valley for a good four to five years and also in Los Angeles for a short while in the ‘80s. Living in the US gave me the opportunity to drive across the country from Florida to Canada, and that was an amazing experience.
Standing at Niagara Fallswill make you realize how miniscule humans are in the grand scheme of things. The rock you stand on to look over the edge has been there for tens of millions of years and it will continue to be there for just as long.
I’m not a member of any political party or NGO. I’m an independent activist and a blogger. In recent years, ever since the 2006 General Election, I’ve come out as a volunteer for different opposition parties and helped JBJ set up of his Reform Party.
No way would I want to join a political party; I wouldn’t want the burden of party discipline. I like doing my own thing and I have the liberty to practice my own brand of activism.
I feel I have the gift to help society and I feel it’s my duty to contribute towards the betterment of the world.
My activism started way before the Internet era. I ran a research and development office based at the Science Park during the ‘80s and I used to write articles and distribute them via fax or “Junk Fax” as we called it in those days.
With JBJ’s passing, we’ve lost somebody who was very senior in the legal sector, one of the most senior members of the bar. Politically, we’ve lost an icon, somebody who was very noble and possessed a huge amount of integrity.
During the second day of JBJ’s wake, the Reform Party ran out of JBJ’s books and people were disappointed at not being able to buy and contribute something towards his memory. So I had the idea of printing t-shirts with his face on it, so the Reform Party could sell it to raise some funds. They sold by the hundreds.
Hong Lim Park is a good training ground for activists. The trend of more groups going to Speakers’ Corner at Hong Lim Park for demonstrations cannot be reversed. And I see more young people getting socially and politically involved.
I’ve served two 10-day stints in prison. During this time I went on hunger strike, not eating and drinking during the entire duration. The prison authorities then put me on a drip. Twenty-four days was my longest hunger strike record. I can go two weeks without water.
I meditate and practice qigong and wushu. These things keep me happy and strong.
I don’t watch films anymore. In Florida I worked for a film company and since then whenever I’ve watched films I seem to pay more attention to things like the post-production aspects like special effects and such. It became too distracting; every scene I’d think “something can be improved here.”
I don’t stand for democracy or freedom. I stand for truth and honesty, and I fight against selfishness and greed.
