SINGAPORE – A man who had two previous convictions for sexual crimes against children younger than 16 years old was back at it just over a year after his release from prison.
Seyad Sulaiman Maideen Pillai, 52, molested two boys while on a public bus last year. The names and ages of the two boys cannot be revealed under a gag order by the court.
On Thursday (Nov 21), he pleaded guilty to two counts of outrage of modesty, with one other count of a similar nature to be taken into consideration for sentencing.
Addressing the court, Seyad asked to be placed in the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) instead of a prison cell with other male inmates.
“The reason is because in my cell, when I see my cellmates who are male, I see them as female,” he told the judge.
The court heard that Seyad, who was a cleaner at Far East Plaza, was travelling along Orchard Road in May at around 7.30am when a boy boarded the same bus on his way to school. The exact date of the offence was not stated in court documents.
The boy recognised Seyad as they had interacted earlier that month while on the same bus route.
Apple products are pretty great, but they’re hella expensive. Such is the success of the tech giant’s marketing sheen that drove a wayward teen into being a serial scammer just to get his hands on them.
In a statement yesterday (Nov 21), the Singapore Police Force confirmed that they’ve busted a 17-year-old boy who had been cheating several Carousell vendors selling their second-hand Apple products online.
He would arrange a meet-up with the sellers who listed their used Apple gizmos for sale on the online marketplace to make the fraudulent deals. The teen convinced victims to hand over the products to him, assuring that a “scheduled transfer” was made via his banking app to wire the money over within a couple of hours.
The victims would later realise that they’d been duped after the money didn’t get transferred in the end. It was a ruse convincing enough for the teen to orchestrate at least five cases of e-commerce scams amounting to over $5,000.
MyRepublic launches its latest Power mobile plan that offers up to 50GB of data for the first three months.
This is exclusive to new sign-ups and port-ins only from now till the end of the year, i.e., 31st December 2019.
PHOTO: MyRepublic via Hardware Zone
The new Power plan costs $24 per month and regular subscribers will enjoy the following:-
20GB of mobile data
100 minutes of talk time
100 text messages
Incoming calls are free.
Once the 20GB data capacity is depleted, the subscriber will have no access to mobile data until he increases the monthly limit with a one-time add-on or opt for a recurring data capacity top-up service.
MyRepublic still offers one of the most economical plans for unlimited data with its Unlimited mobile service that costs $48 per month, or $38 per month for MyRepublic broadband customers.
SINGAPORE: Three men, flanked by a host of lawyers, took to the High Court this past week to mount challenges to the law that criminalises sex between men, which they claim to be unconstitutional.
The challenges were mounted by Johnson Ong Ming, a 43-year-old disc jockey and producer; Roy Tan Seng Kee, a 61-year-old retired general practitioner; and 42-year-old Bryan Choong Chee Hoong, the former executive director of LGBT non-profit organisation Oogachaga.
The arguments were made in chambers before Justice See Kee Oon and ended on Wednesday (Nov 20), two days ahead of schedule, with a verdict to be released later.
All previous challenges against Section 377A have failed.
The court actions taken this time come after former Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong called for a review of Section 377A in a paper published online on Oct 14, with two former attorneys-general also making public comments on the law.
According to Section 377A of the Penal Code, any man who commits any act of gross indecency with another man in public or in private can be jailed for up to two years. This extends to any man who abets such an act, procures or attempts to procure such an act.
The Attorney-General Chambers (AGC) has argued that “gross indecency” here covers both penetrative and non-penetrative sex acts between men.
Certain criminal laws were repealed in 2007 as they were deemed to no longer reflect societal norms and values in Singapore. Consensual heterosexual oral and anal sex between adults were also decriminalised.
Section 377A was, however, not repealed, with a near-unanimous vote by parliament deciding then that the status quo “struck the correct balance between the majority conservative view on the one hand, and recognising that homosexuals are part of and have a place in Singapore society on the other”, read AGC’s submissions.
What follows are the key arguments that were put forward by lawyers in each case, as well as the submissions on behalf of the Attorney-General (AG), who was listed as the respondent in the cases.
Case 1: Bryan Choong Chee Hoong
Lawyers: Harpreet Nehal Singh, Remy Choo Zheng Xi, Priscilla Chia, Wong Thai Yong, Jordan Tan
Mr Bryan Choong (third from left) seen outside the Supreme Court posing for a photo with his lawyers on Nov 13, 2019. He is one of three men who have mounted challenges to Section 377A of the Penal Code. (Photo: Najeer Yusof/TODAY)
ORIGINAL AIM WAS TO ADDRESS MALE PROSTITUTION
Mr Choong’s lawyers argued that recently declassified documents demonstrate that the introduction of Section 377A in 1938 was to criminalise “rampant male prostitution” in a time when Singapore was under British colonial rule, and it now has “no legitimate objective”.
“The legislative purpose was never to target private, non-commercial acts of sexual intimacy between consenting male adults,” they said.
The lawyers argued that Section 377A targets only commercial sexual acts committed by and with male prostitutes, and that it does not criminalise penetrative sex.
The new historical material was not available during a 2014 appeal by Lim Meng Suang against the gay sex law, which failed.
The lawyers presented crime reports from 1937 which showed a “heightened and urgent increase in concern ‘for the newly discovered’ widespread existence for male prostitution” as a cause for law enforcement concern.
Even if the court did not accept this argument, the fresh material should lead the court to conclude that the legislative purpose of Section 377A is “uncertain or obscure”, they argued.
Case 2: Johnson Ong Ming
Lawyers: Eugene Thuraisingam, Suang Wijaya and Johannes Hadi
Mr Johnson Ong Ming outside the High Court with his lawyers. (Photo: Ching S. Sia)
THE SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENT
The arguments for Mr Ong’s case were based on expert evidence on the nature of sexual orientation, where before the court was asked only to take judicial notice of scientific facts, which required a different legal test.
They argued that scientific evidence shows that homosexuals, like heterosexuals, cannot wilfully change their sexual orientation or attraction, with no credible scientific evidence supporting the proposition that therapy aimed at changing sexual orientation is safe or effective.
Both experts for Mr Ong and the Government cited in the lawyers’ case agreed that genetic and non-social environmental factors contribute to sexual orientation, with “little if any” scientific evidence supporting the proposition that social environmental factors play any role in sexual orientation.
Therefore, Section 377A violates the Constitution and is discriminatory, criminalising a person based on his “natural, unchangeable identity and for non-harmful private acts”, argued the lawyers.
“All that Section 377A does is to simply express the majority’s ‘good old-fashioned discrimination’ against male homosexuals, who are a minority,” said the lawyers.
“The role of our Constitution and the Court is to protect minorities against the absurd, irrational prejudices of the majority.”
Case 3: Dr Roy Tan
Lawyer: M Ravi
Dr Roy Tan with his lawyer M Ravi at the Supreme Court. (Photo: Facebook/Roy Tan)
INVESTIGATION AND ENFORCEMENT IS “ARBITARY”, INCONSISTENT
Mr Ravi said that all gay and bisexual men are obligated under a section of the Criminal Procedure Code to report their consensual private sexual acts to the police.
This is “incongruous with the so-called non-proactive enforcement of Section 377A, thus resulting in absurd and arbitrary application” of the law which is a violation of the Constitution, he argued.
He said failure to report an offence under Section 377A is punishable under the law, and to retain the section would “doubly criminalise” gay and bisexual men, as they would commit what is considered an offence under Section 377A and not report them.
He claimed that the circumstances in which private sexual conduct between consenting men are investigated or prosecuted are “vague and unpredictable”.
“Should a report be made, the police will have an obligation to act and investigate in cases where complaints are lodged by persons in respect of offences under Section 377A,” he said.
He also argued that Section 377A infringes the right to equality, life, personal liberty and expression under Singapore’s Constitution.
SECTION 377A SERVES A LEGITIMATE STATE INTEREST, PARLIAMENT SHOULD HANDLE ANY REPEAL: AGC
Lawyers representing the AG in the hearings were Deputy Chief Counsel of litigation, transactions and administration Hui Choon Kuen, Deputy Senior State Counsel Jeremy Yeo, executive director at the AGC Academy Denise Wong, and State Counsel Jamie Pang.
In their submissions numbering more than a hundred pages, the lawyers said that Section 377A’s purpose is to send “a certain moral signal” by its mere existence. It advances a legitimate and reasonable state interest, reflecting an aspect of societal morality, “regardless of whether and how it is enforced”.
They urged the court to find Section 377A constitutional and to dismiss all three applications, calling this “a deeply divisive socio-political issue” that should rightfully be decided by the legislature or Parliament.
This is because Parliament comprises democratically elected representatives who are installed by, and directly accountable to the Singaporean people, they said.
“Whether or not to repeal Section 377A on policy grounds is an extremely difficult issue but, with all due respect to the Judiciary, it is a problem that constitutionally belongs to the Legislature and not the Judiciary,” said AGC’s lawyers.
Parliament House, Singapore. (Photo: Hani Amin)
They said the approach in the applicants’ arguments would have “a strong potential impact on other national policies” including family, marriage, housing and education, if accepted.
Repealing it would be a major change from long-held societal norms, said the lawyers, and some segments of the population deeply opposed to the repeal would have “strong feelings about this”.
If Parliament enacts the changes, they can work with the Executive or Cabinet to prepare the ground for change by engaging relevant communities and their leaders.
On the issue of enforcement, AGC’s lawyers said the Government’s position is that the police will not take proactive action to enforce Section 377A.
“On his part, the Public Prosecutor will not pursue prosecution where the homosexual sex acts were conducted in private between consenting adults,” they said.
Section 377A does not violate the articles in the Constitution as argued by the applicants, said AGC’s lawyers. For one, the acts it criminalises do not concern speech or expression in the sense protected in the Constitution.
The argument that it is absurd and arbitrary to deprive homosexuals of their sexual conduct asserts that sexual freedom is a constitutional right protected by the Constitution, said AGC’s representatives.
“There is, however, no unenumerated free-standing right to sexual freedom or privacy in the Constitution,” they said. “The legality of various forms of voluntary sexual conduct are questions of societal values and morality for Parliament to decide.”
AGC’S OFFICIAL STATEMENT POST-HEARING
After the hearings concluded on Wednesday, AGC issued a statement saying it would leave the court to make its decision.
It said the AG has “already stated that where the conduct in question was between two consenting adults in a private place, the Public Prosecutor’s position is that, absent other factors, prosecution under Section 377A would not be in the public interest”.
“It would naturally follow from this position that any prosecution under other provisions which would contradict the non-prosecution position of Section 377A would likewise not be in the public interest.”
A judgment will be released at a later date. According to lawyers, this could take up to several months.
The family of Aloysius Pang has urged that “preventive measures” be put in place to prevent another tragedy.
In an Instagram post on the late actor’s management agency NoonTalk Media on Tuesday, Mr Jefferson Pang, his older brother, said the family believes one loss is enough.
He said: “Other parents’ sons have a life ahead of them. It is not about blame and pointing fingers now but how it should be prevented in the future.
“Complacency shouldn’t be human error alone and preventive measures should be in place for future sons.”
Corporal First Class (NS) Aloysius Pang, 28, an armament technician from the 268th Battalion Singapore Artillery, died on Jan 23, four days after he was seriously injured while in a Singapore Self-Propelled Howitzer (SSPH) during a military exercise in New Zealand.
A Committee of Inquiry that was convened after the incident found all three soldiers, including CFC Pang, who were in the SSPH to conduct repair works had committed safety lapses that eventually led to the death of the actor.
In a Facebook update on Thursday, PUB said the water supply had fully resumed at 9.30pm and water samples tested safe for drinking and consumption.
The national water agency was notified of the incident at 7.30am on Wednesday and its officers went on site to carry out “flushing” of the water network.
“PUB officers carried out overnight operations and have completed the flushing of the water mains serving the internal service pipes for all camps,” said the agency on Thursday.
“PUB worked with BMTC to carry out flushing of the camp’s service system and the water in the BMTC main pipes is now clear.”
PUB officers test the water quality. (Photo: HQ BMTC Media Team)
Water wagons were deployed to provide a temporary water supply. (Photo: HQ BMTC Media Team)
Water wagons were also deployed to provide a temporary water supply to those affected.
The agency said it would continue to monitor the situation closely. Investigations are ongoing.
In a Facebook update early on Friday, the Ministry of Defence said water in the main pipes at BMTC was clear and that water supply had “fully resumed”.
SINGAPORE: As 2019 draws to a close, the trade outlook for Singapore appears rather bleak as its exports continued the downward trend which started eight months ago.
This is hardly surprising. Singapore is a small economy with a trade exposure that runs as high as 396 per cent of its GDP, and it will be hit hardest when there are upheavals in the global economy.
Given the ongoing US-China trade war, and the rise of protectionism across the world, Singapore should brace itself for the bumpy road ahead.
A BRIGHT SPARK?
Of course, it is not all bad news. Earlier this month, the leaders of 15 states announced in Bangkok that they have concluded negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), with formal signing expected in 2020.
Hailed as the largest trade deal in the world and encompassing several of Singapore’s key trade partners such as China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and its ASEAN neighbours, could the RCEP turn out to be the saviour for Singapore’s trade and economy?
The answer is a qualified yes, so long as you have the patience to wait it out
LITTLE BOOST TO SINGAPORE EXPORTS
In the short term, the RCEP deal is unlikely to add much to Singapore’s trade numbers. This is mainly because Singapore already has trade deals with all of the countries involved.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaks during the 2nd Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership summit (RCEP) on the sidelines of the 33rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Singapore, Nov 14, 2018. (Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
As one of the first countries to recognise the value of free trade agreements (FTAs), Singapore has already signed FTAs with all of the RCEP countries.
First of all, Singapore is part of the ASEAN Free Trade Area, which aims to facilitate trade and investment flows among all ten ASEAN members.
Singapore also has existing bilateral agreements with non-ASEAN partners in the RCEP, namely China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand (and India, which decided to pull out of the RCEP negotiations at the last minute).
Singapore is also party to ASEAN-wide FTAs with all of these five RCEP countries.
With the earliest of these FTAs – the ASEAN Free Trade Area – dating back 17 years ago, most of the trade Singapore has with its RCEP partners has long been liberalised, with most tariffs already reduced to either zero or very low levels.
Thus, even with the conclusion of the RCEP, we are unlikely to see drastic tariff cuts that can boost Singapore’s exports.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha asks other leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to shake hands at the Opening Ceremony of the 35th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok, Thailand Nov 3, 2019. (Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha)
Moreover, even if the final RCEP deal does include meaningful tariff reductions for major export items, such concessions will most likely be implemented in phases over a period that could span years, with most of the tariffs removed in the last phase.
Again, this is unlikely to boost Singapore’s economy in the short-term.
AN OPTIMISTIC OUTLOOK
On the other hand, if we were to take the long-term view, we have every reason to believe that the RCEP will be a boon for the Singapore economy.
In addition to the tariff benefits mentioned earlier (with the caveat that it takes time to realise such benefits), there are two other reasons supporting such an optimistic outlook.
First, the very fact that such a mega deal can be concluded despite such treacherous times is a massive achievement.
The conclusion of the RCEP helps restore people’s faith in free trade and the rules-based trading system.
It provides a strong counterbalance against the worrying trends of anti-trade and anti-globalisation that have been engulfing most of the world in recent years, such as the aggressive tariff wars of the United States, the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, and the looming crisis at the World Trade Organisation.
The conclusion of a deal like the RCEP, even if its substantive contents have been criticised as being shallow, bears the additional symbolic value that trade liberalisation should be championed rather than chided.
And without trade liberalisation, open but small economies like Singapore will not be able to survive.
GREATER REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION
Second, the RCEP deal will help bind the ASEAN-plus-5 economies together, which would further improve their trade and economic performance in the long run.
An officer adjusts China’s national flag before the ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Summit in Singapore on Nov 15, 2018. (Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha)
Thanks to its booming electronic industries with closely-knit supply chains, the region of East and Southeast Asia already has one of the highest intra-industry trade in the world.
With the reduction of tariffs and the ability to count inputs from more countries in the region to increase the value-added contents of products, the conclusion of the RCEP will only serve to boost this trend.
Singapore, as the key link in the regional supply chain, will greatly benefit from the deepened economic integration.
While the RCEP is unlikely to add a few digits to Singapore’s trade and economic growth in the short term, it will definitely help cement Singapore’s position as one of the world’s leading traders in the long run.
In the meantime, firms in Singapore should get themselves familiarised with the new opportunities arising from the RCEP, so that they do not let potential benefits slip away.
Henry Gao is associate professor of law at the Singapore Management University’s School of Law where he specialises in trade issues, and a member of the World Trade Organisation’s Advisory Board on its WTO Chairs Programme.
SINGAPORE – A former general manager of Ang Mo Kio Town Council (AMKTC) was sentenced on Wednesday (Nov 20) to a total of 27 months’ jail, or two years and three months, over corruption offences.
Wong Chee Meng, 59, received about $50,000 in bribes from a director of two construction firms.
The director, Chia Sin Lan, 64, who was from 19-ANC Enterprise and 19-NS2 Enterprise, was sentenced to 21 months’ jail, or one year and nine months.
The two firms were each fined $75,000.
On March 25, the pair pleaded guilty to corruption charges, ending a trial that started in September last year.
Wong and Chia each admitted to three counts of corruption involving more than $75,300.
The first charge was over a $13,500 discount on a Toyota Corolla Altis owned by 19-ANC and sold to Wong.
The second charge was for offences amalgamated over the payments to Wong’s mistress which totalled $27,800.
The third charge covers entertainment expenses such as those incurred at KTV lounges and massage parlours, which amounted to over $34,000.
SINGAPORE – Mohamed Farid Mohd Saleh, a first warrant officer with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), was on Wednesday (Nov 20) sentenced to 13 months’ jail for his role in a ragging case that led to the death of a full-time SCDF national serviceman.
Farid, 37, was the third officer to be convicted over the incident in which Corporal Kok Yuen Chin, 22, drowned on May 13 last year.
He was found guilty last month of instigating another officer – 34-year-old Muhammad Nur Fatwa Mahmood, a staff sergeant – to push Cpl Kok into a 12m-deep pump well at Tuas View Fire Station.
On the day of the incident, most of the officers on duty at the fire station had gathered in the control room for a cake-cutting ceremony to celebrate Cpl Kok’s impending completion of national service.
Some officers then lifted Cpl Kok and carried him across the yard to the pump well where he was pushed into soon after.
During the trial, Nur Fatwa testified that it was Farid who told him to push Cpl Kok into the pump well. As a result of Nur Fatwa’s actions, Cpl Kok drowned.
BEIJING: The problems of the next downturn can only be tackled if longer-term issues such as the strategic rivalry between the United States and China are addressed, Singapore Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said on Thursday (Nov 21).
“The central problem is managing the strategic rivalry between the US and China, with technological rivalry and the possibility of bifurcated supply chains being the most important dimension,” said Mr Tharman during a panel discussion at the New Economy Forum in Beijing.
“If we don’t solve that problem, it’s going to be very hard to solve the underlying economic problems that make this cycle in danger of a downturn,” said Mr Tharman.
The real issue right now, Mr Tharman said, is not the next downturn, but the underlying factors, including weak private investment, as well as a slowdown in innovation and productivity growth.
“If we end up with a world of bifurcated technologies, standards and supply chains, it’s a world of less innovation, less dynamism,” said Mr Tharman.
Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam attended the New Economy Forum in Beijing. (Photo: New Economy Forum)
But thinking of the long term as a constant short term is “fundamentally wrong”.
“The solutions to the problems we face today are not about more money, be it fiscal or monetary injections,” stressed Mr Tharman.
“It’s about confidence and innovation and I think by any measure, in both mature and developing economies, there’s huge scope for investment that is still untapped.”
Opportunities include areas such as climate change, digital infrastructure in mature economies, as well as the developing world.
Mr Tharman’s comments come amid the backdrop of a potential phase one deal between Beijing and Washington, which have been engaged in a trade war for more than a year.
The two countries have also seen tensions over Hong Kong, Taiwan, the South China Sea and on the technology front.
Besides the China-US strategic rivalry, Mr Tharman added that other potential surprises in the next downturn include developments in the middle east and whether the politics of the day can respond to social anxieties.
“These are the three unknowns. But they are not unknowns beyond … our ability to shape the future,” said Mr Tharman.
“Our responsibility is to shape that future – to go for competitive co-existence between the US and China; to be able to manage very difficult situations in the Middle East without things sparking out of control; and thirdly, to get some semblance of the strengthening of the middle and the center in politics.”
The New Economy Forum was launched by US media mogul Michael Bloomberg in 2018 to promote cooperation with China.
The second edition saw 500 government and business leaders, as well as academics take part.
