Commentary: Who Checks The Judiciary?

Dear Editorial,

Of late, we’ve been swarmed by several concerns on the ground concerning unchecked powers of unelected officials whose adverse decisions will affect us in a way we are unable to extract accountability from.

First, there is that Leong Sze Hian case where civil defamation was brought against him by the head of government for just sharing a FB post without caption. He filed an abuse of proceedings motion which was dismissed without the Plaintiff’s lawyer having to say anything.

Then a few months later, 2 houses were raided by special police for an article written by blogger Daniel De Costa to TOC which MCI initially ordered taken down but later sabotaged Chief Editor Terry Xu by making a police report on De Costa and him.

What still puzzles me in the TOC case is, the blanket approval granted by the judge to AGC for raids typically meant to suppress vices and the subsequent dispute by De Costa’s mother that the warrant was not meant for her house but officers forced entry anyway. The prosecution witness in De Costa’s second charge of misuse of computer revealed even more startling facts as Amrin Amin went on State TV to accuse De Costa and Xu for publishing articles on the same email for a long time. Why was there no complaint by the accuser on the other articles but only for the one alleging corruption? How did De Costa send those articles when there was no hacking involved? The integrity and character of the witness will be put to stringent test on the stand.

Fast forward to March this year before the circuit breaker, anti vice raids were again conducted on lawyer M. Ravi’s office, the houses of Xu and the complainant alleging abuse in the justice system. The reason for the raids? Contempt of Court by publicising to the Public, the inefficiency of the system back in 2015. It was also the same with the head of the Sungei Rd market whose rental unit was raided by CID in the dead of the night for no apparent reason.

During campaigning in GE 2020, several reports were additionally filed against PAP Ministers, MPs and members for racism, breach of electoral rules that were either dismissed or no follow-up action from ELD regarding Sun Xueling exploiting children from her PCF kindergarten. Heck! De Costa even took up 2 applications in Court that were immediately dismissed without much thought and hefty costs awarded to AGC upon request. Before that, we did not even know voting is NOT a given right to all citizens of Singapore. So much for building a democratic society!

Fortunately for the WP’s Raeesah Khan, the voters of Sengkang decided that the use of police force by Amrin Amin’s MHA for political purposes were not suited to their tastebuds. The only reason Khan narrowly escaped was the fact voters could decide for themselves in an open election, unlike the other cases where the victims could not take their unelected aggressors to account! Khan will not stand a chance if she was facing judges like De Costa and Xu did.

Hence, how do we proceed as a Nation after this GE when political persecution of even LKY’s own family had just recurred and several other upcoming trials of Civil Activists Jolovan Wham, De Costa and Leong are set in October this year? What are we to make of the proceedings and can trust be regained in our Organs of State to do what’s right for the Country when all powers lead to the PAP cabinet?

The closest we can get a clear picture, is on the current trial of PM Netanyahu in the Nation of Israel, incidentally where fellow Jew De Costa was from, to watch if Netanyahu successfully gets himself off the hook for several corruption charges or will the safeguards instituted by the Israeli public prevail in the end.

It’s worth taking a leaf here from the lesson of trying to subvert Democratic Institutions and usurping the people’s will.

Matt Yap

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