This was taken inside the Kai Yuan Temple in Quanzhou during my recent trip to China. The girls were tourists visiting the city.
3/15/2013
Big brother wants to check our underwear
After several weeks of saying no to the Americans for a reinvestigation into the Shane Todd suicide case, Singapore has finally caved in. Shanmugam has promised a public enquiry with full participation by the Americans, including the Todd family. The concerns of the Todd family on the death of their son which they understood was not simply a suicide, is understandable. All families will be in grief over the premature death of their children and would want to know the truth. When there is doubt being raised, it is difficult for the parents to want to let it go and move on. I sympathise and emphatise with the Todd family.
From the angle of compassion and the misgivings of the parents, it is good that a thorough investigation be conducted to appease the family and clear all lingering doubts. From the perspective of a country, allowing such a request could have many negative implications. The first misgiving is a kind of agreement that our Police may not have done a good job. This brings forth a question of integrity and competence of the men in blue. And if it is proven that they were less than professional in their investigation, it would not be pretty.
The other issue is the honour and sovereignty of a nation and its legal and administrative system. By allowing another govt to demand a re investigation over the death of its citizens is setting a very dangerous precedent that may be difficult to ignore for similar requests in the future. What this request amounts to is that a big and powerful country can demand and insist to be invited in to conduct their own inquiry if it is unhappy or does not agree with another country’s findings.
We may have excellent relations with the US, but we are not the 52nd state of the USA. We are a first world country, rule by law, full transparency and a professional police force with many officers trained by the Americans and the FBI. We have adopted many of the good practices of the Americans. Why is our professional integrity being questioned? If nothing undoing is discovered, life goes on. If more doubts are discovered or negligence or inadequacy, quite easily to claim and dispute, there will be many red faces.
How many people would want to be stripped to their underwear for a third party to have a look, to check and fumble with the testicles?
As a sovereign country, we should not have to even entertain such requests from a foreign country. We correctly adopted this stance initially. This subsequent "cave in" suggests the Americans found something we didn't during their own investigations, hence the collapse of the protective shell. What unfolds after this will be interesting
ReplyDeleteSingapore is a client state of the US, therefore there is no problem here
ReplyDeleteSovereignty in name only lah.
Problem?
What the citizens are unable to do, a third party can. The world is truly being ruled by the "Rules of the jungle".
ReplyDeleteWe understand you need cheaper, better & faster workers, so that you can make more profits and levies, to pay more hangouts, and pay 1000 percents the equivalents of the ministers pay of Norway, Denmark Finland, Switzerland etc, and other indirect taxes to pay 10 times the level of their salaries, but we too need a better, cheaper more efficient govt, so that we don't need to pay so much indirect taxes, worry our and our children jobs lost to the cheaper third world foreign workers?
ReplyDeleteIf Malaysia or other ASEAN countries ask for re investigate will spore cave in I doubt
ReplyDeleteI think it's good to have FBI (real foreign talents) to come and show and show us how to do a proper investigation.
ReplyDeleteWe also should have foreign politicians/talents (e.g. Obama) come and show our Ministers how to do a proper job.
All these various indirect taxes of Rental, COE, ERP, GST, Levies etc, which were indirect taxes, increase the companies cost of doing business, so they need to look for cheaper foreign workers?
ReplyDeleteThere seems many open questions on the conspiracy theory. Who are involved????? When such questions remain un addressed, it is no doubt the US feel suspicious and the SPF got nothing to say since the open questions are like elephants in the room. Too big and obvious to pretend they don't exist. I feel embarassed as a citizen. How can the SPF be so unprofessional as to miss a hard drive??
ReplyDelete/// How many people would want to be stripped to their underwear for a third party to have a look, to check and fumble with the testicles? ///
ReplyDeleteActually, I don't mind if the third party is Monica Bellucci, or any of the 20 hotties listed below:
http://wackymania.com/top-20-most-beautiful-women-in-the-world/2/
Sovereignity in name only is correct. Any other lesser country and it will be a different set of rules.
ReplyDeleteTransparency in name only is also correct. Would they go to that extent if it were a citizen involved?
Rule of law? Some laws are made for the rulers, some for the ruled. Which is which? Some things are best left unsaid.
The whole episode is a slap on the face of our professional police force. We comforted ourselves regularly with praising our first world police force, but to outsiders it is obviously less than stellar in performance.
ReplyDeleteWhat with the Mas Selamat and a few others escaping from jail under our first world police custody. And re-arresting Mas Selamat needs to rely on the expertise of a so-often condemned by our leaders as a third world police force. What a joke!
Don't worry law minister must have check and recheck that case is water tight enough, our sovereignty will not be in peril rather if handled well our administration integrity will be enhanced.
ReplyDelete"fumble" or "squeeze" our testicles? Some of our police officers are trained in Scotland Yard and even attached to Hong Kong police triad gangs squads to learn and study investigation. Langgar!
ReplyDeleteRedbean,
ReplyDeleteIt has already come to a point where PAP govt no longer can be trusted to do the right thing, as they have shown repeatedly to screw citizens behind their back. Leopard just never change its spot. Everytime, citizens dig out their shit, PAP acts blur and hastily try to move on without accountability and transparency, and even try to intimidate and sue anyone who delve further into their shit like yawning bread. At this point, Singaporeans will rather trust foreigners than PAP govt.
It is apparently that the police has much to hide as they politically connected to PAP like most public org. Just ask Dennis Ho.
What do you think ?
SPF's latest publicity campaign hails their men as "EXTRAORDINARY". WTF! So many screw ups : allowing limping Mat Selamat to escape from high security lock up, and swim away to matland, and now this investigation screw up still dare to call themselves extraordinary ! Maybe only the salary extraordinarily high lah !
ReplyDelete"SPF's latest publicity campaign hails their men as "EXTRAORDINARY"."
ReplyDeleteOn top of that. When the toilet paper remarks that nurse is "low skilled job", the govt quickly jump to damage control mode by putting TV advertisement and shittymedia that nurse is a good job. What a f@#$king expensive wayang is that ? PAP's mistake and we taxpayer paid for that ?
Redbean,
ReplyDeletethese extraordinary clowns really think that Singaporeans are damn really daft .
What do you think ?
Just let them check lah. They are trying to get those tax offenders to trial. Spore is too well know as a tax heaven all because of the greed of one familee.
ReplyDeleteMarch 15, 2013 3:41 pm - do not make me laugh lah. Mas Selamat was captured by some JB police (so called third world). THey went scotland or hk or whatever to enjoy travelling at taxpayers expense.
ReplyDeleteTen times the equivalents pay, can be one of the lowest taxes, do you think this statement is funny?
ReplyDeleteSingapore probably has one of the highest indirect taxes?
ReplyDeleteYeh, indirect taxes like COEs, GST, CBDs, HDB levies upon sale of flats, levies for all kinds of foreign workers (paid by employers and passed on to the the man in the street through price increases) and the practice of bidding for land, coffeeshops, foodcourts etc which the highest bidder will then recoup from Singaporeans.
ReplyDeleteAnd they have the audacity to tell Singaporeans that GST is to help the poor. What a joke!
March 15, 2013 9:13 pm - its all part of their propaganda campaign. all along they are insulting the intelligence of the voters.
ReplyDeleteI dun think this is the first.Reminded me of that Pinay domestic worker Flor Contemplation case.
ReplyDeleteInteresting the spies is spying the spy
ReplyDeletehttp://sg.news.yahoo.com/s%E2%80%99pore-among-25-govts-using-spy-software--researchers-084037882.html
Clever phrasing?What they don't tell in Harvard Business School?
ReplyDelete(Singapore workers well paid, at least they got $eight hunddred, you see third foreign workers only $500 or $600?)
@anon 1111:
ReplyDeleteRe: FinSpy
>> http://sg.news.yahoo.com/s%E2%80%99pore-among-25-govts-using-spy-software--researchers-084037882.html
I keep telling people:
1. Use strong crypto, especially in emails
2. Connect to net thru VPN via mulitple proxies
3. If possible, use virtual machine running Linux, off a thumb drive.
4. Don't install rubbish
5. Check for rootkits frequently
6. Change password frequently, use strong passwords
7. Accept the fact that every government will at sometime, spy on the citizenry
Unless one is planning an act of terrorism, treason or crime, there is nothing to worry about. Singaporeans are citizens of this country and have all the right to talk about national affairs and meddle with national matters and not let assholes called them apathetic, not interested in the affairs of country and people.
ReplyDeleteI agree redbean. You shouldn't worry about anything :-)
ReplyDeleteEveryday your blog kena spammed by hackers who post links to sites which potentially can harm your computer and steal your sensitive information.
I admire blissful ignorance. ;-)
anon
ReplyDelete*fumble" or "squeeze" our testicles? Some of our police officers are trained in Scotland Yard and even attached to Hong Kong police triad gangs squads to learn and study investigation. Langgar*
those r amateurs
the murikans are pros
Very interesting comments on this story which is almost to the level of the Straits Times caliber of blowing the PAP horn. I have nothing against being patriotic but in doing so the author should also identify some of the short comings of the situation. From the very least the information on this story indicates a lot of loose ends and who done it questions. It isn’t too much to ask if the case is looked at from a different angle especially with certain things coming to light. i.e., the apparatus for the hanging itself; the note found on the computer but being not in the same vein and style of his other writings; his request if anything happens to him, contact the American Embassy; a spare hard drive overlooked by local police. (these are only a few) There may be more we the blind public has not even heard about. Now we should look objectively (don’t we have representatives in court in Romania to “observe,” the legal system at work?) at this and actually the police themselves. How professional are they really? Look at the traffic police, anyone who is even remotely familiar with this type of policing in other “First World,” countries will tell you our Singapore squad is a joke. How about the late nigh questioning and absolutely “NO” recording of the evidence. How about the court on a number of occasions reprimanding the police on shoddy work, i.e., the brother spending years behind bars for something he didn’t do and others. No, the work of the boy’s in blue should be questioned, if they were correct then they get a star, if not they get their fingers slapped, the former of course would never reach the public in the raw form. I am not shitting on Singaporeans but any person of any race or country can make mistakes and he who admits it is a standup guy. All and everything in Singapore is defiantly not first world so let’s not even get started on that one. Too many unanswered here to ty and prove who has the largest testicles, just get to the bottom of it!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting comments on this story which is almost to the level of the Straits Times caliber of blowing the PAP horn. I have nothing against being patriotic but in doing so the author should also identify some of the short comings of the situation. From the very least the information on this story indicates a lot of loose ends and who done it questions. It isn’t too much to ask if the case is looked at from a different angle especially with certain things coming to light. i.e., the apparatus for the hanging itself; the note found on the computer but being not in the same vein and style of his other writings; his request if anything happens to him, contact the American Embassy; a spare hard drive overlooked by local police. (these are only a few) There may be more we the blind public has not even heard about. Now we should look objectively (don’t we have representatives in court in Romania to “observe,” the legal system at work?) at this and actually the police themselves. How professional are they really? Look at the traffic police, anyone who is even remotely familiar with this type of policing in other “First World,” countries will tell you our Singapore squad is a joke. How about the late nigh questioning and absolutely “NO” recording of the evidence. How about the court on a number of occasions reprimanding the police on shoddy work, i.e., the brother spending years behind bars for something he didn’t do and others. No, the work of the boy’s in blue should be questioned, if they were correct then they get a star, if not they get their fingers slapped, the former of course would never reach the public in the raw form. I am not shitting on Singaporeans but any person of any race or country can make mistakes and he who admits it is a stand up guy. All and everything in Singapore is defiantly not first world so let’s not even get started on that one. Too many unanswered here to try and prove who has the largest testicles, just get to the bottom of it!
ReplyDeleteTyya's dad won't buy anything qualified at the collect - no ice cream, no bon-bons, no cookies. But when the saleslady puts a amount sticker on Tyya's nose, Daddy is at the mould moment overdone to pay off something well-behaved
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