Revolution needed in the legal system

With the ridiculously high court fees and legal fees to be paid to lawyers, the system of arbitration needs a rethink to prevent abuses of the legal system. Going to courts today, to be represented by legal counsels, can be a make or break situation where a person can be bankrupted or made to cough out tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. As such, where are the safeguards for innocent but poor victims who are hauled to courts by the rich and powerful with their sharp and clever legal counsels paid to do the job?
Though there exists a parallel system now in the form of mediation and small claims tribunal to handle petty litigations, it is still not enough to prevent those with the means to get their way to brutalise the poorer victims by abusing the legal system and making the courts serve their private agenda, in the process, bankrupting a defendant even when the case is ruled in favour of the defendants. Settling out of court or through mediation etc or even winning a case is not good enough as the main purpose of the complainant could be to force the defendant to pay for all the legal fees and court fees and the hassle and the stress of going to court. That itself is a very heavy penalty, an injustice that is legal. The govt cannot allow this to go on without making changes to the legal system to make sure that such abuses are removed from the system of legal and social justice.

The main issue is to make the complainant who made spurious or unwarranted, unjustified complaints to pay dearly to the defendant. Also, the legal counsels representing the unreasonable complainant and filing spurious or unsubstantive charges must be made to pay as well, and not allowed to hide under the pretext of client’s advice or client’s instruction. When a case is unjustified in the name of the law, they must not pursue with the case. If there is no prima facie case they must not forced an issue to bring charges against a defendant. If they think they could get away with such accusations on the ground that it is a 50/50 case, let the judge be the final arbiter to decide if the legal counsel is taking advantage of the legal system, abusing the system, and be made to pay for the cost of wasting the court’s time and the time and stress on the defendant.

Let this be part of the judge’s responsibility to punish errant lawyers and their clients for attempting to make the court and the legal system as their hatchet man. Otherwise the courts will be filled with all kinds of nonsensical and petty suits when one party has an agenda or an axe to grind.

The court of law and its integrity must not be compromised and the institution must be respected especially by the legal community. Anyone who thinks he can pay to use the court and legal system to serve his private agenda and personal grudges must not be allowed to get away with it. And the legal counsel must not be accomplice to such distortion of the justice system.

The wicked Singaporeans

Another case of maid beating appeared in court yesterday. A school teacher thought it was her right to beat up the maid when she made mistakes, pulled her ears till they bled. Making maids clean windows in high rise flats, not giving maids a day off are nothing to crow about. Such wickedness in the mind is common, normal, among Singaporeans. Many of the wicked people are not the illiterates but well schooled and held high positions.

How to eradicate such wickedness in our midst? Should they be given a slap on the wrist and life goes on as normal? Or should a tougher deterrent sentence be imposed on the wicked to make a point? Or is our god bigger than their gods and so we can afford to be wicked to the children of lesser gods?

Maybe it is all relative. To many, such acts could be wicked. To many as well, such acts are normal, just like the recent failures of MRT. It is the new normal and the commuters are expected to live with the new normal, having breakdown every other day is unavoidable, like the flooding of Orchard Road. Learn to accept a lower standard of efficiency and quality.

Or in the case of chasing after the clients of underage prostitute being charged in court, it is part of the job to do what they were doing. To some, from the complaints in cyberspace and other media, such acts amounted to wickedness as well. But some will laugh it off. What’s the big deal? It is all relativity, life will go on.

Then in another realm of existence, there are people who are happily taking away people’s life savings and think it is their own money to decide what to do with them without having to seek the consent of the owners. And the poor owners could only smile when they look at their CPF statements but cry everyday for food and a little niceties in life that they longed for but unable to touch, not that they have no money. But someone else think it is his right to keep the money from the rightful owners and meant good to the owners who had to walk around with empty pockets.

Then there are those who told the people that housing prices are affordable when people have to squeeze a life time of earnings to pay for them. And some even tried to con people that living in mickey mouse flats would not affect their lives.

Some will tell the people it is a good life to earn $800 pm. Some will applaud and encourage the oldies to work till they die as a good thing., full of pride and dignity. On the other hand some will insist that earning less than $50k a month will be a tragedy in their lifestyle.

Are they just as wicked? Difficult to tell as it all depends on who you are, where you are and your value system. What is good or evil is relative. Some will vehemently disagree and insist that these people are wicked. Some will strongly defend the wicked and claim that they are angels. This is the new normal, to live among wickedness. Oops, among goodness.

Clockwork Singapore tick, tick, tickles

The once reliable public transport system is turning into a nightmare to many Sinkies, particular the university students marching to their examination halls. The fear is to be caught in a MRT train breakdown and be late for the examination. The universities are also scratching their heads as to how to deal with such a scenario. Should they bar the students from their examinations or make concessions, or alternate provisions to retake the examination? It is not the fault of the students.

Sinkies going for an appointment, job interviews, meetings with clients, attending a court order or police order, dates, submissions of tenders etc etc and are delayed, who is to be blamed? To be late is already a big headache and can cause one to lose a contract, a job, or a boy/girl friend. Now every Sinkie would have to make additional plans when going for an appointment. How much more time to provide for just in case? The need to make such contingency plans because of an unreliable public transport system is going to make life that much more unpleasant and unpredictable and costly. The uncertainty is stressful for sure.

What’s next on the card? More tickles?

The Philippines dragging Asean into confrontation

The Philippines dancing to the tune of its puppet master is trying to drag Asean into a confrontation with China. After threatening to arrest Chinese fishermen and driven off by China, it is conducting a naval exercise with the Americans to simulate an assault on an island. China is warning both protaganists that they are risking an open conflict in the region.

The Philippines is turning around to scream foul and telling its Asean partners that China is obstructing freedom of navigation. The fact is that the Philippines has been arresting Chinese fishermen for years, even pulling Chinese fishing boats into Manila. Only a pest and provocative little country with the backing of the Americans would dare to arrest Chinese boats. The Japanese used to do that but have ceased from such provocative acts.

On record, it is the Philippines that have been arresting Chinese fishing boats and not the other way round. China has been tolerating this little brainless brat but is taking its nonsense no more. China has no choice as the provocation will keep coming as long as this pest thinks that China is afraid of its master, the Americans.

Yesterday China has unequivocally told the Americans and the Philippines that it had enough and is prepared to take them on. The Americans as usual will pretend to be the innocent party and would push the Philippines to front the confrontation. The game plan is to drag the whole of Asean into this confrontation and possibly into open conflict with China. More sales of American arms and a bigger foothold for American troops and intervention, to be the leader of Asean.

Would Asean bite and get itself into an open war with China and turn the South China Sea into a region of hostility? Most Asean countries would not want that to happen, to fight a war for the Americans. But there are at least two American lackeys within Asean that would want to push the boundary for their own vested interests, even having war with China. In the meantime the Americans and the Philippines are adding fire to the brew.

White Man’s Conscience behind bars

I was watching the documentary on Wikileaks in CNA last week, ‘War, Lies and Videotapes’. The star player in the whole episode was Private Bradley Manning, the American soldier who was pricked by his conscience for knowing the evil things and crimes against humanity conducted by the American leaders and soldiers in Iraq. He did the dreadful thing by passing 95,000 military messages to his FBI friends who too, pricked by his conscience, passed the whole lot of information to Julian Assange of Wikileaks and the rest was history.

For this crime of conscience, Pte Manning is now serving 52 years of imprisonment in American jail. He was also accused of being a traitor to his great country, the USA. His fellow man wanted to lynch him. He is the White Man’s Conscience of modern day. There were a few in the past when Red Indians were slaughtered daily, when African negroes were treated like animals, beasts of burden.

Pte Manning is the living White Man’s Conscience, sentenced to imprisonment for telling the painful and feared truths, the lies the Americans fabricated and told the world. The rest of the Americans did not weep. They wanted this conscience to be put away. They did not see anything wrong in the lies they spreaded and the killings of Arabs and Afghans because of their own lies.

And they are going to do more in Korea and now the South China Seas. They are going to agitate the pesky nations to start more wars, through provocations in the name of military exercises for peace. China and Russia should start to hold joint exercises near Alaska, Cuba and the Caribbeans, and Latin America. Then the world will see how the rouges in the evil Empire react to these friendly military exercises.

The silly South Koreans no longer dare to a word on who sank the Choenan. The Philippines is having a LSD high after receiving an antique ship and thinking it is now a naval world power, strong enough to start a war with China. In the meantime the real culprit to start another conflict is hiding behind quietly, with a halo on his head while pushing the South Koreans and the Philippines to go ahead.