The court the new arbiter of legal fees

We have seen what happened to the Dr Susan Lim’s case when the claims for legal fees were slashed by the court on several occasions from millions to a mere $100k or roughly 10% of the original claims. And we have seen the latest in Roy’s case when the claim for $50k or thereabout been sliced to $29l.
 
And all the claims by the lawyers are perfectly legal. So a plaintiff can engage the most expensive lawyer on earth, or in Singapore, and claim against the defendant in a dispute theoretically could be no more than $1000 and claiming hundreds of thousands or millions. A very wealthy person could inflict heavy financial damages against a small guy to bankrupt him by abusing the legal system, theoretically.
 
Over billing is no crime. And the poor judges would have to play the role of a non interested party, impartial, to determine what the court thinks is the right and decent sum. And there is nothing wrong at all on the part of the outrageous claims by a lawyer. No rebuke, no reprimand, no dressing down. It is just a normal legal process. Lawyers can simply bill like Susan Lim case and let the court to do the necessary.
 
Is this how things should work?

The ‘Messiah’ has come

Where is the Messiah, the people asked. But the Messiah has come and you charged him and hung him. Nobody will want to believe the Messiah has come, even if the Messiah is standing right in front of him. Many are still looking for a Messiah riding down a beam of light from the sky, in a white horse with angels blowing their trumpets and strumming the harps.
 
The ‘Messiah’ may not have been born in a manger, but equally poor in today’s standard. There were no 3 wise men to offer him gold and incense. The angels did not appear to announce his coming. But he came. He came to spread the good news. He stood on the mound and spoke to thousands. He came to tell his truths. He will heal the sick and save the poor.
 
those who believe will know him and welcome the good news. Many have ears but did not hear, have eyes but could not see. Like the historical Messiah, he is charged and found guilty and will be hung on the stake. He will be at the stake alone. He is being accused for spreading lies, spreading false messages. His believers will cower in the distance. And the Pharisees will party to celebrate the triumph over the ‘Messiah’.
 
Will the ‘Messiah’ rise again on the third day? Will the ‘Messiah’ say that on his second coming, he will judge to separate the good from the evil, and he will judge them fairly? And then there will be a new heaven and a new paradise.
 
My apologies, but I just can’t help telling this story. It just dawns on me that the ‘Messiah’ has come. Go forth and spread the good news to all things.

North and South Korea, an invitation to dance

After all the hypes about how irrational and crazy Kim Jong Un is, the West must be knocked off their balance by the goodwill gesture of Kim Jong Un to Park Guen Hye. Kim has invited Park for a meeting of the two heads. Unbelieveable, this is a notorious beast, insane and obnoxious character, a murderer, as the West would want the rest of the daft world to believe, and now he is offering an olive branch to the South. Cannot be true, must be a trap or some evil scheme. He must be having too much whisky and drunk. This guy cannot be trusted.
 
The South Korean President Park Guen Hye is not going to believe the Americans. She is taking Kim Jong Un and his offer for talks seriously. She has replied positively for a talk with no condition attached. Now this friendly response is going make some people in Washington and Tokyo very nervous. There are people and countries that would not want a reconciliation of the two Koreas and a united Korea.
 
Three have been flagged as possible candidates that would not want a united Korea. The West had been selling the notorious fiction that China would not want it. Then there are the Americans and the Japanese, both have vested interests to want to keep the two Koreas divided.
 
In the case of China, that is on good terms with both sides, though the West is singing the song that China is unhappy with Kim Jong Un and is distancing itself from him, even encouraging China to fix Kim for the sake of the Americans, the Chinese would not have anything to do with the Americans. The Chinese would remain the staunchest supporter of North Korea to keep the Americans from the Yalu River. Even a united Korea would not put fear to China as China has been living with a nuclear power North Korea for ages. A united Korea would see the redundancy of American troops in Korean soil, which is what China wants and which is what the Americans and Japanese dreaded.
 
The USA would have a lot to lose with a united Korea. No more justifications and fear mongering for military bases in the Korean Peninsula, no more control over the South Korean Armed Forces, no more bargaining power to keep the South Korean as a perpetual semi colony. No more force selling of expensive weapons and making the South Koreans paying for them And no more leverage to coerce and threaten China.
 
The Japanese share the same interest to keep the two Koreans divided and more. A military and economically strong united Korea would be a threat to the Japanese, an arch enemy. A united Korea would be able to take on the Japanese on its own very comfortably to avenge its past. A united Korea would give the nationalistic Koreans a united front and common enemy in Japan and would not bow to Japanese pressure. And they would resist Japanese encroachment and also have an axe to grind against Japan for half a century of brutal and humiliating colonization. Japan cannot afford to live with a united Korea.
 
The invitation to a dance party by Kim Jong Un, and the acceptance of the invite are sending shivers to the Americans and the Japanese. If they could have a hand in it, this party must not be allowed to proceed. The unification dream must be killed at the earliest possible opportunity.
 
Park Chung Hee, the former President of South Korea, the father of Park Guen Hye, was assassinated for toying with the same idea of a united Korea. Kim Dae Jung was removed as the President because of his sunshine policy that could lead to a reunification. Park had to be terminated and the Korean CIA, with connections with the American CIA, was made to do the execution. Now Park Guen Hye, the daughter, is reviving the same dream and acting dangerously to the American and Japanese interests. Would she suffer the same fate as her father? Are the South Koreans prepared not to allow a repeat of the assassination of another Korean patriot, another President?
 
The South Korean govt and all its security agencies must take serious precautions to protect the safety of their President embarking on a reunification path. She is in danger, clear and present danger, of being terminated, like her father. Would the South Koreans allow it to happen? Would a false flag incident be hatched to finish her off before the reunification dream takes off?
 
Who will determine her fate and the fate of a united Korea?

The Roy Ngerng saga continues

A fire is burning hot. The CPF is a hot potato issue. What about the Roy Ngerng saga? Immediately after the judgement for legal fee was out, another controversy took centre stage. Did Roy give up his right to cross examine, to be cross examined, or did he not? According to Hsien Loong’s press secretary Chang Li Lin, Roy’s lawyer had confirmed that he did not want to be cross examined. According to Roy he wanted the cross examination.
 
What is puzzling is the thinking of Hsien Loong. What is he thinking, what is in his mind? Could he be thinking that this is a straight forward case of libel and he was suing Roy for alleging that he was corrupt? Period. Let the court decide this civil suit and move on? How would this tussle affect his stature as the PM of the country?
Can this legal suit be taken in isolation, to be treated so clinically like a wound, clean it, sanitize it and bandage it up nicely with no further complication or implication?
 
The social media is on fire. Some netizens are fuming and drawing all kinds of conclusions and threatening consequences, as a political issue. Did Hsien Loong see this coming? I bet so. He must have weighed the consequences and how it would impact his standing as the PM and how it would affect the next GE.
 
This legal case against Roy cannot be simply treated as a private matter between the two of them. It is political as in involved the PM, and the people will see it from the political perspective and drag many issues into it, the CPF being one. Without trying to analyse more in the thinking of Hsien Loong or his party stalwarts, there must be political fallouts coming from this case. Perhaps all these have been taken into account and seen as a price worth paying for, or necessary to take Roy to court.
 
How would this end up with Roy now in a mood for a ‘suicidal’ mission, a do and die no option recourse? The bigger this saga is blown up, the bigger the implications, and they are unlikely to be positive for both of them. Would it blow the PAP’s chance in the next GE? This is on the lips of every politically conscious citizens and political observer.
 
What is at the end of the tunnel?

No poverty in Singapore?

The issue of poverty is a very sensitive one in one of the world’s richest city state with the highest percentage of millionaires. How can there be poverty when there are no beggars, or the poor here are better off than the poor elsewhere? How then does one define poverty or being poor? Theoretically, a person with a $1000 pm income could buy a 2 rm public flat. How can that be poor? The assumptions that after paying for the flat he would still have enough to get by, feed a family and children going to school. If this is the bottom line, the number of poor in Singapore must be very low indeed.

Professor Tommy Koh wrote a recent article stating that 30% of the population are poor. He is now embroiled in a debate with the MOE on the scale of poverty among students. Though the data quoted were complex and not everyone is in agreement, the bottom line is that how many are poor or living below the poverty line.

The next question is where is the poverty line? In Singapore there is no poverty line. So how can there be poor when there is no poverty line. Tiok. The next question, why is there no poverty line? The answer and I quote, ‘Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing had previously refused to define an official poverty line for fear of a "cliff effect" even though it is not known what this meant.’

If you choose to put on blinkers, the world is a tunnel. If one chooses to read only fairy tales, the world is so airy fairy. Are there people struggling to live on their small income and bordering on poverty or living below the poverty line? Deaf frogs, blind frogs or blinkered frogs, all have a different view on this issue.

Kopi Level - Red