Benjamin Lim: A life gone through apathy and bo chap

I reproduced a few paras from a post, ‘Where is compassion’ in TRE by a Zarina Jaffar, a teacher on Benjamin’s tragic and unwarranted death.

‘To Benjamin’s parents, no words are enough to release you from your pain. Your boy is a good son. Society, rules and order are cruel towards him. May Benjamin soul rest in peace.

To the Policemen, Principal, Vice Principal, Counsellor, what you fail to do when Benjamin is alive, put it right in his death. His parents need closure. There is no need to give excuses and get defensive. A wrong can never be right if it is wrong. Give the much-needed closure that Benjamin’s parents now and the answer they are seeking. That is the most honourable things you guys can do now, but the burden of guilt will always be yours to deal with.

To the Ministry of Education, please take a personal interest in this case and assist Benjamin parents to come to terms with their loss.

To the society, let’s show our love and support to Benjamin parents in their hours of needs especially with the upcoming Chinese New year. I similarly lost a loved one eight years ago. But the pain of what Benjamin parents is going trough, none of us will ever understand.’

To those people who directly or indirectly contributed to Benjamin’s death, may this episode haunt their conscience for the rest of their lives.  He was only 14! And the insensitive Today paper has an article with this title, MPs, expert laud police review of interview process involving minors’.  Why review now when it should not have happened?  A child must be protected and the law is there to protect a child. And it was quoted that the police are now considering whether adults are appropriate to be present during interviews of minors and whether the proceeding should be video recorded. Unbelieveable! Still living in the medieval age.

And ‘According to an ex police officer who did not wish to be named, the police currently do not allow other parties to be present during interviews because it might hamper investigations. The police knew something is drastically wrong with the procedures. Would they also investigate what actually happened that led to the boy’s death? A healthy normal boy went to school, after being brought to the police station by 5 policemen, returned home and jumped out of the window. Dead. Gone forever. The family lost a son out of the blue.

Shanmugam, what have you got to say? This happened in your watch.

Conquest in the name of ‘Freedom of Navigation’

The USA was the last country to sign the N Resolution on Human Rights and has been going around boasting about protecting human rights. The reason for its reluctance to endorse the UN Resolution on Human Rights was the guilt to being the biggest and most atrocious violators of human rights in human history, the robbing of native North American land, the genocide of the Red Indians and the enslavement of millions of black Africans for more than a century.

The USA still refusing to commit to a stand that it would not use nuclear weapons on any country and has the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world. And it is condemning and pressuring countries trying to possess nuclear weapons.

The USA still refuses to rectify the UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea, UNCLOS. And it is going everywhere, especially in the South China Sea demanding other countries to abide by the UNCLOS which it refuses to follow. This is the American hypocrisy.

Now, in the name of ‘Freedom of Navigation’ and pivot to Asia, it has embarked on the conquest of Asia starting with the South China Sea. It wants to control the South China Sea as part of the American hegemony, part of the American Empire. The daft Asian countries still sleeping and did not know the intention of the Americans. They want to conquer and control the South China Sea in the pretext of fronting up against China.

The Americans are bringing their military hardware and soldiers into the region, sailing their warships and flying their war planes in the South China Sea. If the Asean countries still refuse to remove their blinkers, they would be part of the Empire when interference of their domestic politics is fair game and regime change is a right of the Americans and the Empire.

The Americans are back to re colonise South East Asia. Wake up before it is too late.

SGX promises more dialogue with remisiers

This was the title of an article by a Wong Wei Han in ST on 30 Jan 16.  After reading the content of the article I was wondering whether I should cry or laugh at the silliness of the dialogue. Just the title itself makes me sick. The once in 50 years dialogue would lead to more dialogues. Is more dialogue the solution to the remisiers’ problem? Yes it is the remisiers’ problem. The moribund stock market is the remisiers’ problem. It is definitely not the MAS or SGX’s problem for one good reason. They did not see any problem with the stock market. The stock market is doing very well.

Can you imagine what happened at the dialogue? There were ducks and chickens quacking and cackling but there was no meeting of minds. The frustrated remisiers were there not just for a dialogue per se. They were there not just to complain or vent their frustrations. They were there telling the MAS and SGX that something must be done quickly to save the dying market and industry.

But what happened? The MAS and SGX must be thinking these remisiers must be desperate. There is nothing wrong with the market and nothing needs to be done. And if there is any problem it is the remisiers’ problem, no business, low income and cannot make a living. What has that got to do with the MAS and SGX? Ok, MAS and SGX will be compassionate enough to lend a listening ear. They will have more dialogues if that is what the remisiers want. Ok, happy now?

And the article did narrow done to one big problem that was causing the remisiers the pain and the loss of income, the highly unpopular Minimum Trading Price (MTP). Wow, they finally discovered that this was the problem. ‘The MTP requirement is forcing many companies to consolidate their shares, which has wiped out hundreds of millions in shareholder value and further pressured the already bearish market.’ I am not going to ask who allowed the prices of main board stocks to be split into super penny worthless shares. The good news, this is the problem and if this problem is solved the market will recover and all the remisiers will be happy again as their business will be back. I am very sure this is not the elephant that I was talking about. Anyone sees the elephant yet?

And not all remisiers are so daft. ‘Other remisiers agreed that while the discussion was not in depth and no concrete solutions emerged, the dialogue itself was a welcome gesture.’ So, what are they expecting the MAS and SGX to do when they cannot see anything wrong with the market? Or what would the remisiers want the MAS and SGX to do? What is the elephant?

‘In a statement to The Straits Times, SGX’s rep said: “We are aware there are many long held misconceptions about our market, and we wanted to assure the remisiers that their views and suggestions are heard, and have been, or are being addressed.”’ I see, it is all a matter of misconceptions, nothing serious. Just explain the misconceptions away and all will be fine. Have more dialogues.

If you see a doctor and the doctor did not see anything wrong with you or think that you are not sick, only a misconception, there is no need for any remedies what?  This is what comes out of the dialogue. The ducks said no problem. The chicken said got, then what is the problem? MTP?

More than 100 remisiers and several top MAS and SGX officials spent 3 hours in a dialogue and what came out of it? Has anything been achieved, anything concrete waiting to be done?  One positive result is that there will be more dialogues to explain away any misconceptions…’He (Mr Loh) promised that he will pay attention to our (remisiers) problems and to have more frequent dialogues with us. It’s premature to say whether our (remisiers) issues will be resolved. There is nothing wrong with the market. It is the remisiers and the remisiers’ problems ok?

Luckily no one says ‘No one owes you a living.’

So sad, so sad, so sick....

CAN: Special safe guards needed for criminal cases involving minors

February 2nd, 2016 | Author: Online Press

Singapore based NGO, Community Action Network (CAN) has issued a statement expressing its concern over  the death of 14-year-old, Benjamin Lim who died of “unnatural causes” on Tuesday late afternoon after being interviewed by the police without the accompaniment of his parents.
Below is their statement in full
Community Action Network (CAN) would like to highlight the fact that as a signatory to the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), Singapore should amend the Child and Young Persons Act (CYPA) to reflect the country’s ratification of the CRC, especially where the defined age of the child is concerned.
It is also clear that we need to implement special safe guards in place for criminal cases involving minors to ensure that those who find themselves assisting with the police in an investigation as a suspect, do not feel intimidated under any circumstances which may lead to trauma.
CAN is of the opinion that the tragic incident involving Benjamin Lim Jun Hui, a 14-year-old who died of “unnatural causes” on Tuesday, could have been prevented had everyone involved in the investigation of this case showed sensitivity towards the fact that they were investigating a minor.
Last but not least, we find it absurd that while public spaces are heavily surveilled with security cameras, interrogation rooms are not fitted with any cameras to allow for transparency of the interrogation process, which may be useful in an incident like this.

Endorsees: Shelley Thio, Roy Ngerng, Jennifer Teo, Woon Tien Wei, Rachel Zeng, Lynn Lee, and Jolovan Wham from Community Action Network together with individual endorsees, Vincent Law and Jevon Ng

The Community Action Network is a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) based in Singapore concerned about freedom of expression, and civil and political rights.
Background of the case – The secondary three student  was taken to the police station for investigation by five plainclothes police officers from his school on Tuesday morning and was interviewed for over 3 hours. Benjamin had been alleged to have molested an 11-year-old girl on Monday afternoon which he denies. Shortly after returning home with his mother and sister from the police station, he locked himself in his room and jumped out the window.
Read the full story on The Online Citizen.

I just have to reproduce this piece posted in TRE. Would the truth be uncovered to this premature death of a young boy? When a society is sick, the adults are also sick. Don't be deceived by the appearance that all is fine. All the fuck talk about compassion, caring society, about highly trained and educated personnel, how could it lead to this unnatural death out of the blue? This is like handcuffing little kids for petty crimes and misbehaviours and accepted as normal.

Najib is untouchable at home, but not abroad

‘KUALA LUMPUR: The Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) of Switzerland on Saturday (Jan 30) said it will hand a formal request for assistance on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) in the coming days, according to a spokesman for the OAG. 

"The request for mutual assistance will be handed over to the Malaysian authorities in Kuala Lumpur in the coming days; i.e. a representative of the Swiss government will transfer the OAG's mutual assistance request in the coming days to the respective Malaysian authority in charge," said Andre Marty. "This procedure is well established based on international mutual assistance law."… CNA

It is interesting to note why Switzerland, an innocuous and supposedly politically neutral country, is so interested in the 1MDB case. Why the sudden interest in Malaysia and Najib? Who do you think is behind this development and indirectly is telling Najib that he is not going to get away. Someone is pulling the strings and wanting to settle scores with Najib. Is this the prelude to a regime change?

Najib could be safe at home, but out of the country, like his money, there are many vultures waiting to feast on him.  Someone or some forces are bent on doing Najib in. This is the price to pay for sleeping with the devil.

Take care. Rosmah would be powerless outside Malaysia.