$400,000 is less than a peanut

SINGAPORE: In the latest of surprise moves made in the criminal case of former transport minister S Iswaran, a High Court judge imposed a jail term that was longer than what the prosecution and defence sought.

The jail term of 12 months was about six times the eight weeks sought by Iswaran's top legal team, and almost twice the six to seven months submitted by the prosecution, which was fronted by no less than a Deputy Attorney-General.... CNA

Is $400k a big sum of money? If you belong to the super talent or super rich class, it is really nothing, not even the size of a peanut. So why so much hooha about $400k? But for the ordinary HDB millionaires, not many would have $400k in their savings, many would not even have $10k in their savings. So this is a matter of relativity.  And this is exactly what happened during the hearing in court, the severity as perceived by the prosecutors and the defence lawyers. And their positions must have made the judge squirmed in his chair when their proposals of a few months or a few weeks jail would be deemed necessary.

In a court deliberation, both the prosecution and defence counsels were expected to put up sound arguments, legally and factually, to assist the judge in making his decision. In this base, both thought the case was not that serious. The judge was thus put in a very awkward position to raise the jail sentence much about the proposals of the two sides. He was not in a good position to play the moderator or middle man to placate both sides. It was him alone that would be the focus of attention, to unilaterally ignored the positions of the prosecutors and defence lawyers. In a way, he was made to look like the bad guy in some quarters, and the hero in different quarters.

Below are some reactions to Justice Vincent Hoong's unexpected decision in a CNA article. The prosecutors and the defence lawyers probably thought they had it all worked out during the pre trail meetings, and both sides were quite happy with their chosen positions. Little would they expect the judge to totally reject their pleasant dreams.

 

'On Justice Vincent Hoong meting out a sentence longer than what both sides had sought, Mr Chooi Jing Yen said this "is unusual, but happens once in a while".

"The judge is meant to apply the law and mete out the sentence based on the charges and the facts of the case," he said....'

Oooh, the sentences were based on the charges and the facts of the case. This seems to say that the judge, prosecutors and defence lawyers totally disagree in their understanding of the charges and the facts of the case and how to apply the law.

'However, Mr Yeo - a former judicial officer and deputy public prosecutor - felt that the judge's decision was justified....

He added that it was not usual for a judge to impose a sentence higher than what parties had asked for, and that the court in this case was clearly indicating its serious view of the offence....'

This statement is another way of saying the proposals by the prosecutors and defence lawyers were unjustified. Agree? And also, they did not see the seriousness of the offence, which the judge clearly understood.

'Mr Melvin Loh, a senior lecturer of Law Programmes at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, noted the aggravating factors in this case.

"In this case, the judge noted several aggravating factors, namely the duration of the commission of the offences, the high office held by the accused as well as the trust that was placed in him, which in turn led to the great harm that was caused to public interest as well as to public institutions by his actions," noted Mr Loh....' (Bold was by me).

Melvin Loh actually summed up what the judge's reasoning and thinking. And below was what was reported in the media.

'Justice Vincent Hoong delivered his sentencing remarks in a 40-minute session, dismissing several of the defence's arguments and stating in an unexpected turn that both the sentences sought by the prosecution and defence were "manifestly inadequate"....(Bold was highlighted by me).

Justice Hoong said it is about the damage to the trust in public institutions, if there is a perception that public servants could be swayed by offers of valuable items.

"Persons who hold public office are conferred status and power by virtue of such office for the purpose of serving the public interest, and the obtaining of gifts from persons who have a connection with a public servant's official duties is an abuse of such power," he said.'

The key issues were public office, status and power of office and public interest. Abuse of public office and power, the higher the position, the more serious is the offence. That must be the case.

What do you think?

Pax Israeli is by genociding the Arabs and Muslims, like the native Americans in USA and Canada

 There can never be peace in the Middle East even if all the Muslim countries fall to Israel. How is Israel going to control the whole of the Middle East? Suffice to say, even a Israeli nuclear war in the Middle East is not going to make Israel safe from revenge attacks. And Israel is plonked right in the Middle of the region. Will it be even safe from the after-effects of a nuclear war?

Like China during the Opium War era, with the Eight Nations combining resources and military strength trying to put down Chinese opposition with force, it failed. Trying to control a country as big as China is not possible. When Japan tried to do the same during WW2, they Japs only managed to control the Eastern and Northern part of China and even then, the Japs do not have the manpower to control the whole of China. What they did was using genocide against the male Chinese population that was spearheading the opposition.

The Middle East may not be as wide an area as China, or cohesive a population as China, but Muslims are as tenacious as the Chinese in fighting back. Not to forget than China was also divided between the communists and nationalists then, but they later came together to fight the Japanese.

There is history to remind us that those wars against between Christianity and Islam for centuries failed to put down the Muslims. Coupled with that, there are other Muslim countries outside the Middle East lending moral and constructive support with countries like Pakistan, no puny pushovers by any means. There is Malaysia doing its part and Africans supporting the Muslim cause. 

Anonymous 

PS. The AngloSaxons and the Jews will treat the Arabs and Muslims like the native Americans. Not many would be left when they achieved what they wanted to do.

American Democracy and Freedom in their finest forms, in practice, in reality....not lies

 USA democracy is working like a charm. People are free to set up tents and eat, sleep and shit on street corners. People are free to invade shopping malls and get away with items below a certain value and not be prosecuted. Drug pushers are doing their business right in front of police posts. Drug addicts are walking drunkenly along streets, and no one cares a hoot.

Is this the version of democracy that the rest of the world is looking forward to? The USA democratic system is falling apart, and denial is not going to change the status quo.

The world is realizing that communism is no longer the downtrodden system that had been demonized for centuries. China changed all that perception that democracy is a better system than communism. The USA and the West can no longer tout the superiority of its democratic ideals.

Not only is democracy a failure in the West. It is a system that is preventing India, the world's biggest touted democracy, from moving forward. A hindrance to doing things that benefits the country. India is content to hang on to their beholden colonial mindset of keeping the cumbersome British administrative system, their out-of-date railway system, their own caste system and Ganges River cleansing beliefs of still worshipping the Whites as angels.

There was a quote from a very well-educated Indian (I forgot his name) who still bathes in the polluted Ganges River every day - 'My head tells me this is not a good thing to follow, but my heart tells me I have to stick to my faith'. This is the Indian mindset, and they still hang on to traditions that befuddle those outside of India.

Anonymous

American terrorists weaponising food would backfire

 Food production also needs a market like many other things. USA may be the food basket of the world, but China is the biggest market for their products.

Weaponization of food is also going to backfire on the USA and EU if they ever were to attempt doing that to China. Now that China is well prepared for that, even before the first shot is fired by the USA, it is backfiring on all cylinders.

In fact, we could say that China is using food as a weapon of retaliation at the start of the trade war by cutting off soya bean imports from the USA. China knows how to strike where it really hurts. This created a big problem for USA farmers with nowhere else to sell their soya bean harvest. China is the biggest soya bean market, imports of which are used both as animal feed and for human consumption. There are so many things the Chinese can do with soya beans and is as important as rice. 

Anonymous

China is seriously de coupling from the USA

 China is weaning itself from USA and EU agricultural products. China has found alternative supplies from Russia and Brazil, among others.

Food security is one area that the USA may try to weaponize and China knew that all along. That is why China is attempting to be relatively less dependent on imports from USA and EU and concentrating on producing more food domestically. China is relentlessly reclaiming deserts to grow food, an area that no other country has done on such scale. China is building artificial canals for water diversion to barren areas for growing food, which no other country has done on such scale too.

China is developing aquaculture for fish breeding in the Bohai Sea with massive structures, even using large unused ships to provide fish tanks to rear fish in the sea. These are to supplement the imports that it currently is doing. Which is why China can survive after cutting off Japanese seafood earlier due to the Fukushima wastewater scandal.

When China wants to do away with importing USA and EU sourced foodstuffs, it is going to make life really miserable for farmers in the USA and EU. Russia and Brazil are laughing all the way to the bank with China as their biggest export market for agricultural products. China is killing two birds with one stone - on the one hand giving BRICS countries all the benefits rather than benefitting those that are out to destroy China, and secondly to preserve China's food security, the next weaponization usage against China to come. 

Anonymous