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Gay Man Extorts $197,000 From Gay MOE Teacher After Tryst

A 35-year-old man pleaded guilty today (Jan 12) to extorting S$197,000 in cash and other luxury goods from an older male teacher he had an affair with, by threatening to expose their trysts to the Education Ministry (MOE) and his victim’s school.

Ng Hian Gee Vincent faces up to seven years’ jail and caning for one count of extortion. Seven similar charges will be taken into consideration when he is sentenced on Feb 15.

Pressing for a jail term of at least four years and three to four strokes of the cane, deputy public prosecutor said the 45-year-old victim — who cannot be named due to a gag order — had suffered for about six months and his “entire life savings… gouged out by Ng”.

After they met through an online web portal TREVVY in late August 2013, the victim invited Ng, who is married, to his house where they engaged in homosexual acts, a district court heard. According to its website, TREVVY was set up in March 1999 to connect the gay community in Singapore.

However, the victim later asked Ng to leave as he felt uncomfortable.

When he found out through the internet that the victim was a teacher, Ng started to blackmail him, demanded large amounts of money as “compensation” and threatened to report their relationship to authorities.

Fearing for his reputation and job security, the victim succumbed to Ng’s threats, which persisted from September 2013 to March the next year. The court heard that Ng had succeeded in demanding, among other things, cash amounting to S$197,000 and luxury goods worth S$51,900 — including one gold pendant, one Rolex watch, one gold chain and four Chanel bags — from the victim.

The victim made a police report only in March 2014, when he was “at his wit’s end”, said DPP Wuan.

As Ng had gambled away the bulk of his money, he was only able to provide restitution of S$24,000 to date. He has also returned the Rolex watch, gold chain and gold pendant to the victim.

Urging the court not to treat Ng as a first-time offender despite his clean record, DPP Wuan said the offences are aggravated by Ng’s recalcitrance.

“Not satisfied with his ill-gotten gains when he first committed the offence, he continued to torment the victim in order to satiate his desire to gamble. An enhanced sentence is therefore warranted due to (Ng’s) recalcitrance,” he charged, adding that deterrence should be the foremost sentencing consideration in this case.

Ng’s lawyer James Ow Yong asked for his sentence to be deferred till after the upcoming festive period so that Ng can “spend the final Chinese New Year with his mother before the inevitable”. Ng’s mother was admitted to the hospital on Jan 10 and is critically ill, the court was told.

In mitigation, Mr Ow Yong said Ng committed the offences under “frailty of (his) state of mind” due to his failed attempt at a relationship.

In response, DPP Ng said “frailty of mind” is no excuse for Ng’s offences, which persisted over a long time period.

“It is trite law that personal financial hardship and ill health are not mitigating factors except in exceptional circumstances. This is no such case,” he added.

Ng, who is unemployed, is out on a bail of S$20,000.

Source: www.todayonline.com

January 13, 2016
I’m Not A Fan Of Madonna But I Feel It’s Unfair For Her Fans To Attend A Watered-Down Version Of Her Concert

I am writing regarding the Madonna concert here being given an R18 rating (“Madonna to perform in Singapore on Feb 28”; Jan 7).

I am not a Madonna fan and cannot afford to attend the concert, but I know some of her music.

And I think that anyone, even a religious person, who intends to go to the concert knows what the music icon is all about and will not get offended. It is a Madonna concert.

It would be unfair to fans if the concert is going to be a watered-down version of her current world tour, and other countries get the full value.

It is now 2016, and the majority of Singaporeans are not as conservative as the authorities think, so let those who are attending the concert get what is expected of a Madonna concert.

Editor’s Note: The views of Elvis Chua Hock Thiam, was published in Voices, Today, on 11 Jan 2016.

Source: www.todayonline.com

January 11, 2016
Zaid Ibrahim: The Rise Of The “Neo-Malays”

The neo-Malays are the “new Malays”. They are younger than me and the members of G25, and some are seriously wealthy, although we don’t know how they earned their money or whether it was inherited. They also have a serious mission in mind, which is to change the world and to do it as Muslim warriors. But to do that, they first have to take power.

This past New Year’s Eve some 50,000 of them gathered at Dataran Merdeka. Led by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and other well-known personalities such as Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, they held what I believe was a prayer session and sang praises to God Almighty and the Prophet Muhammad.

My liberal (and religious) Malay friend Datuk A sent me a photograph of the event. The men were dressed in robes, serban and skull caps, and they were all doing a salute with their clenched fists, not unlike how the Nazis used to salute their Fuhrer.

Now that was something else, and it worries me. Is this a new brand of Malay power? It certainly is different from Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s brand. Najib loves to celebrate New Year , just like you and me , except that he does it in his inimitable style ( he is after all seriously wealthy).

I guess the Dataran celebration by Zahid marks a new path for the country. It shows that when he comes to power, most probably our politics and our New Year celebrations will drastically change as well. The very idea of it should send a chill through all our spines.

Why were the neo-Malays celebrating a Gregorian New Year in the first place? Why did they gather at Dataran Merdeka for an event that had no Islamic element or historical significance?

My guess is that these Malays wanted to celebrate the New Year like everyone else, but because of their image and their brand of politics, they had to be different.

They probably wanted to enjoy the new year but were worried they would be accused of mimicking the West. Enjoying themselves, they thought, would make them unislamic. They had to be different because that is the new world they wanted to create. They wanted to send a new message.

As “good Muslims”, they believed they could not allow themselves to enjoy or celebrate the New Year; even if in their hearts they would have much rather preferred watching Siti Nurhaliza, Zainal Abidin or the Blues Gang perform and let loose some fireworks – but politics had to come first.

I hope the Chinese, American and European ambassadors living comfortably in the Ampang precinct take a more serious view of our politics. Stop being naive. Enough of the nice brand of diplomacy.

Just because our leaders wear Brioni suits does not mean they are the usual types found in the world’s capitals. If you care enough about freedom and democracy, you must take the time to understand their thinking.

The Chinese (and by that I mean those from Beijing and not the DAP Chinese) are taking a strong hold of the economy by making huge investments in our country.

They must therefore be careful that our burgeoning fascist ideas—does not destabilise the other communities or the country’s stability.

The Americans and the Europeans must also stop taking things at face value. Many of the neo-Malays here are different from those in Indonesia and Iran.

They are closer to the Taliban and Isis in their values and outlook. Make some effort to understand this new Muslim mindset. Countering these dangerous ideas now will be less costly and better for world peace and stability. – zaid.my, January 5, 2016.

* Datuk Zaid Ibrahim is a lawyer turned politician and a former minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of legal affairs and judicial reform.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

Source: www.themalaysianinsider.com

January 8, 2016
Primary School Boy: I Wish To Be Smartphone So My Parents Will Love Me More

<Credits to Joanne>

A teacher after the dinner she started checking homework done by the students. Her husband is strolling around with a smart phone playing his favourite game ‘Candy Crush Saga’. When reading the last note, the wife starts crying with silent tears.

Her husband saw this and asked, ‘Why are you crying dear? What happened?’

Wife: ‘Yesterday I gave homework to my 1st Standard students, to write something on topic -My Wish-.

’Husband: ‘OK, but why are you crying?

’Wife: ‘Today while checking the last note, it makes me crying.

’Husband curiously: ‘What’s written in the note that makes you crying?

’Wife: ‘Listen. My wish is to become a smart phone. My parents love smart phone very much.

They care smart phone so much that sometimes they forget to care me.When my father comes from office tired, he has time for smart phone but not for me. When my parents are doing some important work and smart phone is ringing, within single ring they attend the phone, but not me even…even if I am crying.

They play games on their smart phones not with me.When they are talking to someone on their smart phone, they never listen to me even if I am telling something important. So, my wish is to become a smart phone.

After listening the note husband got emotional and asked the wife, ‘who wrote this?’. Wife: ‘Our son’.

Gadgets are beneficial, but they are for our ease not to cease the love amongst family and loved ones.

Children see and feel everything what happens with & around them. Things get imprinted on their mind with an everlasting effect. Let’s take due care, so that they do not grow with any false impressions.

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

January 7, 2016
Malaysia, Truly Arab?

While I had hoped for my first article of the New Year to be filled with positivity and written with a light heart, I made the mistake of turning on the television on New Year’s Eve. The scene televised from Dataran Merdeka made my heart skip a beat.

There, instead of our usual cultural dance shows and performances by local artistes while we await the countdown to the New Year, were many people dressed in Arab gear chanting and swaying their bodies to recitations exulting the Prophet Muhammad and Allah.

I only realised that the televised scene was in Kuala Lumpur when I saw the iconic Sultan Abdul Samad building in the background.

I waited for a few minutes in disbelief, urging the television set to change the scene to one I was more familiar with. I was waiting for the usual jingle of “Malaysia, truly Asia”, for that crowd of dancers in exuberant costumes representing the stereotypical image of a culturally diverse Malaysia that I know to be over-exaggerated, but I have to admit, I now miss.

That image never came.

I was secretly glad that I spent New Year’s Eve at a running event in Malacca. As I finished the run before midnight and away from the revelry of the celebrants, I could see Malaysian families coming together at the field either for the run or to usher in the New Year amid fireworks.

My friends and I even shared a table with strangers at a famous chicken rice ball restaurant — a crowd that consisted of foreigners, locals and out-of-town Malaysians alike — enjoying what we Malaysians are most famous for: the food.

That is the Malaysia I know, people from different ethnic groups just sitting together at a street-side stall or dingy restaurant, placing our orders in simple Bahasa or Hokkien or Tamil, even. Nearly everyone would be eating similar fare.

Perhaps this is a grittier, more realist image of the country I love than the usual annual fanfare we put on stage.

What I experienced on New Year’s Eve was not what was shown on television that night.

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE MALAYSIAN

I am sure that every Malaysian has the same wishes as those at Dataran Merdeka — a fresh new start to the year, leaving behind all the heartaches of the past year, hopes for a better Malaysia that we will continue to build together.

What really bothered me about the televised image was the assumption that Malaysia only belongs to those of a particular religion and, it goes without saying, of a particular race.

Yes, it was the image of a peace-loving Islam, led by none other than Indonesia-born preacher Habib Syech Abdul Qadir as-Seggaf, who professes to be a direct descendant of Prophet Muhammad himself.

Under the country’s secular Federal Constitution, every Malaysian is allowed freedom of religion and freedom of expression — thus, the crowd in Dataran Merdeka has every right to chant their love for the Prophet and raise their voices to the high heavens in hope of a better, less arduous year.

Believe me, I hope and pray for better, too. Yet, I saw an Arab country in that televised scene, not Malaysia.

I did not see any of the VVIPs in baju Melayu, sampin (accompanying sarong-like cloth worn by men around the waist) and songkok — most, if not all of them, were in flowy, white jubahs (a long garb commonly worn by Muslims) complete with kopiah (traditional cap), sitting on cushions that reminded me of nomads living in the desert, rather than the usual sofas reserved for VVIPs at government-organised events.

I did not see women during the brief televised set, though from news reports I was informed that the crowd consisted of families. It would have been wonderful if the women were in kebayas and batik sarongs, with their hair in elegant sangguls (bun hairstyle), but I do not think this was the case.

I understand that the clothes worn there are meant for prayers, as the VVIPs led the crowd for Isya’ prayers beforehand — however, have we not seen our leaders leading prayers in baju Melayu every Raya? Are we now so immersed in Arabic culture that we have completely forgotten our own?

We surely forgot that Malaysia consists of non-Muslims, too. Would it not have been more meaningful to hold an interfaith session, where every Malaysian can come together, pray for a better nation and a better year, and at the same time learn the nuances of the different faiths, interact with each other side by side and essentially be Malaysians?

Surely that would have been the best way to organise such an event if it is the spiritual aspect we are aiming for.

It is sad to think that I am reduced to feeling Malaysian only when I go for overseas conferences, at running events and at roadside stalls.

In this new year, I urge that we all reassess our own Malaysian identities before adopting another.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lyana Khairuddin, a columnist at The Malaysian Insider, does research on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Human papillomavirus (HPV) viruses and teaches at a Malaysian public university.o

Source: www.todayonline.com

January 7, 2016