Blog

Davinder Singh: Roy Ngerng Used Foreign Organisations To Pressure The Courts

Blogger Roy Ngerng used foreign organisations to put pressure on the Courts, Senior Counsel Davinder Singh – acting on behalf of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong – asserted on Friday (Jul 3), the final day of a hearing to assess the amount of damages has to pay Mr Lee for defaming him by alleging the misappropriation of CPF funds.

He cited two letters that Roy Ngerng had submitted to the Supreme Court. One is from the International Commission of Jurists, a human rights non-governmental organization based in Switzerland. The other is from the Centre for International Law, a human rights group based in the Philippines.

“You used these foreign organisations to suggest to this court that if it were to award high damages it would run afoul of international human rights law, it would be generating an atmosphere of intimidation and would be a form of judicial harassment,” Mr Singh said. Mr Singh added that Mr Ngerng was also suggesting that if the court were to award damages, it would be “denying” the right of freedom to expression or “impairing” it.

In response, Justice Lee Sieu Kin, who is presiding over the proceedings, stressed that he does not feel any pressure from external parties.

Mr Singh also said the 34-year-old blogger was not being truthful to the court. For example, the blogger had sent emails regarding the takedown of his blogpost to 82 journalists’ email addresses, instead of the claimed 52, said Mr Singh.

The lawyer also said that at the time of the incident, the blog homepage – where posts could be read in full – had ten times the pageviews of the blog article itself. But when Mr Singh and his team asked for information on homepage views, they were not provided by Mr Ngerng.

The blogger argued that the popularity of a post should be measured by the article’s pageviews, and not the homepage, which contains other articles.

The Senior Counsel also put forth that in Mr Ngerng’s ambitions to publish factual information, he did not publish the Prime Minister’s rejection to his out-of-court offer for S$5,000. In defence, Mr Ngerng said that Mr Lee’s response to the offer being “derisory” was already reported by the media.

LEGAL COSTS

Mr Ngerng said he was seeking financial help as his savings and the donations have dwindled since the case went to court. About S$110,000 was donated by the public.

Mr Ngerng, who said he now lives off his parents, told the court that S$70,000 had been paid to lawyer M Ravi, while S$36,000 was used to pay Mr Lee’s lawyers in costs for the summary judgment as well as the Queen’s Counsel application.

The remaining money was used to pay Mr Ngerng’s third lawyer George Hwang, but the blogger received an additional £5,000 (S$10,500) from London-based human rights organisation Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI) to fund the case. Mr Ngerng said MLDI and another London-based organisation, Article 19, assisted in legal advice.

But when the blogger told the court that all the donations had been spent, the Senior Counsel said that knowing his means were limited, Mr Ngerng should not have aggravated the offence with follow-up blogposts.

“As you were incurring these expenses and filing fees, you were aware that if you continued to aggravate the injury, there was a risk that the damages could be increased,” the Drew & Napier lawyer said. “The sensible thing to do was to stop aggravating.”

Mr Singh noted that after receiving the letter of demand from Mr Lee’s lawyers, Mr Ngerng immediately offered damages “to get away on the cheap”, yet continued aggravating the offence with his subsequent actions.

“He is continuing to attack the plaintiff (Mr Lee) for improper motives,” he told the court.

Mr Singh also highlighted a blogpost that Mr Ngerng had written the day before the assessment of damages hearing, saying that he was going to court and that “we have to fight back and take a stand”.

Mr Ngerng said, despite the blogpost’s headline mentioning the damages hearing, the post was also about teenage blogger Amos Yee who was involved in another court case, and could thus not be seen as aggravating the defamation case.

“Over the past few days, you have heaped accusations about me of far from being sincere, despite how sincere I’m trying to show (I am),” he said to Mr Singh.

The case was adjourned at 3pm, with written submissions due Aug 31. As Mr Ngerng will be away for the next two weeks for reservist, Justice Lee gave him an additional six weeks after that to make his written submissions.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

July 4, 2015
Upskirt Pervert In Toa Payoh Pinned Downed And Shamed In Public

A dramatic scene unfolded yesterday afternoon at Toa Payoh Central as 3 middle-aged men pinned down a pervert who was caught taking upskirt photographs of women on an escalator.

The perverted photogrpher, who was pinned down in the picture above, was spotted behaving suspiciously around the escalator in front of the entrance of an NTUC Fairprice super market.

When one of the photographer’s victims realized what he was doing, she confronted the man and made a scene, causing a large crowd to form around them. Outnumbered and shamed, the man tried to escape but was quickly pinned down by 3 uncles from among the growing crowd.

Police arrived shortly after and arrested the man. Investigations are ongoing.

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

July 4, 2015
Denied Entry Over Dressing

KUALA lUMPUR: I went to the Defence Ministry (Mindef) in Ampang to cover a presentation of Hari Raya goodies to the armed forces by the Prime Minister’s wife, an event that was also attended by the Defence Minister and his deputy.

I was dressed in a simple black-and-white piece with short sleeves and a hemline that ended just above my knees.

Despite what I thought to be decent attire, I was denied entry at the guardhouse.

At the counter to register my vehicle, an official told me to step back several times.

I took a few small steps back until he told me: “Please step back further, I need to see what you are wearing.”

He then said I would not be allowed in because my knees were showing.

I protested by saying that I had covered Mindef events before, wearing both casual clothes such as T-shirts as well as in similar dresses, but the protest was to no avail.

I also told him that I was a reporter and needed to get in to cover the event. He and a female staff member said they would check with the officials inside the building.

They returned to say there was no response and instructed me to sit down and wait.

At this point, another military policeman politely “assessed” my outfit, saying that I had violated the dress code.

I said there should be consistency when enforcing the dress code, not as and when they like.

As I didn’t want to miss my assignment, I went to retrieve a long skirt that was kept in my car for precisely this reason – overzealous dress code enforcers.

Then another officer remarked: “See, Miss, you look nice like this as well.”

I found the comment unprofessional.

I later raised the issue with the deputy minister, who laughed it off.

I couldn’t help thinking: if people meant to defend the nation can become so distracted by a pair of kneecaps, then our country is in trouble.

Source: www.thestar.com.my

July 3, 2015
Jeanette Chong-Aruldoss Sets Eyes Again On Mountbatten

Mrs Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss, 51, a lawyer, sets her eyes again on the Mountbatten Single Member Constituency (SMC) for the upcoming General Election with the blessing of her new political party.

A former secretary general of the National Solidarity Party (NSP), Mrs Chong-Aruldoss lost a bid to become NSP president in party polls held in January this year.

She subsequently left the party along with a several other members and applied to join the Singapore People’s Party (SPP) in March, helmed by veteran politician Chiam See Tong.

Mrs Chong-Aruldoss confirms that she will be contesting in the SMC in the upcoming polls which must be held by January 2017.

She said, “Yes, I am keen to make another bid to be elected as MP for Mountbatten. In the course of campaigning during the last GE, I established friendships with residents and got to know some local issues of concern to the residents there. I believe that I will be of more help to residents – and be a better candidate – if I were to have a deeper understanding of issues and closer ties with residents.

“For this reason, even after GE 2011, I have continued to and have been regularly walking the ground at Mountbatten. It has been my aim to build on the relationships which I have already established and to deepen my understanding of the issues of concern.”

Her personal campaign team has also been formed for the purpose of the upcoming election, which does not tax on the limited manpower and resources of SPP. It is said that the team has been visiting the SMC every Wednesday.

In General Elections 2011, Mrs Chong-Aruldoss contested against People’s Action Party candidate, Mr Lim Biow Chuan, under the NSP’s banner for the first time in the newly formed Mountbatten ward.

She received 41.38 per cent of the vote, which is slightly above the national average for opposition candidates.

However, Mrs Chong-Aruldoss is uncertain if the efforts of her campaigning team would bear fruit in the coming election due to Singapore’s constant changing electoral boundaries.

“Of course, all potential opposition candidates including myself, are under the heel of boundary changes. History has seen boundaries change significantly from one general election to another. What if Mountbatten is no longer a single member constituency? I don’t know.”

Despite the uncertainity she faces in the upcoming election, Mrs Chong-Aruldoss said, “For now, I will continue to walk the grounds of Mountbatten to see how best I may be able to serve its constituents, if elected.”

Apart from Singapore People’s Party which is set to contest the SMC if it is not subsumed into other constituencies or removed altogether at the next boundary changes, the NSP itself seems to have also set its eyes on contesting the ward.

This would set up a possible three-corner fight in the SMC.

Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

July 3, 2015
Writ Of Possession Of HDB Flat Issued Against Dying Man

Lim Teck Choon (59 years old, unemployed), sold his 3-room flat at Blk 18 Bedok South Rd for $310,000 in December 2010.

The buyer, Ms Hani, was unable to meet the deadline and the sales and purchase transaction was cancelled at one point in time. Subsequently, she managed to get a loan, and was allowed an extension to complete the transaction.

After the delay, Mr Lim was unwilling to proceed with the sale on the original terms and wanted compensation or an increase in the sales price.

However, the sales transaction was completed and since then Mr Lim and his wife have refused to move out of the flat. They have been fined $2,500 for failing to comply with a court order to do so.

Last Friday (26 Jun), Mr Lim told the Chinese media that he has received a letter asking him to move out of the flat on the same day by 2.30pm. But he was firm about staying put and said, “They will take my flat over my dead body.”

When a reporter from the Chinese press arrived at the flat, he found that the items inside were not packed and there was no indication of Mr and Mrs Lim moving out.

Later, at about 3 pm, a group of 5 persons consisting of the bailiff, lawyers and locksmiths, armed with a Writ of Possession, arrived at the flat to take possession of it. A commotion ensued and the police had to intervene.

Seeing the group of people coming to take possession of his flat, Mr Lim opened the iron grille gate and started shouting at them.

He told them that he was suffering from cancer in its final stage. He had sold his flat to get some cash to buy Chinese herbs for his illness. But after selling the flat, all the proceeds were locked up in his CPF account and he couldn’t touch a single cent. As a result, he refused to move out of his flat.

He shouted, “You want me to let you have the flat, but I didn’t get the money! I have appealed to the minister.”

When the police arrived, Mr Lim didn’t calm down but continued scolding. In the course of the commotion, Mr Lim dashed towards lawyer Mohd Ibrahim and tried to push him. As the lawyer dodged Mr Lim, Mr Lim lost his balance and fell. The policemen then quickly stepped in to block Mr Lim.

A minute or two later, after making sure that Mr Lim posed no harm to the lawyer, the policemen helped him to his feet.

As Mr Lim refused to budge, the group went away leaving the court documents behind.

Mr Lim said that he is suffering from end stage cancer and is not afraid to go to jail. He repeatedly said that he has nose cancer and the cancerous cells have spread to the lymph nodes. He is a person waiting to die, he said. The doctor told him that it is a miracle he is still alive.

He said that the last time the lawyer came to his flat, his wife was so agitated that she had an epilepsy attack. Subsequently, the lady buyer got a court order for Singapore Power to cut off his electricity and water supply. Also, the police have entered his flat to remove his belongings. All these things made him angrier.

One may not “see the money” after selling one’s HDB flat

An HDB flat has been touted as an asset which can help one’s retirement. Many Singaporeans like Mr Lim think so too. Many people think that selling their HDB flat will help them get out of financial trouble.

On the contrary, Mr Lim’s case proves that selling one’s HDB flat does not necessarily give one cash.

Mr Lim, a man with a terminal illness, needs cash to seek treatment for a chance to live the last chapter of his life with dignity. He thinks he can do so by cashing in on his sole asset: his HDB flat. Imagine his horror when he finds out that the proceeds of sale which he so desperately needs, are locked away out of his reach because of the CPF Minimum Sum requirement.

Presently, those who are 55 years old on or after 1 July 2015 must set aside a Full Retirement Sum (i.e. Minimum Sum for those with no property pledges) in one’s CPF account of $161,000.

It’s sad that Mr Lim who is suffering from terminal illness isn’t allowed to use his own CPF money for medical treatment. What is the reason for this?

It’s no wonder he is prepared to go to jail because in jail, he would at least enjoy free medical treatment as an inmate.

Will the Minister of National Development Khaw Boon Wan make an exception for Mr Lim?

What do you think?

Source: www.tremeritus.com

July 3, 2015