Singapore Notes

It's difficult to fathom the motive behind former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's tongue lashing, but one postulate has it that both he and his punching bag, current Prime Minister Najib Razak, risk being exposed, tried and jailed if opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) were to come to power.

Mahathir thinks Najib has at least two skeletons that can't be locked up in the cupboard forever. Najib's Strategic investment firm 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has amassed debts of around RM41.9 billion (S$15.5 billion). There is also the affiliation to the sensational murder of Mongolian national Shaariibuugiin Altantuyaa, whose beautiful body parts were obliterated by military grade C-4 explosives at a deserted area in Shah Alam, Malaysia.

If misapplication of public funds is a jailable offence, some Singapore politicians, and those politically affiliated, may soon be having sleepness nights. Top of the list heading for the Changi accommodation has to be the profligate who blew S$300 million on some kiddy game event. And then there's the short runt who paid global branding company Interbrand S$400,000 to rename Marina Bay as Marina Bay. We don't know, and may never know, what is the running tab for hosting the F1 night race, but whoever is bankrolling Ecclestone's lifestyle will ultimately have to account for the numbers one day.

But nobody got killed, right? Wrong. The family of the late Private Dominique Sarron Lee is not about to forget that “if the Training Safety Regulations (TSR) had been complied with, Pte Lee and his platoon mates would not have been subjected to smoke that was as dense as that during the incident, and… for as long as they were during the incident”. They are now taking legal action against MINDEF. Changi quarters may soon require expansion if justice is served on this island.

Taking politics seriously

It has to be rubbing salt into the wound when a brave anti-colonialist fighter is parodied as a sparring partner in a musical at Marina Bay Sands' MasterCard Theatres. We are not talking about a Jean Valjean duelling with Javert in Les Misérable, an unknown warbler is trying to pass himself off as Lim Chin Siong.

The blemish on his good name started when he was wrongly accused by a diagnosed dyslexic who could have mistakenly transposed "communalism" into "communism". Lim had on 31 July 1961 stated categorically in a forum letter to the Straits Times, "Let me make it clear once and for all that I am not a Communist or a Communist front-man or, for that matter, anybody's front man." Since the credibility of the 153rd ranked daily rag has always in question, Lim told Melanie Chew ("Leaders of Singapore", Chew, Melanie, Resource Press, 1996):

"To brand someone as Communist at that stage was the best and most convenient way to put him into jail.. . Of course, my brief period of association with the Anti-British League had become a "useful pretext" to brand me as a Communist."

Lim Chin Siong (Chinese: 林清祥) was an influential leftwing politician and trade union leader during the 1950s and 1960s. He had the dubious distinction of being detained without trial twice in his life: first from 1956-1959 during Lim Yew Hock's government, and subsequently from 1963-1969 during Operation Coldstore. His wife was locked up in the Women's Prison from 1967 to 1969. Lim co-founded the People's Action Party (PAP) in 1954, and was elected Legislative Assemblyman of Bukit Timah in 1955.

In 1955, Lim was alleged to have instigated a labour strike (the euphemism preferred today is "industrial action") by bus workers that resulted into the Hock Lee bus riots. Historian Dr Thum Ping Tjin, however, notes that a transcript of Lim's speech shows that far from inciting violence, Lim used humour to diffuse the tension, reminding the crowd that the police were employees and did not deserve anger. This was in the good old days when cops don't bash citizens at the flip of an ID tag. Lim would have been useful at Little India.

It's bad enough when history gets written by victors, it's horrible when distortion is set to tune. Whoever is putting propaganda into musical score to be - to borrow a phrase from Dr Poh Soo Kai's statement on 23 March 2015 - a political pimp of the worst kind.

Everybody knows Lady Macbeth will never win the Miss Congeniality award. Not after the way she prodded her husband into steely resolve to do the dastardly deed:

"I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
And dashed the brains out."

Amos's mom is not Lady Macbeth. She's not even the evil Empress Dowager that Francis Seow claimed was actually running the show here. Mom would not report her own flesh and blood to the police, in a horrible place like ours where waving a copy of a report is already condemnation. J B Jeyaratnam did just that, at an election rally, and was taken to the cleaners.

Mom (“I did not file a police report to have my son arrested”) thought that a public apology lodged at a police station would sate the hellhounds' unquenchable thirst for blood, or at the least make the grassroots leader shy off from legalised castration. However, where we are, as the Bard penned, there's daggers in men's smiles (Act 2, Scene 3, Page 8).

It was was clever juxtaposition of words that fanned the flames to effect. A mother's declaration that her charge is beyond her control could be a cause of celebration in other circumstances. Like the breakaway states that chose to be unshackled from Mother Russia. Or a young nation longing to be free from the tyranny of colonialists. Let's not go overboard here. We are talking about a kid; mom was probably just driven up the wall in frustration, let's not escalate it into a family breakup.

Nathan Heller of The New Yorker (total circulation: 1,044,524 total audience: 4,476,000) reminded the world that Singapore today has a well-guarded culture of political deference. The writer from the state press that is ranked a hundred and fifty-third out of a hundred and eighty countries, just below Russia, by Reporter Without Borders, may soon discover the horror of Lady Macbeth when she finally realised, "Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh!"

When Professor Gunaratna, from the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore, asked US Under Secretary of State Richard Stengel why the US could not take a tough position on radical websites and social media messages, he was probably thinking of ISIS videos of beheadings. Furthest from his mind, and that of Teo Chee Hean who was also one of the panelists, must be the grassroots leader who made his plans quite clearly on Facebook about genital mutilation of a precocious child.

Like the ISIS monsters who carried out acts of violence while invoking praises of their higher entity, Jason Tan alias Cookie Tan saw no wrong in stringing the blemish of a religious leader and destructive phallic intent in one same sentence. How do these deviants come up with their sick ideas?

The Ku Klux Klan justified the killing of blacks with a story from the Old Testament (Book of Numbers, Chapter 25): While the Israelites are staying in Moab, some married lovely Moabite women. But when they started to worship their god, Baal, Moses is told that he needs to impale all the chiefs of Israel. Phinehas, son of Elezor, rushes into the tent of an Israelite who married a Midianite woman, and pierces husband and wife with one spear, right through the stomach. Apparently, this makes God happy again, so he stops the plague that he has been pouring down on the people. The New International Version (NIV) account reads like this:

So Moses said to Israel’s judges, “Each of you must put to death those of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.”
Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting. When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them, right through the Israelite man and into the woman’s stomach. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
The Lord said to Moses, “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites."

It's not fully established that the grassroots leader is a church going Christian, or what kind of bedtime stories his parents read to him. One thing is clear, religious extremists come in all shades and guises. Just try to avoid being tarred with the same feather. Stengel's Parthian shot is worth repeating, "Social media is a powerful tool for them, but it should be an even more powerful tool for us."

Aristotle concluded more than 2,300 years ago that "the young are heated by Nature as drunken men by wine." Yet a fascinating feature in National Geographic by science writer David Dobbs shows that, viewed through the eyes of evolution, the young's most exasperating traits may be the key to success as adults.

We learn that youths take risks that terrify their parents because - as scientists have discovered through modern brain-scanning technology - the teen brain isn’t fully cooked — it’s still in the process of rewiring and remodeling itself and maturing toward adulthood. Our brains have networks of neurons that weigh the costs and benefits of potential actions, but teens weigh those consequences in peculiar ways.

The first full series of scans of the developing adolescent brain in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) project showed that our brains undergo a massive reorganization between our 12th and 25th years. Physical brain growth is negligible during this period as it has already attained 90 percent of its full size by the time a person is 6 years old. During the process of maturation, physical changes move in a slow wave from the brain's rear to its front, from areas that look after behaviorally basic functions, such as vision, movement, and fundamental processing, to the evolutionarily newer and more complicated thinking areas up front.

The long, slow, back to front developmental wave, completed only in the mid 20s, appears to be a uniquely human adaptation. This delayed completion of the fore brain's myelination — the myelin coating that greatly accelerates a brain's bandwidth, also inhibits the growth of new branches from the axon (the long nerve fibers that neurons use to send signals to other neurons) - is a withholding of readiness that heightens flexibility just as we confront and enter the complicated world of adulthood. Here's the kicker: if we smartened up sooner, we'd end up dumber.

B. J. Casey, a neuroscientist at Weill Cornell Medical College, puts it this way, "We're so used to seeing adolescence as a problem. But the more we learn about what really makes this period unique, the more adolescence starts to seem like a highly functional, even adaptive period. It's exactly what you'd need to do the things you have to do then."

The long National Geographic article may explain why some youngster posted a hilarious video while others were bawling their eyes out, but it still does not explain why an adult would want to snip off bits of anatomy.

When former Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Calvin Cheng was found guilty by the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) for price-fixing in November 2011, he was the President of the Association of Modelling Industry Professionals (AMIP). Cheng justified his sins by claiming that even Microsoft and Bill Gates have been fined for price-fixing. Ergo, it was no big deal since he was in good company.

CCS had determined 11 modelling agencies were guilty of price-fixing. They used AMIP as a “front” for collusion in 2005 and Calvin Cheng had “played a central role in coordinating the actions of AMIP members“ and ran afoul of the Competition Act which came into force the next year.

Lance Armstrong was similarly unrepentant when he told BBC sports editor, Dan Roan, that if he were in the same position as he was 20 years ago, he would again dope to win bike races. The disgraced Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles in 2012 in the wake of the doping scandal and banned from professional cycling for life.

According to the Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC) which published its damning 227-page report in March 2015, 90 per cent of the peloton is still doping in one form or another today. The CIRC report stopped short of accusing two former International Cycling Union (UCI) presidents of outright corruption, for colluding with Lance Armstrong and other cycling stars to cover up drug cheating. No wonder Armstrong was so cocky, he had the big boys watching his back.

In 2001, the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) took the unusal step to correct information regarding the academic record of its Chief Executive Officer, Philippe Paillart, after the Asian Wall Street Journal asked Harvard Business School about his "postgraduate degree". The error in the annual report - - which was signed by all five members of DBS's corporate office including Mr Paillart - was amended and Paillart, a French national, said that he has plenty of other degrees, he did not need to make up such qualifications.

The Indian national turned Singaporean employed by Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) - the one with an MBA from degree mill Southern Pacific University (SPU) - can sleep easy. The law is only harsh if you are not going with the flow.

When the bean counters of the Norwegian company who bought over our Singapore operation came to visit, one of them told us that the salary structure at head office was pretty egalitarian. The general manager is paid only 5 times as much as the lowly receptionist. He must have read about the juicy emoluments of our ministers.

In the US, the average income of the wealthiest 10 percent of the population is 15.9 times that of the poorest 10 percent. By contrast, in Japan the difference is only 4.5 times - one of the lowest ratios in the world, according to Keiko Hirata and Mark Warschauer in their book "Japan, The Paradox of Harmony". There is much less conspicuous consumption among corporate tycoons in Japan than in the US, and business leaders are often embarrassed to be paid too much. Hmm, maybe the disgraceful minister in the prime minister's office should read the book.

Going against the vein, CEO Dan Price of Seattle payment processing firm Gravity Payments took a 90% pay cut so he could give his employees a raise after coming across a study about happiness. The happiness research came from a Angus Deaton and Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman. They found that emotional well-being — defined as “the emotional quality of an individual’s everyday experience, the frequency and intensity of experiences of joy, stress, sadness, anger, and affection that make one’s life pleasant or unpleasant” — rises with income, but only to a point. And that point turns out to be about US$75,000 a year. David Marshall, who served as Singapore's first Chief Minister from 1955 to 1956, has a simpler explanation - how much can you really eat?

Try explaining that to the mercenaries who said that only a million dollars can give a politician confidence to clink champagne glasses with a businessman. The same horrible people who say the Gini coefficient does not matter. Price is not the only one willing to step forward to address the disparity between the soaring pay of top dogs and that of their lowly employees, he's heard from almost 100 other CEOs via email and text who say they support his initiative. To quote Chinese philosopher Laozi, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step (千里之行，始於足下).

The advice given in the common proverb is: "never look a gift horse in the mouth". Simply, when given a horse, it would be bad manners to inspect the horse's mouth to see if it has bad teeth. It is rude to wish for more by assessing its value.

While we are all eternally grateful when three lawyers came forward to act pro bono for a little boy clamped in hand cuffs and ankle shackles, their long winded press statement is fast providing fodder for conspiracy theorists across the island. Lawyers are supposed to sally forth with a vigorous defence, not throw their clients under the bus before court is even convened. The horseshit is embedded in paragraph nine:

"9. We would state categorically that we – the Defence Counsel – disapprove of what Amos Yee has posted."

The elements for the done deal are clearly spelled out in 10(d): "To advise him on the sentencing options including those that specifically deal with young offenders."

This being the birth place of kiasuism, it is easy to argue that the esteemed solicitors are just protecting their rice bowl. Not too recently, the law society had just flexed their muscles, resulting in one lawyer being neutered on the grounds of mental incapacity. Meanwhile the head of the Singapore National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) also recently wrote that her daily exercise regime consists of running up and down her 20 metre office corridor 800 times to complete her quota of 16 kilometres.

Before you rush to join those who flew over the cuckoo's nest, there's more food for thought. Suppose the three wise men had simply answered the call of duty to salvage the country's soiled human rights reputation. Which means Public Service Stars (BBM) are in order, in time to make it for the national day honour list. Considering what grab-loot leaders are getting away with these mad days, those awards could be more useful than what degree mills can offer.

“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind” is a quote oft attributed to non-violence champion Mahatma Gandhi. Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations (YBQ), has more to contribute on the subject: "The Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence states that the Gandhi family believes it is an authentic Gandhi quotation, but no example of its use by the Indian leader has ever been discovered."

Apparently an important biographer of Gandhi, Louis Fischer, used a version of the expression when he wrote about Gandhi’s approach to conflict. Fischer used the expression himself as part of his explanation of Gandhi’s philosophy. Some readers may have decided to directly attribute the saying to Gandhi based on a misreading of Fischer’s works.

There is a more authoritative biblical injunction in the Book of Exodus: "And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth" (King James Version, Chapter 21, Verses 23, 24).

We are not sure from which entity, God or mammon, ex-pastor and General Secretary of the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) Dr William Wan derived his inspiration when he included following in a press statement (which was not published in the mainstream media):

"Tasteless videos and posts are no excuse for responding with vindictive attacks and threats of unspeakable violence. There is a difference between objecting, however strongly, to something that offends us, and meting out an eye for an eye, or worse."

SKM was pretty sure Dr Wan did send a letter expounding on said position to one of the local papers, before conveniently going away on leave. That's how serious discussions on religious topics can be in this town. Remember, local doctrine has it that the little boy's sin is criticising a religious figure, not the dead political one.

[Interesting aside: anon@4/24/2015 12:39 PM is theorising that the choice of banana is a mockery of the cookie monster determined on stuffing phallic shapes into oral cavities. More research may be needed here; the precocious child could be experimenting with different shapes, wondering why sycophants have a fascination with oblong elongated objects, instead of the natural banana contours.]

It looks like it will be quite a while before we stop hearing stories about the dead guy.

Former top Australian golf professional Alan Murray was talking about the time on the course when he was swinging with the VVIP and wondering where his ubiquitous security attachment was. He hit a couple of wayward shots that drove him into the bushes and an epiphany:

"When we started I was surprised that I could not see any of his security men following him. Only when I hit into the bushes and went to look for my ball that I discovered they were around, behind the trees."

Murray was bowled over, "That's efficiency. Now I know why Singapore is a safe and secure place."

Some will call it a waste of resources, policing an exclusive golf course where only those elites who can afford the exorbitant green fees are allowed to romp on the manicured grass. Instead of protecting the vulnerable like the 27-year-old woman researcher who was slashed while walking along a poorly lit and derelict path linking Biomedical Grove to Commonwealth Drive. The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) belatedly issued a circular to its staff advising them not to use the shortcut leading from Biopolis to Commonwealth MRT Station. Contrary to what the tourist promotion board likes to crow about, not all Singapore streets are safe to walk alone. Swallow the official spiel at your own peril.

Last week the fat geezer was called a "fighter". We are not told what exactly he fought for. We do know from his own writings is that he was definitely on the side of those who fought the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army, the MPAJA.

Ex-president Devan Nair once told Melanie Chew that his contact with the MPAJA happened through an untouchable, the pariah Paramanan. He was one of the labourers working for Nair's father, the chief clerk put in charge of a rubber estate. It was a moral dilemma for father and son when thirty Japanese trucks rolled up and demanded the surrender of the labourers. Nair undertook the risk to warn Paramanan during the night. Next morning, the Japanese found only old ladies and babies, everybody else had fled to the jungle.

There were 15 people who had been involved with Paramanan and the MPAJA. Father and son included. If Paramanan was caught and succumbed to torture, they would be finished. The horribly mutilated corpse of Paramanan was later found, thrown out of the Kempeitai headquarters like discarded trash.

Parmanan had not revealed any names. What Nair found incredible was that "an unlettered, illiterate, lowly born pariah, enduring the most cruel Japanese torture" had saved their lives. He saw it as one more reason to reject one hated man's views on genetics and intelligence. You can give a man all the paper qualifications in the world, he said, it will not make a difference. Don't even get started with the bogus certificates from degree mills which the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) seems to accept with alacrity.

Recently a tembusu tree was planted at Duxton Plain Park together with a time capsule intended to be unearthed 50 years later. The time capsule was filled with cards, tributes, newspapers and other tear-jerker memorabilia which marked the North Korean styled week of mourning in March. We won't know what will happen in 2065, but it is unlikely Lim Swee Say - born July 13, 1954 - will still be around to murder the English language.

In his swan song message to the trade unions, Lim urged his troopers to weave technology into manufacturing, services and daily life. "Incorporate" would be a better choice, since sewing takes us back to the bad old days when the textile industry was mainstay of employment. The guy who coined lexicon atrocities like "betterer" and "upturn the downturn" claims that his intent was "not to spoil the language" but simplify communication with the workers. Which makes you wonder what's so complicated about "return our CPF at age 55".

How can someone schooled at Catholic High School and National Junior College - no degree mills, these esteemed halls of learning - produce an output with a, in his own words, "limitation in explaining complicated policies to people"? And still be made cabinet minister, drawing a million smackerooes a year, year after year. Laughing at his own CPF statement along the way.

Last month the outgoing labour chief came up with "futurise", supposed to mean seeking out change instead of yearning for things to remain as they are. This month, he is saying "futurisation" means "early bird catches the worm." If you can figure out which planet this weirdo hails from, we don't really want to know. They should just include his species in the time capsule, and let the future generation of scientists wrack their brains, trying to understand how we even survived 50 years under such Leedership.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) announced that it will be conducting an emergency exercise today from 12.30pm to 3pm at the Singapore Sports Hub, including Kallang Wave Mall and Stadium MRT Station. The SCDF said such exercises are part of the on-going efforts to validate and update operational plans and procedures, and the public should not to be alarmed.

What the public should be alarmed about is how the SCDF will be performing their duties in earthquake ravaged Nepal. The SCDF had already sent a 55-man search and rescue team to site, with the first team partnering personnel from Belgium and Spain to cover the Gorkha region, which is near the epicentre of the quake.

Will they be using liquids from a packet drink to put out fires?

Will they cover up the cracks in the floors with Kiwi shoe polish?

Will they be junking perfectly working ironing boards while clearing the debris?

One thing's for sure, they will be documenting their handiwork to show mom they were actually in a disaster area.

One may fault the female A*STAR researcher for walking a dimly lit path unescorted, but nobody could imagine a child would be assaulted in front of the Family Justice Courts building. In broad daylight, in the vicinity of the subordinate courts complex where uniformed policemen are usually milling around. And then there're the scum bags who give paparazzi a bad name, neither rendering assistance to the victim or giving chase after the assailant.

From whence did law and order descend to such a hellish state in safe haven of Singapore? Some may trace it all the way back to when a heavy hand was laid on the cheek of Dhanabalan, the gory account of which is found on page 150 of Ross Worthington's book, "Governance in Singapore", available at the Lee Kong Chian reference library. Others may point towards the lack of action from the Singapore Police Force, despite multiple reports already filed against one Jason Tan, the politically protected advocate of child abuse. And it looks like he's getting away with his brand of violence too.

Even the taciturn Minister of Law had to draw a line on the brazen attack.

"Amos Yee was assaulted as he was going to court today. That is quite unacceptable.
Rule of Law means respecting the legal process. If everyone starts taking the law into his or her own hands, then we will no longer be a civilised society."

The prime minister may make political mileage out of advocating stronger action against the ISIS at the 26th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, but the real terror is already in town.

His son has called for further reflection on how best to remember the late "papa and yeye", whose demise boosted champagne sales in some quarters, saying that any decision must "stand the test of time". The deceased, when not connected to an artificial ventilator, had refused to allow statues of himself and rarely lent his name to institutions, despite dominating politics for half a century.

Still, some have managed to work around his expressed wishes, the most notable being the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Before things get carried away, the boot-lickers should realise there is a fine line between hero worship and sick humour. Imprinting his image on Singapore's currency will bring back horrible memories of the banana notes when Singapore was Syonan-to (昭南島 Shōnan-tō). And that quip of Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People’s Republic of China, at the Bandung Conference in 1955, “Lee is like a banana – yellow of skin, white underneath.”

The late Sri Lankan foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar (Tamil: லக்ஷமன் கதிர்காமர், Sinhalese: ලක්ශමන් කදිර්ගාමර් ) had a fine and refined sense of humour. At an after-dinner speech to congratulate the Sri Lankan cricket team in London, shortly before he was assassinated by a LTTE sniper in Colombo, he recounted the story of how the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin had once wanted to change the name of his country to "Idi".

Amin instructed his foreign minister to canvas world opinion and return in two weeks. When he did not do so, he was summoned before the megalomaniac to explain.

The Ugandan foreign minister said: "Mr President, I have been informed that there is a country called Cyprus. Its citizens are called Cypriots. If we change the name of our country to 'Idi', our citizens would be called 'Idiots'."

"Town council dispute not political, says MND" is the new standard set of fabrications now foisted on us as gospel truth by the mainstream media. In like vein, a website has been shut down not because it has been accused of inciting anti-foreigner sentiments, but because "they chose to take their site offline". If that's not the height of ridicule, the subject of a Protection Order lodged by a certain pink blogger is joining in the chorus, "This wasn't a politically motivated action. We see it as a signal by the MDA to get online media to practice responsible journalism." This coming from the "satirical" group who published, "Dear XX, if you have high fever, will your plastic nose melt?"

The double standard gets more devious. On Thursday the court will deliberate on whether a child made offensive remarks against religion and circulated obscene images. Never mind if the world press knows better, that the real transgression was fleshing out the true horror story. As for the obscene image, singular, it was just vivid imagery of Margaret Thatcher's own wet dream, the lady who unashamedly declared, "He was never wrong," lying back and thinking of ~~England~~ Singapore. Compare that to a more wicked photoshop fail circulating online, a recognisable chap in a judge's wig buggering an under aged child. That's more than SG50 shades of undermining the judicial system, alleged pedophilia, and blemish of a cult figure in one go.

Before the advent of the internet, the former editor-in-chief of the The Straits Times (ST) Cheong Yip Seng had already faced the challenge of fabrications. In "OB Markers: My Straits Times Story" he defines "Out of Bounds" markers as the shifting line between which issues are 'sensitive' and which are not. "I will break your neck," Cheong describes Lee as telling him when a rookie reporter tried to make a case for not imposing an embargo on a nasty speech the Prime Minister had made. Now that the news is in the iClouds, watch out for falling bones.

It was Lee Hsien Loong who asked a student at a NUS ministerial forum in 2011: "Do you believe everything you read in the Straits Times?"

Not if ST is determined to sink lower than the murky depths of the 153rd position, a drop of 3 places from last year's ranking of 150, out of a total of 180 countries and territories. The 2015 ranking of 153 is the lowest-ever ranking the Republic has been given by watchdog group Reporters Without Borders in its annual evaluation.

In the same mean spirit of the other slanted ST report that gave the impression Amos' mother filed a police report to have her son arrested, this time the story telling nuanced that Mr Vincent Law, a family counselor and faithful Christian, had refused to bail Amos out a second time and had given up on his lost cause.

An interview with a more credible online source revealed that Mr Law did extended an offer to bail him out again. It was Amos himself who declined the act of Christian charity, on grounds of refusal to abide by the onerous bail conditions, as he had no wish to be gagged by anyone. Something along the lines of give me liberty, or give me death, but less dramatic.

Cognizant of the youth's stand on principles, Mr Law had no recourse but to discharge himself as the bailor.

We are told that on the first occasion of the bail fiasco, Mr Law made it clear that he is of Christian persuasion and asked if Amos had any problems with that. After all, the boy had said that some Christians crave for power while giving the impression of being compassionate. Sets you thinking about Kong Hee building a mega singing career for his wife, and Lawrence Khong kicking his daughter out of the house while she was heavy with child.

“No, no, its fine,” Mr Law recalled Amos saying in response to his declaration. Once again, the boy demonstrated he is more mature than his years, “Just like, as much as I may not agree with Lee Kuan Yew’s policies but we can still have a dip in the same swimming pool.”

"And so I entered the employment of the Japanese civilian police (Keimubu), in which I stayed for the rest of the war, until the Japanese surrender," wrote S R Nathan in his book, "An Unexpected Journey, Path to the Presidency". His loyal service with the Nips would see him go through three inspector-generals of police (IGP).

At the police headquarters in Johore Bahru, a report was received stating that the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) had attacked and occupied Segamat town for a few hours.

In late 1944, Nathan was asked by the IGP to accompany him on an inspection visit to a police post deep in the Kota Tinggi-Kluang triangle. Escorted by a platoon from the Special Police force, the Tokubetsu Keisatsu Tai, they arrived at the operational headquarters of the MPAJA Independent Regiment only to find it had been vacated earlier. On the return trip, there was an exchange of gunfire near Kangkar Sisir, the designated launch pick-up point. While washing up with the river water, Nathan thought the sting on his neck was an insect bite.

It was at the Johore Bahru General Hospital a few days later, where he had sought medication for a cold, that the examining doctor told him the "bite" was a gunfire wound: "My boy, you are damned lucky. Had it been half-an-inch different you would have been dead." Three bullets had grazed his neck.

Informed, the IGP said he must have been the intended target, as Nathan was standing just behind him. As compensation, he was rewarded with an envelope of money and cartons of cigarettes which, said Nathan, fetched more than a month's salary in the black market. Decades later, the man would only accept hard cash, in the order of taxpayer millions.

In white shirt, third from left, cuddling puppy

Concerns about the use of shackles on juveniles in court first prompted two U.S. lawmakers, Rep. Bruce Morris of Norwalk and Rep. Toni Walker of New Haven, to introduce legislation to limit the use of restraints. Thanks to their perseverance, effective 5 April 2015, an administrative order from Chief Judge Lee F. Satterfield now require individual judges to make case-by-case determinations. If a judge decides restraints are necessary — reasons could include being disruptive or noncompliant or posing a risk — there must be a written finding of fact.

The Washington Post first wrote about the efforts of defense attorneys to have the shackles removed from their clients last year. Court officials and judges have repeatedly fought against removing the shackles, claiming that restraints ensure safety. Routine shackling of youthful offenders has been abandoned by many jurisdictions as unnecessary, demeaning and counter to the juvenile justice system’s aim of rehabilitating, not punishing, youth.

While some say the restraints keep defendants and observers safe in situations that can become tense, opponents pointed out that adult defendants in the same courthouse, even those who have been convicted of violent crimes, can have their restraints removed in court.

Social workers at the detention centers are responsible for screening children for risk of escape or dangerous behavior. “We did not want solely a custodial person — whose frame of reference is security — to make that decision,” but to have the assessment informed by social science, said Stephen Grant, the executive director of court support services for the judicial branch. “We’re very sensitive to not further traumatizing a kid whose life is in chaos. It’s a balance.”

That's the difference between the United States and Singapore.

The 49-year-old slapper who was finally charged in court after 2 whole weeks - the equivalent of light years in internet time - said he “wanted the assault to be publicised so that the world at large would know." He should have learnt from his young victim that a less painful way to achieve instant fame is to post a YouTube video.

Whatever his motivations, the man pleaded to one charge of voluntarily causing hurt by forcefully slapping the left side of the teenager’s face, causing him to suffer pain. The arresting authorities must have assumed physical pain, evidenced by the red swelling obvious in the widely circulated photo images. Psychological trauma, due to being shackled in cuffs and chains, matter not to these sadistic types. The legal issue worthy of note here is that voluntarily causing hurt is a non-arrestable offence in Singapore.

Upon arrival at the scene, the police is supposed to assess the situation and determine whether the fracas involving a crime is categorised as an arrestable offence under the First Schedule of the Criminal Procedure Code. Which explains why many taxi drivers at the receiving end of a drunken passenger's fist often wonder if being a punching bag is written into their job description.

The following are some examples of arrestable offences:

Unlawful assemblies or rioting
Impersonation of a public servant
Obstructing a public servant in his duties, or threatening a public servant
Affray (Fighting in public places)
Fouling the water of a public spring or reservoir
Driving rashly or negligently
Obscene acts in public
Rape
Theft and robbery
Criminal trespass
Assault or use of criminal force to a person with intent to outrage modesty (molest)
Acts or attempts that cause or can cause death, including suicide, murder, or other rash acts
Voluntarily causing grievous hurt
Voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon

Maybe it was grievous hurt (item 13) that prompted the police to take action. More likely it has to be the potential political fallout following should the assailant be let off easy. But that would make it hard to explain why a decorated grassroots leader is permitted to make well publicised threats of physical violence without losing sleep. Almost as hard as explaining why Yaacob Ibrahim is saying the evidence for shutting down a website is in hand when the court case has yet to be convened.

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Lawyers On The Defensive

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Safety First

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Weird To The Very End

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Singapore No Longer Safe

From First World To Banana Republic

The Height Of Fabrication

A Difference Of Perspective

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Shackled By The Law

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