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Chao Hick Ting,
Attorney-General and former Appeals Judge
Protesters
calling for transparency from Government
All
this for four protesters
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Media
Release: AG to make Chee Siok Chin and two other activists
bankrupt
7 Aug 07
Attorney-General
Chao Hick Ting is out to make SDP CEC member, Ms Chee Siok Chin,
and activists Ms Monica Kumar and Mr Yap Keng Ho bankrupts.
Mr
Chao, a former Appeals Court Judge until his appointment as AG in
2006, has applied for a bankruptcy order against the three which
will be heard on 17 Aug 07.
The matter involves a protest
that Ms Chee, Ms Kumar, Mr Yap and Mr Charles Tan conducted in
August 2005 where they called for transparency and accountability
from Government institutions (GIC, HDB, and CPF) following the
NKF scandal.
The four were met by the riot police and were
threatened with arrest. They complied with the police order even
though the Singapore Constitution clearly states that only five
or more persons constitute an illegal assembly.
Ms Chee,
Ms Kumar and Mr Yap then took up an Originating Summons to seek a
declaration from the Judiciary that the Ministry of Home Affairs
and the police had overstepped their constitutional boundaries in
breaking up the four-person protest. Mr Charles Tan was
away.
High Court Judge V K Rajah not only dismissed the
application but also ruled that Singapore citizens did not have
the right to "cast doubt" on public institutions and
equated public protests with public nuisances.
On what
legal/constitutional grounds did Judge Rajah say that Singapore
citizens had no right to protest against public institutions? But
that's another topic of discussion.
After the Judge
awarded the case to the Executive, the AG then billed the three
activists $23,749 and demanded $800-a-month installment payments.
After struggling to pay the amount for 5 months, Ms Chee
informed the AG's Chambers in April 2007 that she could not
sustain the payment and tried to negotiate to pay $400 per month
instead for the remaining $20,500.
But the AG insisted
that he would not accept anything less than the stated sum of
$800. So when Ms Chee could not afford last month's payment, Mr
Chao applied to make the three bankrupt.
The AG has also
billed Ms Chee $11,232 for another case, this one involving her
petition to the Supreme Court to declare the 2006 General
Elections null and void on the basis of the PAP promising
upgrading for votes, giving out money during elections, and
banning podcasting and blogging.
Judge Andrew Phang again
ruled in favour of the PAP Government.
Obviously,
citizens are discouraged from taking the Government to court. In
such a climate the rule of law cannot take root, much less
flourish.
But
then one would never know the extent of the abuse of power and
violation of human rights in this country the way the PAP
Government tries to play the role of the good boy in front of the
world vis-a-vis the signing of the ASEAN charter.
If
one reads hypocritical remarks like that of Foreign Minister
George Yeo: “There was no reason why we should be allergic
to human rights...” in his blog, one would think that the
Singapore government is embracing human rights when in fact the
opposite is true.
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