source:
http://aussgworldpolitics.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/did-goplan-nair-threaten-belinda-ang/
Did Goplan Nair threaten Belinda Ang?
Posted by Charles on June 1, 2008
According to Channel News Asia, the Singapore police has
recently arrested a former Singaporean for sending ‘insulting
statements to a public servant’ to the Attorney General and the
Solicitor General. The allegedly offensive statement has also been
posted on his blog (Channel News Asia, 2008).
A quick search online in Singapore Statutes throw up one
possible offense that the police might prosecute him under - The
Penal Code, Chapter 10 - Contempts of the Lawful Authority of
Public Servants - Section 189, ‘Threat of injury to a public
servant’ which states that:
Whoever holds out any threat of injury to any public servant, or
to any person in whom he believes that public servant to be
interested, for the purpose of inducing that public servant to do
any act, or to forbear or delay to do any act, connected with the
exercise of the public functions of such public servant, shall be
punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years,
or with fine, or with both (Singapore Statutes, n.d.).
In his latest post, ‘Singapore. Judge Belinda Ang’s Kangaroo
Court’, Nair claims that the court has been misappropriated for
political means (Nair 2008). However, any references to the judge,
Belinda Ang, cannot be deemed as threatening to the public servant.
For the purpose of a closer examination, we have reproduced any
references to Belinda Ang which was found in his blog posting:
1. ‘your stooge of a judge, Belinda Ang’;
2. ‘The judge Belinda Ang was throughout prostituting herself
during the entire proceedings, by being nothing more than an
employee of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their
orders’;
3. ‘right out of the pages of Alice in Wonderland with Belinda Ang
playing the role of the Queen of Hearts before the trial of the
Mouse who stole the Tarts very well indeed’;
4. numerous references to her as the ‘kangaroo judge’;
5. ‘and the judge obediently sustained the objection’;
6. ‘ Of course the judge permitted these insults, since after all
Lee Kuan Yew and his son owned the courts and the judge as
well’;
While it is true that in his posting, he accuses the court and
the judge of political persecution, sometimes using language that
might be deemed as offensive, there was no hint or openly declared
threat to cause any injury to the public servant. This is a clear
distinction that one should keep in mind.
While it is true that he had openly declared his address, name
and laid down a challenge for the Senior Minister to serve him with
a writ of summons, there are still no plausible grounds for the
arrests.
Given that the Singapore law society has recently announced its
intentions to lobby for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
to be incorporated into the law books, it should seek to represent
Mr Nair if the police decides to press ahead with charges. There is
no time to be lost given the authorities have said they will put
him on trial by Monday.
Thank you for the input. Sad to say our police seem to have lost
their professional neutrality and have become a mere pawn to the
power that be.