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Kelly, MyQute.com
This is my personal response to a news by Channel News Asia: CJ Chan says courts’ authority must be respected by all. I greatly admire the wisdom of CJ Chan. In all the trials and criminal proceedings that he held trial for (that I had came to know and read), I do not remember one that he’s not given fair judgment to. But there are several things that are cause of concern (through….
no fault of our local Singaporean judges of course). You see….if you go to Family Court on any weekday you can count the number of men given GRACE to pay their ex-wives & children maintenance. And many of them DISAPPEAR after that.
And there’s a law that puts women at disadvantage that women ‘do not require any more financial support from ex-spouses’ if it’s proven that the woman and her kids are able to survive blah blah years without ex-spousal’s maintenance. How can such a law protect them?
Another cause of concern is the split of matrimonial property for divorcing couples. Even if the ex-wife-to-be is entitled to 50% from sales proceeds of the matrimonial home, she may be getting back far lesser – because the CPF board has a rule that requires ex-husband’s portion of sales proceeds to return to his own CPF account (if he had used CPF to purchase the matrimonial home).
All these is not rosy for the Singaporean women who are planning to start their lives afresh by attempting divorce.
There’s also a question of whether innocent people should be arrested before full evidence is received, especially for very minor offenses. Everytime someone is wrongly arrested it’s the people’ income tax that is used to salary the law-enforcing police.
Is the current administrative procedures preventing a quick and easy “block” to prevent a suspect from leaving the country? If so, I can see why the police arrest people before they have clear full evidence to say a person is highly suspect of committing crimes and that an arrest is warranted. Perhaps something needs to be changed.
Another thing I am also concerned is the cleanliness of items used by those who are in lock-ups and jails (lock-ups aren’t quite the same as jail but WTF they all look ugly).
Anyway, you can’t change the fact when people dislike something (even if it’s the law). Perhaps people forget that laws aren’t ‘passed and approved for use’ by Honourable Judges. But I am sure people dislike something (a law) for good reasons – it’s not the same as “disrespect for a person” (or a judge). (Of course, those who show disrespect for our court magistrates or are in contempt of the law, should be penalised.)
What the Singapore government should also do is take a more pro-active approach (ie. review inadequate laws to make them effective in protecting those who bear and teach our future generations). The law should be more effective in helping the innocent and penalising the guilty.
Laws need to be changed – NOT judges! Our Singapore judges are FINE as they are, and commanding my full respect for them!
I can hear my mum say,”SAY LAW!” which means “Die Lah!” in Cantonese!
If Singapore have more judges like Judge Judy from USA (God bless her), would Singapore be better or worse? What’s your say? Share them here by commenting or add a trackback to your own blog!
Tags: singapore law, singapore judges, justice in singapore, respect judge, judge judy, CJ Chan, Chief of justice
