Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Under Singapore Law...


The case against former Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) chief Ng Boon Gay has now went from the ridiculous to the incomprehensible. Ng has admitted at his corruption trial that he had sexual relations with one of his agency's contractors, Cecilia Sue, but denied any wrongdoing. He denied ever revealing any confidential information about CNB's budget to Sue and the prosecution...well, they sort of agree with that.

Now I always have a problem with the case especially when the prosecution said in their opening statement that Ng had at no time influenced or was directly involved in the process of awarding two separate IT contracts worth S$320,000 to a project Sue was working on. I had wondered why they said that and in the two months since the trial started, Singapore had discovered why.

Basically the prosecution has no evidence that Ng was guilty!

The prosecution seems to have totally ignored the need for evidence. The fact that Ng did not influence the CNB’s decision in anyway, did not reveal any information on the deal; that does not seem to matter to the prosecution! All they had in their arsenal is the strange nonsensical Singapore law that “state that a civil servant who obtains gratification from someone who has or is seeking business dealing with the Government is presumed to have done so corruptly”.

That’s it! That’s all they have and it seems; they believe that’s all they need. The fact that they did not have any evidence that Ng did anything remotely corrupt does not matter. They have him on the extramarital affair and that’s all they need!  To them, an affair equals corruption!

Wow! Now that’s something new I learn today. Under Singapore law, an affair equals corruption! Wow! I guess it’s time I stop laughing at the Americans.

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