Quak Tiong Beng, 42-years-old, a Singaporean police staff sergeant, was sentenced yesterday (8 June) to 5 months of jail for helping a remandee intentionally pervert the course of justice.
He was on duty at the Police Cantonment Complex (PCC) lockup on 23 April 2019, when he took instructions from a remandee; Casper Ang, 32, and made a phone call to a witness; Sae Pang Yan Shuo, on his behalf.
Quak was caught red-handed when he called Sae (who was in the middle of an interview with an officer from Commercial Affairs Department), who answered the phone on speaker mode.
The CAD officer heard Quak’s instructions to Sae, and the CPIB was alerted on 30 April 2019.
The phone call was made by Quak in an area of the lock up where mobile phones were not allowed.
Quak has been suspended from service since 13 May 2019 and is due to surrender himself to the State COurts on 21 June to being serving his sentence.
Rajagopal Malini, 47-years-old, was charged in court yesterday (8 June) for allegedly trying to cheat the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) into giving her a month cash payout from the Covid-19 Support Grant (CSG).
She is facing 12 counts of cheating, forgery and criminal breach of trust. (2 of the charges involved the MSF)
Malini declared in her CSG application that she was placed on involuntary no-pay leave of more than 3 months due to Covid-19, so that she could purportedly bluff the MSF into giving her $800 for 3 months.
She then forged a termination letter to support her false declaration.
Her application was ultimately rejected.
9 our of her remaining 10 charges relate to a stolen credit card that she allegedly used to make $13,000 worth of unauthorised transactions at Nex on 21 September 2020.
The solitary remaining charge involves her allegedly misappropriating $4,015.72 from her employer, Colliers International Consultancy and Valuation, a real estate management services company.
Images source: 刘薪阀 and Whatsapp (Top images used strictly for illustration purposes only)
Workers’ Party (WP)’s chief and Leader of the Opposition, Pritam Singh, said in a lengthy Facebook post that bigotry should be called out even if they are said in a private setting.
Singh mentioned that Singapore’s first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, also had his concerns about interracial relationships in his 2011 book Hard Truths, saying that if his daughter wished to marry a black African, he would tell her that she’s mad.
However, in the same book, Lee also identified “inter-marriages” as being an example of how some racial communities can integrate better than others.
Singh said:
“It would seem that Mr Lee had both public and private views about inter-racial marriages and these turned on the context of his observations about specific aspects of Singapore society.”
Singh also said that attitudes on race do change, and that reservations can give way to acceptance over time.
He added that parents become more accepting of interracial relationships when they “see the happiness in their children’s eyes”.
Racist man crossed the line
Singh then described the incident with the racist lecturer as being a “serious and fatal misjudgement” and that he crossed a line.
Singh said:
“Bigoted views, even if privately held, have a nasty habit of showing themselves up opportunistically in day-to-day circumstances.”
“It would be important for those who host such private views to reflect deeply on how these can hurt themselves and more importantly, those around them.”
“When it comes to racism – there can be no ifs or buts.”
Call out bigoted views
Singh then added:
“As a multi-racial and increasingly multi-cultural, but most importantly – secular society – the public space is a shared space which is for all Singaporeans – regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation etc to participate actively in.”
“We are of course entitled to our private views – but should we not as a society call out bigoted private views with a view to make the public space safer and accommodative for all?
“Doing so would be a learning opportunity to self-reflect, unpack our preconceived notions and in doing so, determine what sort of society we aspire to be.”
Silver lining
The incident has shown that Singaporeans are able to recognise what is wrong and condemn it, with Singh calling it a silver lining.
“That many of all ages and persuasions have done so in response to Mr Tan’s racist diatribe, in a determined, yet restrained manner, represents a silver lining.”
“The swift backlash from the public and politicians of all stripes have also shown that such views are not acceptable in the Singapore of today, even if we continue to live with the comfortable truth that they persist.”
WP will work to eradicate bigotry and racism
Singh also maintained that his party with work to eradicate racism and bigotry.
“Going forward, my colleagues in the Workers’ Party and I will appeal for greater understanding and mutual respect from all, even as we work to promote efforts to eradicate the bigotry and racism that many Singaporeans – both young and old – seek to consign to history.”
Images source: Dave Park Ash and Pritam Singh on Facebook
A housewife and former part-time freelance religious teacher, Ruqayyah binti Ramli, 34-years-old, was issued an Order of Detention (OD) and detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
In a statement released by the Internal Security Department (ISD) earlier today (9 June), she was found to have been radicalised by her husband and was previously issued with a Restriction Order (RO) in August 2020.
Her husband is serving three years in prison for possession of terrorism-related propaganda materials after being repatriated to Malaysia.
Investigations at the time revealed and established that she had supported his intention to join and fight for ISIS in Syria.
ISD said that since Ruqayyah was placed on RO, there has been an escalation in her radical behaviour and involvement in activities prejudicial to Singapore’s security.
Efforts at rehabilitating her were scuppered byu her refusal to make any genuine effort to participate.
She continues to support ISIS’s violent actions and believes in the use of violence against the perceived enemies of Islam.
She was therefore detained to prevent her from progressing further down the violent radical path.
