| Police witness: Dr Chee's presence is a public order concern |
 |
 |
| Thursday, 08 January 2009 |
 Singapore DemocratsLed during examination-in-chief by the DPP, prosecution witness DSP Mohd Hassan said that he was deployed to the vicinity of Suntec City, the venue where the WB-IMF was held in September 2006, to maintain law and order. Mr Hassan was testifying at the trial of Mr Gandhi Ambalam, Dr Chee Soon Juan, and Ms Chee Siok Chin who are charged with participating in an assembly without a permit on 10 Sep 06. The DSP said that he had taken a coffee break at Starbucks at about noon when he spotted Dr Chee Soon Juan and a male Indian who was wearing a "dark-red shirt with floral prints" (Mr Jeffrey George) at the entrance of the City Hall MRT Station outside Raffles City Shopping Centre. "Initially, I did not relay information to anybody when I first saw Dr Chee and Mr George," the officer told the Judge. "But after I saw five of them (Mr Gandhi Ambalam, Ms Chee Siok Chin and Mr Tan Teck Wee joining the two), I relayed the information to the Command Post." During cross-examination by Ms Chee, however, the DSP said that he had called the Command Post immediately after he saw Dr Chee and Mr George. "But you said earlier that you had called the Command Post only after you saw the three of us joining Dr Chee and Mr George," Ms Chee pointed out. "I cannot recall saying that," the officer replied. Ms Chee asked the Judge to read his recording back to the witness. Trial judge Chng Lai Beng confirmed that the witness had indeed earlier said that he did not call the Command Post when he first spotted Dr Chee and Mr George. "Now which is it Mr Hassan, did you call the Command Post when you first saw Dr Chee and Mr Jeffrey George or did you call only after you saw the other three of us joining them?" "I might have relayed the information to the Command Post after I saw Dr Chee and Mr George," DSP Hassan meekly offered. "Now we have three versions. First, you say you didn't, then you say you did, now you say you might have. Which is it?" Ms Chee pressed. Mr Hassan finally admitted: "I called the Command Post after I saw Dr Chee and Mr George before I saw the other three joining them." "It would save a lot of time if the witness would answer the questions forthrightly instead of holding out on the truth," Ms Chee said. She then went on:
CSC: Was Dr Chee behaving in a disorderly fashion?
Share this article:
Comments (4)
Joomla components by Compojoom
|
Announcements
| |||
Latest Videos
Act Now
|
| ||||
The SDP National Healthcare Plan
SDP Publictaions
Support SDP , buy our 30th Anniversary Magazine here
pdf link
| |||
Danny the Democracy Bear
| |||
Awesome Words
“What was everybody's business in the end proved to be nobody's business. Each one looked to the other to take the lead, and the aggressors got away with it.”
Login
News feeds
Re: "I called the Command Post after I saw Dr Chee and Mr George before I saw the other three joining them." - kangaroo Hassan
to:
Re: "...my assessment then was that Dr Chee's presence at the location could cause public order concerns..." - kangaroo Hassan
the prosecution's witness has made a HUGE logical leap. And as I said his credibility is definitely suspect for having submitted 3 different versions of the events he claims to have been a witness to.
What is the causal link between Dr Chee's presence at this or any other location and public order problems - I will be referring to it as "law and order problems" instead hereafter?
Have there ever been precedents to this effect prior to this?
Indeed, Ms Chee has determined - and this is now in the court records - that Mohd Hassan doesn't know what he's talking about:
MH: My assessment was based on the fact that Dr Chee had previously used...perhaps...big events to conduct activities which attract attention to his cause.
CSC: What are these big events?
MH: I cannot recall now.
In other words, there has never been a precedent event in which Dr Chee's mere presence has resulted in law and order problems.
Is there any video footage that the SDP could submit to court showing Dr Chee selling his book/s in crowded places but attracting only a tiny number of people who approach him?
At any rate, how does attracting large numbers of people - even if that were to be the case in a population that has been scared off Dr Chee - automatically mean law and order problems?
Is that what happens in the case of the large numbers in attendance whenever Lee Kuan Yew is present for an event?
Is it inconceivable that the same large number of people are actually very disciplined and well behaved?
As with Lee Kuan Yew's case?
Then, what are the prevailing socio-political conditions - yes, I really mean PREVAILING and not the race riots of the 1960's - that makes the environment so tense that Dr Chee's presence might result in law and order problems? (Proof would not only be nice; the witness is also obliged to substantiate his claims.)
What a bizzarre and far fetched conclusion, one that could have only come about from baselessness and an overactive imagination!
Yet, the prosecution's witness, Mohd Hassan has the gall to come to this conclusion:
Re: "...and my assessment proved to be right."
How so, Mohd Hassan?
What law and order problems, other than those cooked up by you and those instigating you, occurred on that day?
Finally, if it was ONLY Dr Chee's presence that results in law and order problems, would kangaroo Hassan have called the Command Post if the only people he had seen that day were seven people from the SDP, none of whom were Dr Chee?
Would these seven people have been allowed to continue distrubuting flyers?
It's now left to be seen if Judge Chng Lai Beng has the competence to reject Mohd Hassan's kangaroo testimony;it's already been shot to pieces by Ms Chee.
If he does, then don't blame the Singapore population watching all of this for calling them what they deserve to be called: kangaroo courts!