Recently Singaporeans found a favourite targeted 'villain' to hate. A high court judge has acquitted an Indonesian maid who appealed against her conviction of stealing $34,000 worth of items from the household of Liew Mun Leong , chairman of the Changi Airport Group. As LML is a very influential and wealthy person in the country, the case is likened to a David vs Goliath victory of truth over mean persecution. As the High court judge viewed the conviction as some misapplication of legal principles and found shortcomings on the part of the prosecution and police in handling the case, netizens who have a grudge against the elite and social inequality jumped at the opportunity to bark at the system.
I did read up a bit on the case. My takeaway is that most of us in Singapore can learn a lesson or 2 from the events which took place which led to the wrongful conviction. Although we can point fingers we ourselves are not free of the shortcomings.
Firstly, it is the prejudice and bias, a bit like that of the US police against black people. Can we dare say we will not fall into the trap of thinking that it is irrational for a family of such immense wealth to accuse the maid of theft. Will we also not think that the defence lawyer comes out with a lame defence about the victim family's motive which seems unimportant? This prejudice will affect the way one carries out the investigation falling into weaknesses of confirmation bias and lack of objectiveness. How many times do we quicken our steps when walking home at night when a migrant worker is behind us?
I also believe the district trial judge was under pressure when presiding a case where the victims are influential people applauded by politicians. Even if she had doubts she would prefer to err in their favour. This is a lesson on fearlessness in upholding justice and moral ethics. If not it would come back to haunt us.
Talking about that reminds me of cause and effect. When one's intention is not good, the consequences of actions out of such bad intentions will soon hurt oneself. The High court judge believed that the family had tried to frame the maid of theft after firing her and forcing her to return to Indonesia within a few hours. The maid in her anger had said she will report the family for making her work in more than one household which is against the labour law. To prevent her from coming back to Singapore the family reported to the police that she stole items from the house and piled them into carton boxes which were supposed to be shipped by the family to the maid's home. Perhaps the family thought she would never be able to enter the country with an employment pass due to the police report. What they perhaps never imagined was her return on a social visit and was arrested immediately at the airport, leading to more knots that the family had to untie and probably a situation out of their control. As Kung Fu Panda says "One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it".
The last lesson we can learn from this saga is never to be overly confident when one is in an advantageous situation. The way LML's son answered questions put to him by the defence lawyer and judge appears to be very flippant and thoughtless. He sounded like one so certain the maid would not be taken seriously such that he could pluck answers out-of-thin-air. He never thought these untrue and careless answers would one day bounce back against him.
Of more important is the lesson never to abuse one's privilege and power.
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