Twists and turns as sensational case shatters Singapore calm

By Renga Subbiah

March 05, 2011

SINGAPORE, March 5 — A court case in Singapore has shattered the placid veneer that envelopes this little oasis, providing more than enough sensational material for the cocktail circuit. 
What tops this sensational story is the revelations of the intractable behaviour of a member of the Brunei royal family. Then there is the charge that a prominent Singapore surgeon overcharged her royal patient when the doctor billed the palace US$24.8 million (RM75 million) for breast cancer treatment between January and July 2007 just before the Bruneian died.
  
If that is not enough, there are dark accusations of conflict of interest and abuse of power involving a government official wearing multiple hats of instigator, accuser and raider.
 
The hearing against Dr Susan Lim for allegedly overcharging Pangiran Anak Hajah Damit, the cousin of the Brunei Sultan and sister of the Queen, was heard in private by the Singapore Medical Council. The inquiry ended in disaster after the panel stepped down on the first day over accusations that it had pre-judged the case.
 
At this time, something strange happened. The SMC changed the regulations governing an inquiry, which on the face of it, would ease prosecution hurdles, and issued an order to form a second inquiry. Lim took offence and went to the High Court for a judicial review saying that the second inquiry should not proceed.
 
At the judicial inquiry last week,  Lim’s lawyer said the Brunei Health Ministry had only wanted a discount and did not intend to complain about Lim’s charges. 
 
But when the matter was brought up to the Director of Medical Services at Singapore’s Ministry of Health, Professor K. Satku, he advised the Brunei authorities not to pay anything.
Following this exchange, Satku complained to the Singapore Medical Council and initiated disciplinary action against Lim for “overcharging”. 
 
Lim’s lawyer charged that Saktu was biased as he was not only the Director of Medical Services but also the Registrar of the SMC and the complainant. As such, one person wearing multiple hats meant a conflict of interest and would impede a fair inquiry.
 
Saktu was also the one who ordered a raid on Lim’s clinic, with medical bills being seized.
 
The court was also told that Pangiran Damit was a difficult patient as she was petrified of most doctors, and hence her demands on Lim were all-consuming.
 
There was a time when she refused to travel to Singapore for treatment, and Lim had to set up an entire ICU structure and fly it to Brunei in a private jet. There was even a demand for an OSIM massage chair be placed in her room before the visit of her cousin, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah. The chair was ordered to be removed an hour later.
  
Lim was required to be on standby 24/7 and had to be available at a moment’s notice if Pangiran Damit wanted to see her. This extended to the time when Lim had undergone eye surgery and was recovering in a hospital bed.

 Pangiran Damit insisted that she be by her side, despite the possibility that Lim could be blinded in one eye if she moved around. Lim had to be transported in that state to attend to Pangiran Damit.

The SMC’s lawyer said the bills of other doctors who helped Lim were marked up. The doctors denied this in sworn affidavits.
 
In his four-hour submission on March 1, SMC’s counsel argued that the second inquiry should not be stopped because “if the doctor is guilty, she would not get off scot-free; if she was innocent — if there was a fee agreement and she rendered such a good job for the patient who trusted her — those facts would emerge. Lim would then come out as pure as the driven snow”, he said.
On the same day as proceedings ended, the SMC announced the appointment of Professor Chew Suok Kai as the Deputy Registrar of the SMC and that he would be taking over Saktu’s duties.  This is a post which previously did not exist. A provision was made in the law and sanctioned in Parliament in January this year.
 
Singaporeans will have to wait till March 28, when the High Court hearing resumes, to find out if there will be more twists, turns and revelations. — Intrepid

All a joke

It happened many times before, year in year out, it is the same story. Ladies and Gentleman, it is that time of the year when the police awakes from their slumber, carried their potbellied sorry er... asses to give their ever popular annual discount on the summonses faithfully accumulated by die-hard traffic offenders. The main stream paper will create an aura of urgency that the force means business this time around and does a countdown on the deadline. The papers would be flashing pictures of never ending queue of offenders trying desperately, waiting from the wee hours of the morning, to clear their debt with the police. The law abiding citizens would look at this and gleefully think, "Serves them right!" Like an anti-climax and a wet blanket, the dead line would come and there would an extension to the date. And the police would say, "This time we mean business. Read my lips, no more second chance, we will get you."
Did I forget to mention about the antics and records of sorts done by the offenders? The papers would shamelessly show some guy bragging how many summonses he had accumulated over the year and how much he paid whilst proudly posing with his long winding bill in front of him. Like this this guy who had to pay for 270 summonses! Hey, breaking the law makes you, maybe not so rich but indeed famous (or is it infamous)!
With the motor vehicle accidents rates in Malaysia being scarily high, the police is just preparing more material for the papers to write on to meet up their dwindling sales. First, there would be a bad bus accident. Then the surviving victims would say the bus driver was driving recklessly and went astray. The authorities would come in later to say that they would look into the matter, no stone would be left unturned. A few days later, the nation would be shell-shocked that the killer had so many outstanding summonses that he would not even be fit to ride a bullock cart. We would all brood in talk shows over radio and be appalled on how such an animal with such a blemished record could be allowed to hold the steering wheels and prowl meekly on our roads. Hue and cries would be raised and everybody would suggest ingenious ways to nip the problem in the bud; the howl reaching a crescendo, plateau and fizzle out as rapid as it sparked and life as we know it would go on like nothing happened.... Obladi Oblada...
And do not let me start about the international flight by night undercover individuals who manifest and disappear as slithery as KGB or Moussad and and vanish right under our eyes like Julie's biscuits (Now you see it and now you don't!). And we are not talking of smooth talking suave debonair of Ian Fleming's  Iron Curtain hero who could break your heart with his dimpled teethy smile. I am talking about our menace in the backyard, the illegal immigrants. Like mushrooms after a tropical rain, they have been flourishing under the noses of the authorities as colonies in most suburbs over the years. Occasionally, the immigration officers (probably under a new chief - the new broom) would suddenly awake from their Sleeping Beauty slumber to put things in order. They would realize that the scale of the problem was too hard to handle. Ingeniously, they would offer amnesty period in the spirit of Ramadhan or 'penduduk serumpun' (natives of the same stock). After that period, the colonies would be Ghost Towns just to be haunted by new shipment all over again. And they all will come in new names and spanking new passports, thanks to corrupt officers in their motherland! And our officers? Pulling the blankets to make themselves more comfortable.
It is all a big joke but sadly no one is laughing because the joke is on us. 


P.S. I see, now I  understand why Indonesian patients seems aloof when their names are called by the clinic nurses. There is only so many names they can remember!

Dhoby Ghaut: Kamikaze or another wind of change?

Happy at work at Dhoby Ghaut

Just the day, I was having a friendly chat with an acquaintance who happened to be an Indian citizen and was passionate about Indian movies. Just for the record, I do not think you can pick out any Indian from the Indian subcontinent who is not crazy about movies. The silver screen plays such an important role in their everyday lives that only in India, you can have ladies going into labour in cinemas, adding more drama for the viewers. The scenes could either be too emotional for the mothers to stomach that they just went into spontaneous labour or that the mother just had to see the movie before she was put under 'house arrest' - due to cultural beliefs that a post partum mother is unclean and weak, hence she is not to be outdoors as evil spirits may eat on their souls together with her offspring!.
We were discussing about the recent Aamir Khan's offering from Bollywood named 'Dhoby Ghaut'. It is what one in India would call an art movie; where there is no mandatory boy meets girl, running about the park scenes and learning about relative speed by looking at lovers running towards each other in slow motion. In fact, that was how Mr. Chai Poh Keng taught us the concept of relative velocity in Modern Mathematics. Thinking further, probably, Dr Albert Einstein would have found about the motion of planets in the Universe and the Theory of Relativity a little bit earlier is he were exposed to Bollywood movies in his childhood!

Mumbaikar dhobis at work in the
Mahalaxmi area

Okay, coming back to the discussion. My Indian friend was furious that an Indian should make an Indian movie in India with Indian actors about India in a bilingual mode of communication (English and Hindi). He said that it was economic suicide (kamikaze) from the viewpoint of box office collection. No Indian worth the salt he was eating would want to see such a movie. And we know Indians eat 
a lot of salt. In fact, the salt march mooted by Gandhi was one of the turning points in Indians' march to Independence.
I did not want to oppose his views as I did not know him well enough. For all you know, he could just unsheathe a steely sword from his back on revenge for hurting his nationalistic and linguistic pride! Interestingly, he married a Malaysian and has put in his papers and is waiting rather impatiently for his Permanent Residency in Malaysia! I let it slip by. With the freedom given to me by cyberspace, I can have the peace to rattle my 2-cents worthless piece of opinion.
Just like my dear friend, many Indians migrate and have migrated more than at least a generation ago. These 2nd generation Indians are completely cut off the umbilical cord of 'Indianess'. They still eat spicy Indian food. watch Indian movies and listen to Indian songs -their language prowess may need a little polishing, though. Anyway, it is a known fact that 'English adulteration' of Hindi and Tamil is rampant. Just listen to any interview with any famous guest on the local programme, they would be using more English words than the intended language of communication. About 15 years ago, the Tamil TV channel of Singapore did a secret study by interviewing people in the streets of Singapore. The final conclusion was that Singaporean spoke better Tamil as the Tamil Nadu visitors to Singapore spoke as the visitors articulated with way too many English words interposed in their conversation. So pure unadulterated spoken language is only in classrooms and language classes!
I think the whole idea of Aamir Khan producing 'Dhoby Ghaut' is Grammy on his mind. After missing the coveted award in the foreign film category many times, what better way than to make a movie depicting true everyday life of Bombaywalas (ala Slum Dog Millionaire), put in a few naughty (spelt Indian taboo) scenes looking from an American Desi lens and viola you have a winner!
I do not reckon that collection would be low as there are too many NRIs (Non Resident Indians) who are willing to contribute to his coffers, feeling good about themselves and their forefathers for escaping the sorrows of living in a dog eat dog environment as depicted in the movies. I do not think money is highest on the agenda if you are only churning a movie a year.
I noticed that his movies of late have been different with liberal spread of nationalism in it, starting with 'Lagaan', 'Mangal Pandey -the rising', 'Rang Ki Basanthi'; humour with '3 idiots', autism with 'Taare Zameen Par' and life of NRIs with 'Dil Chhata Hai'.
I was particularly impressed with 'Rang Ki Basanthi' which showcased that nothing has changed with India from pre-Independence. First, the British were oppressing the people, now 60 years after Independence, suppression and oppression comes from the politicians (their fellow Indians) of present day! -nicely done!
Watching 'Dhoby Ghaut' reminded me of a movie screened in1982 in the USM campus in an international movie festival called '36 Chowrangee Lane'. It was the legendary Bollywood actor Sashi Kapoor's production with his Caucasian wife Jennifer in the lead role. It was an extremely slow moving show minus the glitz associated with Indian movies. It was a flop in Indian box office then but raved praises from literary viewers.
Just like that my Indian friend thinks that making 'Dhoby Ghaut' is kamikaze. Is it kamikaze or is it that the wind of change is hitting the Indian movie scene? We should not forget that kamikaze actually means divine wind. It was the typhoon that saved the Japanese from Kublai Khan's attacks back in 1281.
Anyway if you listen to what my wife says, then you should just watch the movie. Do not think a lot and do not ask too many questions!

The sun still rises

Winds of Change

One generation ago, parents insisted that children should get dressed on a Sunday morning for a family outing at the temple. Children obediently followed with raising any objections. Without fail, they would diligently follow the proceedings in the temple and partake in their activities.
The newer generation, however, being more vocal and assertive in their likes and dislikes, just stay from the temples as they find more interesting things to do outside the temple during the designated prayer times on Sunday mornings. As more and more youngsters of Generation-Y and beyond are not conversant in their mother tongues, they find the whole proceedings an exercise in futility as the lingua franca in most temple activities and sermons are neither English nor Malay!
To draw back these group of people to the path of righteousness and prevent them from going astray, one the temples I go to occasionally have started to have weekly 20-minute talk by non-religious figures (regular people with regular clothes minus the bodily applications of holy ashes or sandalwood paste)  in English on topics related to Hinduism. This particular abode of worship have also started youth dance classes, language classes, social services (to help the needy, not guest relations, of course!) and have even included youngsters in their temple committee!
In another church, the music accompaniment during the services is by a band akin to a rock and roll band.  The idea behind this move is to draw the young congregation back to the House of God. In most first world countries, studies have shown that people only go to church on their wedding or somebody's funeral (and theirs too, they are sent to, naturally).
Just like a snake charmer who convinces his spectators that his snakes (who are naturally deaf to sounds) are indeed dancing to their tune, modern day parents are dancing around with snake charmers' flute like madmen trying to get the children do what is good for them as so they perceive. They do not want their dear beloveds to live to regret missing it. But is it really good for them? Who knows? Only time will tell... At least the parents' conscious is clear!

Too posh to push?

A few weeks ago, there was a phone in session over the radio (BFM) on the Damansara Heights (situated in a luxurious uptown part of KL) Residents' Association President, Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abd Rahaman's statement where he had the cheek to tell the press that his neighbours do not want the MRT stations to be located anywhere near their neighbourhood as they preferred to drive in their Jaguars and their other luxury cars!

Passengers on a train in Bihar

' “People in our area will not use this (the MRT). People from other areas... pass through our area to go to town. That makes the whole place jammed (already),” he added. Abdul Aziz also pointed out that land was scarce in the affluent neighbourhood, which counts ministers, tycoons and top civil servants as among its residents.'
Here we are, everybody trying to crack their heads trying to draft a master plan to modernize our public transportation in line with any developed nation but it seems now that everything is just lip service. Sure, the ministers and the learned individuals encourage the masses to car pool and use public transport. This is, however, only for others to follow, so much for leadership by example. I remember one of my teachers in secondary school who had a problem with the bottle used to tell us, "Do as I say, not as I do!" The same analogy can be applied here. We have one set of rules for the haves and one for the have not!
Probably, the affluent passengers are too posh to push for a place in the bus just we did many years ago.

Posh spice

Talking about too posh to push, gone are the days when ladies are going to take the uncertainty of labour and the gruelling pain of parturition lying down (no pun intended). Just like the many high ranking position that they hold and the split second decisions that they need to make, they want to be in control. Or are they simply too posh to push, be put in a helpless situation where they are at the mercy and compassion of lowly medical and midwifery staff. Hence, many posh mothers rather opt to go under knife for a Caesarean section than spontaneous natural labour. They cite age factor, conserving anatomical structures, reducing incidence of urinary problems in later life as well as myriad of other reasons, including delivering baby at an auspicious time when the stars are at a pleasing constellation so that their newborns' lives would be as posh as theirs! 

http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/newscommentaries/38184-rich-say-dont-need-mrt-but-poor-welcome-it

History’s shifting sands

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2011

Aljazeera: History’s shifting sands... by Mark LeVine

The revolutions sweeping the Arab world indicate a tectonic shift in the global balance of people power
by Mark LeVine 
Aljazeera, 26 Feb 2011 

For decades, even centuries, the peoples of the Arab world have been told by Europeans and, later, Americans that their societies were stagnant and backward. According to Lord Cromer, author of the 1908 pseudo-history Modern Egypt, their progress was “arrested” by the very fact of their being Muslim, by virtue of which their minds were as “strange” to that of a modern Western man “as would be the mind of an inhabitant of Saturn”.

The only hope of reshaping their minds towards a more earthly disposition was to accept Western tutelage, supervision, and even rule “until such time as they [we]re able to stand alone,” in the words of the League of Nations’ Mandate. Whether it was Napoleon claiming fraternité with Egyptians in fin-de-siècle Cairo or George W. Bush claiming similar amity with Iraqis two centuries later, the message, and the means of delivering it, have been consistent.

Ever since Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti, the great Egyptian chronicler of the French invasion of Egypt, brilliantly dissected Napoleon’s epistle to Egyptians, the peoples of the Middle East have seen through the Western protestations of benevolence and altruism to the naked self-interest that has always laid at the heart of great power politics. But the hypocrisy behind Western policies never stopped millions of people across the region from admiring and fighting for the ideals of freedom, progress and democracy they promised.

Even with the rise of a swaggeringly belligerent American foreign policy after September 11 on the one hand, and of China as a viable economic alternative to US global dominance on the other, the US’ melting pot democracy and seemingly endless potential for renewal and growth offered a model for the future.

Trading places
But something has changed. An epochal shift of historical momentum has occurred whose implications have yet to be imagined, never mind assessed. In the space of a month, the intellectual, political and ideological centre of gravity in the world has shifted from the far West (America) and far East (China, whose unchecked growth and continued political oppression are clearly not a model for the region) back to the Middle – to Egypt, the mother of all civilization, and other young societies across the Middle East and North Africa.

Standing amidst hundreds of thousands of Egyptians in Tahrir Square seizing control of their destiny it suddenly seemed that our own leaders have become, if not quite pharaohs, then mamluks, more concerned with satisfying their greed for wealth and power than with bringing their countries together to achieve a measure of progress and modernity in the new century. Nor does China, which has offered its model of state-led authoritarian capitalist development coupled with social liberalisation as an alternative to the developing world, seem like a desirable option to the people risking death for democracy in the streets of capitals across the Arab world and Iran.

Instead, Egyptians, Tunisians and other peoples of the region fighting for revolutionary political and economic change have, without warning, leapfrogged over the US and China and grabbed history’s reins. Suddenly, it is the young activists of Tahrir who are the example for the world, while the great powers seem mired in old thinking and outdated systems. From the perspective of “independence” squares across the region, the US looks ideologically stagnant and even backwards, filled with irrational people and political and economic elites incapable of conceiving of changes that are so obvious to the rest of the world.

Foundations sinking into the sands?
Although she likely did not intend it, when Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, warned Arab leaders in early January that they must “reform” lest their systems “sink in the sand” her words were as relevant in Washington as they were in Tunis, Tripoli, Cairo or Sanaa. But Americans – the people as much as their leaders – are so busy dismantling the social, political and economic foundations of their former greatness that they are unable to see how much they have become like the stereotype of the traditional Middle Eastern society that for so long was used to justify, alternately (and sometimes simultaneously) supporting authoritarian leaders or imposing foreign rule.

A well known Egyptian labour organiser, Kamal Abbas, made a video telling Americans from Tahrir that “we and all the people of the world stand on your side and give you our full support”. It is a good thing, because it is clear Americans need all the support they can get. “I want you to know,” he continued, “that no power can challenge the will of the people when they believe in their rights. When they raise their voices loud and clear and struggle against exploitation.”

Aren’t such lines supposed to be uttered by American presidents instead of Egyptian union activists?
Similarly, in Morocco activists made a video before their own ‘day of rage’ where they explained why they were taking to the streets. Among the reasons, “because I want a free and equal morocco for all citizens,” “so that all Moroccans will be equal,” so that education and health care “will be accessible to everyone, not only the rich,” in order that “labour rights will be respected and exploitation put to an end,” and to “hold accountable those who ruined this country”.

Can one even imagine millions of Americans taking to the streets in a day of rage to demand such rights?

“Stand firm and don’t waiver …. Victory always belongs to the people who stand firm and demand their just rights,” Kamal Abbas urged Americans. When did they forget this basic fact of history?
From top to bottom

The problem clearly starts from the top and continues to the grass roots. Barack Obama campaigned for the presidency on the slogan “Yes we can!” But whether caving in to Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, on settlements, or standing by as Republicans wage a jihad on the working people of Wisconsin, the president has refused to stand up for principles that were once the bedrock of American democracy and foreign policy.

The American people are equally to blame, as increasingly, those without healthcare, job security or pensions seem intent on dragging down the lucky few unionised workers who still have them rather than engage in the hard work of demanding the same rights for themselves.

The top one per cent of Americans, who now earn more than the bottom 50 per cent of the country combined, could not have scripted it any better if they had tried. They have achieved a feat that Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak and their fellow cleptocrats could only envy (the poorest 20 per cent of the population in Tunisia and Egypt actually earn a larger share of national income than does their counterpart in the US).

The situation is so desperate that a well known singer and activist contacted me in Cairo to ask organisers of Tahrir to send words of support for union workers in Wisconsin. Yet “Madison is the new Tahrir” remains a dream with little hope of becoming reality, even as Cairenes take time out from their own revolution proudly to order pizza for their fellow protesters in Wisconsin.

The power of youth and workers
In Egypt, workers continue to strike, risking the ire of the military junta that has yet to release political prisoners or get rid of the emergency law. It was their efforts, more than perhaps anyone else, that pushed the revolution over the top at the moment when people feared the Mubarak regime could ride out the protests. For their part, Americans have all but forgotten that the “golden years” of the 1950s and 1960s were only golden to so many people because unions were strong and ensured that the majority of the country’s wealth remained in the hands of the middle class or was spent on programmes to improve public infrastructure across the board.

The youth of the Arab world, until yesterday considered a “demographic bomb” waiting to explode in religious militancy and Islamo-fascism, is suddenly revealed to be a demographic gift, providing precisely the vigour and imagination that for generations the people of the region have been told they lacked. They have wired – or more precisely today, unwired – themselves for democracy, creating virtual and real public spheres were people from across the political, economic and social spectrum are coming together in common purpose. Meanwhile, in the US it seems young people are chained to their iPods, iPhones and social media, which has anesthetised and depoliticised them in inverse proportion to its liberating effect on their cohorts across the ocean.

Indeed, the majority of young people today are so focused on satisfying their immediate economic needs and interests that they are largely incapable of thinking or acting collectively or proactively. Like frogs being slowly boiled alive, they are adjusting to each new setback – a tuition increase, here, lower job prospects there – desperately hoping to get a competitive edge in a system that is increasingly stacked against them.

Will Ibn Khaldun be proved right?
It now seems clear that hoping for the Obama administration to support real democracy in the Middle East is probably too much to ask, since it cannot even support full democracy and economic and social rights for the majority of people at home. More and more, the US feels not just increasingly “irrelevant” on the world stage, as many commentators have described its waning position in the Middle East, but like a giant ship heading for an iceberg while the passengers and crew argue about how to arrange the deck chairs.

Luckily, inspiration has arrived, albeit from what to a ‘Western’ eye seems like the unlikeliest of sources. The question is: Can the US have a Tahrir moment, or as the great Arab historian Ibn Khaldun would have predicted, has it entered the irreversible downward spiral that is the fate of all great civilizations once they lose the social purpose and solidarity that helped make them great in the first place?

It is still too early to say for sure, but as of today it seems that the reins of history have surely passed out of America’s hands.

Mark LeVine is a professor of history at UC Irvine and senior visiting researcher at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University in Sweden. He has authored several books including Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the Struggle for Palestine (University of California Press, 2005) and An Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989 (Zed Books, 2009).

The brothers who sold each other!

When we look at history, we can see that the world had never been peaceful in its entire existence. Since there is a lot of turmoil in the Moslem world of late, maybe we should look at the glory of the Islamic civilization and conquest. Like all religions in the world, Islam proclaim to be a religion of peace. History again and again has proved that, like any other religion of the world, there is too much of violence and blood shed, in-fighting and double crossing to justify the above.
The hey days of the Islamic empire spanned over the 8th century to 13th century AD when they hailed in many areas which would have made them more 'civilised'. Internal conflicts and animosity is the cause of their downfall. There were sporadic jubilations brought about by Mongol converts who later formed the the Ottoman Empire in Byzatnium, the Farsi empire and the Moghuls in India.
Even though religion seem to be an unifying lubricant amongst men, the medieval animal instinct in them try to differentiate each other via colour and creed.
The Arabs, being jealous and disgusted with the supposedly the 'lesser holy' Moslem, never like the idea of Turks leading the Moslem world. When the tide was low in World War 1, the Turks made a pact with the Germans whereas the Arabs with their enemies the British. This animosity goes on till today with the British and Americans having much influence in the Arab world. Coincidentally, the invaluable black gold is in abundance there. How convenient!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_history