Is Singapore a police state?

by Teo Soh Lung

"Willy Sum" is not his real name, he is under police investigation. He allegedly committed criminal defamation with just a letter to the TOC containing the word "bribery". He uses this pseudonym because he does not want to be confused with a stranger.

For that, the police had ruined his vacation in Taiwan. It was his mother's gift on the occasion of the 62nd birthday. She had skimped and saved for this trip that cost her nearly $ 2,000. She was looking forward to a nice vacation with her only son. But five plainclothes policemen threw themselves on it. They ambushed and embarrassed them in front of their neighbors while they waited for Grab to be on the empty deck to take them to the airport. Humiliated, they were escorted to their apartment in front of their neighbors. They were shocked. Never in their craziest dream they would have ever thought that they would be arrested in public.

Police apparently received a warrant to search and seize properties. They searched their apartment and took away the cell phone and two cell phones from Willy. Willy was told to report to Cantonment Police Headquarters an hour later.

The police claimed to belong to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the main investigative body and chief criminal investigation officer in the Singapore Police. According to its website, "… the CID is responsible for investigating serious and sensitive crimes, including murders, rapes, bombings, organized crime, casino crime and cybercrime. The department is also responsible for cracking down on crime and cracking down on secret societies, secret societies, unlicensed loans and intellectual property rights violations. … "

How does a letter posted on an online news site fall within this category of heinous crimes? It's just staggering.

Who is Willy?

Willy is an extraordinary young man. It helps the homeless and the poor. He is good with languages ​​and easily hears with people. He empathizes with the poor and understands their distress. It helps them solve problems and misunderstandings with departments. He likes to write and writes very well.

Willy is a good listener. He spends hours listening to people talking about their problems. He writes about their difficulties and their problems. It highlights the problems they face, sometimes using online platforms such as TOC and Transitioning.org. He writes about their inability to cope with the high cost of living, their unemployment and, sometimes, their violation of the law. He helps them communicate with the relevant departments and is simply delighted when his letters receive the necessary attention and the status of his "clients" is improved. His "clients" are grateful to him and he is happy. He is a kind of former "petitions editor", except that he does it for free.

Recently, he helped Siti, a mother of three, thanks to this article published in Transitioning.org: "Children taken away from their parents by MSF, even after a negative test".

Siti's children were removed from his care by the very ministry that was supposed to help him keep his family together. When everything failed and she was pushed to the wall, Willy came to her rescue. Shortly after the publication of Siti's letter in Transitioning.org, her three children were reunited with her. Thanks to Transitioning.org and Willy.

Willy's letter highlights the incompetence of the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), which is supposed to help the poor and the poor. He also spoke of the inadequacy of law enforcement agencies and the police's flippant behavior with respect to drugs. Such harsh and irresponsible behavior on the part of the police and MSF has the effect of "slowing down the drop of poison" (to use Mr. Edwin Tong's words) on our society. People internalize fear and lead abnormal lives.

The article above is only one example of what Willy does. He does not want to claim credit for what he has done. Indeed, even Transitioning.Org was not aware of what Willy had done for his clients.

Why did the police seize Willy's properties?

Under the pretext of investigating the contents of a single letter to OCD, I learned that the police had downloaded and printed more than 50 emails that Willy had sent to TOC. Many of these letters were not published. These were simply copies of letters written to the ministries. These couriers spread over several years.

I'm curious to know if the police will search all the mail on Willy's cell phone. Maybe 50 more letters, published and unpublished, will be uploaded and interviewed by Willy!

Police should stop investigating Willy and Terry Xu of OCD. Nothing in their computers deserves the attention of the CID. I am convinced that it is not planned to blow up the Cantonment Police Headquarters. Honestly, I do not even understand how the CID can convince our courts to issue property seizure warrants to search Willy and Terry Xu's apartments.

Willy and Terry Xu have lost many hours at the CID. They were traumatized and inconvenienced by the seizure of their electronic devices. The police must return all their equipment and devices immediately with appropriate apologies.