Singapore—Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Leong Mun Wai of the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) commented publicly on recent judicial issues—specifically that of acquitted Indonesian maid Parti Liyani and the suspension from the practice of law of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s sister in law, Lee Suet Fern, over her handling of the final will of the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
In a Facebook post on Monday (Nov 23), Mr Leong quoted the Chinese proverb that says “Justice is in the heart of the people.”
“Anything to do with human beings is often a complex matter. Especially when it comes to making a judgement on a human’s behavior like in the Parti Liyani or Lee Suet Fern case,” he wrote.
“However, we believe the intelligence of the masses is far more perceptive than you think as the Chinese saying goes: ‘Justice is in the heart of the people’ (公道自在人心).
So we will let the people decide.”
Mr Leong, who had served as the Assistant Secretary-General of PSP, stepped down from his position in July to focus on his responsibility as an NCMP.
In a high-profile case, Ms Parti, who had worked for Changi Airport Group chairman Liew Mun Leong, was acquitted of charges of theft in September. Justice Chan Seng Onn said there was “reason to believe that the Liew family…took the pre-emptive first step to terminate” Ms Parti to prevent her from filing a complaint of illegal deployment. The helper had been made to clean the house and office of Mr Liew’s son, Karl Liew.
As for Lee Suet Fern, it was announced last Friday (Nov 20) that the Court of Three Judges had suspended her from practising law for 15 months over her handling of the last will of her late father-in-law.
The written judgment from the Court of Three Judges, which is the highest disciplinary body for lawyers, said that Mrs Lee had been found guilty of misconduct, as she had “blindly followed the directions of her husband, a significant beneficiary under the very will whose execution she helped to rush through”.
The case against Mrs Lee was initiated last year. On Jan 7, 2019, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) referred a case to the Law Society over her possible misconduct in the preparation of LKY’s last will. The case had nothing to do with the validity of the will, according to the AGC.
Mrs Lee wrote that she disagreed with the court’s decision. “There was no basis for this case to have even been initiated,” she said in a media statement, which her husband, Mr Lee Hsien Yang, made public on his Facebook page shortly after noon on Friday.
Her son, Mr Li Shengwu, who had been found guilty in a contempt of court case brought on by the AGC over a private Facebook post from 2017, called on the Prime Minister to resign in another post published on the same day the suspension of Mrs Lee was announced.
He wrote: “Lee Hsien Loong has no shame about using state resources to settle grudges against relatives. He should resign now, rather than continuing to undermine the rule of law in Singapore.” —/TISG
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