Comments on: Jap national who assaulted cabby spared jail term, but not local who kicked bus driver

By: fpc

fpc — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:30:29 +0000

//nocityforoldmen

““Pretending to be drunk to avoid paying the cab fare” has not been established as a fact with the information we have at hand yet.
”

The Jap didn’t pay the driver. That’s what established.

The Jap claimed he was drunk. That’s why the court accepted his appeal.

Nonetheless, it is cheap not to pay for a rendered service and to instigate a fight is sickening too.

Whether the Jap is drunk or not, is not relevant.

He has enough good sense to decide not to pay. That meant he is sober enough.

By: fpc

fpc — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:11:18 +0000

//nocityforoldmen

What is your point?

By: nocityforoldmen

nocityforoldmen — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 03:12:31 +0000

@ And Justice For All on Sun, 29th Nov 2009 1:16 am

My friend , I had to answer fpc’s remarks directed at me.

For what you have highlighted so far. These are serious allegations at legal departments, and the relevant authorities will go all out to ‘disprove’ them ,which measures might include discrediting the whistle blower . I guess most of us here have little or no experience with what you had revealed , and so we reserve our comments here. It is only naive for those to truly believe in the excellent non-corruption or high judical rankings that Singapore attained.

For you might think we are missing out on the big picture here and what we are talking about is lengthly and trivial , but the line of thoughts remains consistent with the article.

If you will like comments to be discussing what the things you had said , consider submitting an article to the site.

By: angryman

angryman — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:53:14 +0000

the criminal justice system in singapore is full of loopholes! a senior inspector once told me, “the accused has a lot of big shots writing for him…” and i was naive enough to think it din matter, that i had faith in the system… lolololol…

you see, in singapore, it matters not if you don’t “know” the law. what is more important is that you do know people who can pull strings at the law.

i see this in so many cases, drug-trafficking, violence (domestic or public) and defamation. the virus is spreading faster than H1N1…

By: fpc

fpc — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:41:36 +0000

don’t believe, try doing that when you take a cab to work. See how the cab driver changes his/her behavior.

By: fpc

fpc — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:39:47 +0000

You can push, you can pull but you cannot instigate a fight but not paying for a rendered service.

It is cheap.

I do not believe the cab driver instigate the fight because rules are so strict here in Singapore and these drivers know it.

They won’t want to jeopardise their livelihood because of a cheap shot.

I bet you if the Jap had stopped the driver and pay him on the spot before leaving (if you want, he could ask for a receipt), I assure you that the driver would very likely reduce the fee and smile and apologise to the Jap.

For the cab driver to do that, there must be prior provocation from the Jap.

These drivers work hard for their living and they know the rules are stacked against them.

I don’t believe they would instigate the fight.

By: fpc

fpc — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:33:47 +0000

Yeah, it is true there are many cab drivers who pretend not to know the way and drive around.

You can always ask him to stop and alight after paying him.

You cannot choose not to pay especially he got you there in the first place.

You can complain later.

But you cannot choose not to pay and hit the driver.

If you are drunk (and Singaporean) and hit another driver physically. I can assure you, you will not just get a fine. You probably cannot drive a cab anymore in Singapore.

There are many such cases.

Like it or not, this happens to many Singaporeans.

That’s why this ruling is bias.

By: And Justice For All

And Justice For All — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:16:13 +0000

Just as I expected. I brought up a very serious revelation about the widespread practice of money taking by Sub-court staff (all the way from the bottom up) and no one was bothered by this.

All you guys talk about centres on the Jap and his taxi fare issue, which is a small little micro is miniscule compared to the wider repercussions I have brought up, of systematic plundering by court staff and no one raised any eyebrow. Why the interest on a specific case (which is of no consequence) and no concern expressed regarding a more dangerous trend that is developing ? Why focusing on such detail regarding a tree when it is the forest we should be concerned about?

By: nocityforoldmen

nocityforoldmen — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:58:38 +0000

@fpc on Sat, 28th Nov 2009 7:10 pm
To others , my apologies that the dialogue between fpc and I have took up so much space here or has offended you. The following is actually intended for fpc only, I must admit it has gotten a bit personal .
For “taxi drivers driving around and around – apparently not know where they are going.” ,Your approach is to “paid up and complain later”.
You are not wrong to do that , but for me I will only pay the usual amount if it is a regular route I take. A ‘Take it or leave it ‘situation , and I tell the driver to go to the nearest police station if he wants to.
Why should I have to pay more for someone’s incompetence or someone’s unreasonable attempt to get more money out of me, and then have to waste more of my time to complain later, without knowing if I will ever get a satisfactory reply.
@“Pretending to be drunk and not pay a cab driver is cheap. All the more so, when he is alert enough to take a cab.”
If I am to follow your way of talking, similarly, can I say that the cab driver ‘pretends’ not to know the way and take the drunk man for a long spin to demand a higher cab fare?
One thing for certain is that you and I do not know what the real situation then and so do not make exaggerated claims. “Pretending to be drunk to avoid paying the cab fare” has not been established as a fact with the information we have at hand yet.
@”How can we be sure he had the impression that he was being send around because he was drunk.” –The most simple and obvious way is the cab fare on the meter , is it excessively higher than usual ?
No one will say that the Japanese is right not to pay the cab fare, but does the law or the cab company policy allow the driver to arm himself with an umbrella for hostile confrontation? You said previously “The logical thing to do was to run away.” In the animal kingdom, it is “flight or fight” when hostility appears, what are the chances of an assumed drunken man running away from an umbrella wielding man unscathed ?
One thing for sure is that your self-preservation approach of “paying up first and complain later” and “logical thing to do was to run away” is strikingly different from mine.

You said “To fall in a tussle ? A lot of push and pulling with a significant amount of strength must be involved in order for 2 grown men to fall. There certainly is a lot of agressivity involved. I don’t know how that mitigates the case for jap. “

Is there a possibility or an equal likelihood that the pushing and pulling , aggression involved could have came from cab driver as much as from the Japanese ? We know that the cab driver is the one who probably starts the confrontation with his umbrella.
For illustration sake , if you start a fight by first throwing a punch at me , and you ended up badly walloped by me, then you cried victim and said I had assaulted you with your bruises as evidence . I can only have my own bad luck to blame for engaging in a fight with a sore loser. I am not saying that the Japanese case is like that but that could be a possibility.
For your “if only we can use this kind of reasoning (like the jap) when it comes to govt rules and fines.” and “We have a minister telling us that we need to pay more HDB property tax now because it will be more when the property prices go up. ” is it relevant to what I had said ? seems not to me.

By: fpc

fpc — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 11:17:34 +0000

We have a minister telling us that we need to pay more HDB property tax now because it will be more when the property prices go up.

He charges us more even before the prices go up.

Let alone a cab driver who has managed to send you to where you want to go and you don’t pay up.

U are asking for trouble.