Activist Jolovan Wham, who is currently on trial for organising a public assembly without permit, has complaints about the authorities for wasting his friend's time and pressuring people to sign statements.
In a Facebook post on 2 Oct 2018, Wham said that his event co-organiser, Rachel Zeng, was asked to testify in the trial but told at the last minute that her presence was no longer needed.
"All this was quite a waste of time and resources. It was never in doubt that the event happened, and that I had invited Joshua Wong from Hong Kong to speak, and the topic was indeed on civil disobedience, democracy and social change. This was established in a statement of facts agreed between the prosecutor and I. It was even worse for Rachel, who had to take leave from work only to find that she wasn't needed".
Wham was also unhappy with how the police treated him by pressuring him to sign documents. He stood by his decision to only sign statements he will be given copies of, as he claims to have come across many instances where foreign workers were forced to sign papers only to end up getting stuck in Singapore.
"Such stories hardly come to light because most victims are afraid of filing complaints and speaking out. We'll also never really know because we don't have an independent commission to investigate police wrong doing, nor are there cameras in investigation rooms to monitor abuse of power.
Transparency is important but so lacking in our institutions. Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam have talked about the importance of trust in our public institutions and the police force. This can be improved if measures are put in place to enhance checks and balances. Until this is done, it is not wrong for us to assume that we are not tackling police abuse of power effectively".
How long do they want to ownself check ownself? Is this a good practice?
