Tuesday, May 30, 2006

此地无银三百两

This chinese saying tells the story of a peasant who wanted to hide his silver from possible burglars. So he hid the silver in a hole dug in the ground and planted a sign over the spot that says, "There isn't any silver here, 300 taels of it".

This saying came to my mind becoz I saw this article in the papers. The full article is below...


Bodies chopped – but each case is different
Judge in Aguilar case says she displayed a tortured mind

Ansley Ng
ansley@newstoday.com.sg

WITHIN two weeks, the trials of two killings — where both victims were strangled then chopped up to be disposed in similar fashion — came to a close, but with quite different endings.

While one was sentenced to death for the murder of a Chinese factory worker, the other, Filipino maid Guen Garlejo Aguilar, was sent to prison for 10 years for manslaughter yesterday.

Aguilar, 30, pleaded guilty to killing fellow maid Jane Parangan La Puebla on Sept 7 last year, strangling her good friend to death during a fight.

Yesterday, before he handed down the jail sentence to Aguilar, Justice VK Rajah made it a point to note — without directly referring to the case of Leong Siew Chor — that it was wrong to compare different cases of body dismemberment, "given the multitude of imponderables associated with human behaviour".

Leong was sent to the gallows on May 19 for killing and dismembering his lover and colleague Liu Hong Mei.

"No two cases of this nature are or can conceivably be symmetrical," Justice Rajah said. "It bears reiteration that the act of killing in this case occurred well before the body was dismembered."

Aguilar, the judge added, behaved "paradoxically".

While she had intended to conceal the body after the killing, her decision to plant the body parts in "two very public places … strikes one as nothing short of incoherent and incomprehensible", he said.

Aguilar's conduct after the killing was "baffling" and also showed that she had a "tortured mind".

"It would be fair to infer that her prevailing illness was in all likelihood severely exacerbated after she killed the deceased," Justice Rajah added.

The judge also noted that Aguilar could not have been able to distinguish between right and wrong due to her mental abnormality.

He also accepted State-appointed psychiatrist Dr Tommy Tan's testimony that Aguilar — a mother of two — was unlikely to re-offend, adding that the mayor in her hometown of Tagudin has pledged to provide social and counselling support when she returns to the Philippines after her release.

After the hearing, Aguilar's lawyer Shashi Nathan also said that to compare Leong's case with his client's was being "unfair".

"Every case has its own peculiarities," he said. "What the court recognised was that, clearly, there was no pre-meditation. Both girls were involved in a fight."

A Singaporean in Aguilar's situation would have received the same sentence, he said, adding that she could be released after six years for good behaviour.


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Such a long article to defend and explain the court's actions. By the time I finish reading, my tea already turn cold liao. And cold tea will make your stomach sour and uncomfortable. I wonder if Leong the S'porean got do NS or not? Is he a supporter of a system that appeases foreigners at the expense of his life? Is he wondering about the double standards??


In 1994, Johannes Van Damme a Dutch citizen was hanged for drug trafficking. An uproar erupted in the West. A year later in 1995, a Filipina, Flor Contemplacion, was hanged for murder. Another uproar erupted in the Philippines. S'pore flag kena burned some more. Since then the PAP rgime has learned a lesson, don't ever hang foreigners becos S'pore will pay a price. When they hang an Australian last yr, thinking that white racist Aussies would not care since the Aussie was of Vietnamese descent, they miscalculated. S'pore international reputation took yet another beating.

The PAP regime only knows how to howlian and talk big in S'pore. They threaten and are merciless when it comes to punishing S'poreans. But when it comes to foreigners, it is a different story. From 10 feet tall, they shrink to 10 inches high. Their lum par chees all drop off. They sweat and their faces turn pale, all kan cheong with stones in their throats, blabbering incoherently about having principles and dogma. Yet they betray principles and strike deals so that foreigners' lives can be spared. Remember McCrea that Briton murderer? Fucker now want to plead insanity some more, the last I heard...

"Justice" in S'pore really depends on who you. If you are suay enough to be a S'porean Shamugam, Leong Ah Chor or Ahmad Ali while committing a crime, too bad for you loh.

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