Daily Lessons from Life 09 March 2010

"Cop runs fake learning centre - Mon, Mar 08, 2010 The Straits Times

TOGETHER with his China national girlfriend, an assistant police superintendent set up S & T Educational Services in 2004.

To mask his involvement, Ong Tat Wei, 36, did not register himself as a director of the firm but he was the brains behind the business, a district court heard.

S & T did not offer any classes but for $800 to $6,000, it arranged for applications for social visit, student or employment passes for Chinese nationals."

This is alarming. Law enforcement officer violating the very laws he is supposed to uphold. This MUST not be allowed to go unpunished and must be set as an example to warn others from ever trying their luck.

Lessons for me are:

1. new migrants who operated in a very different environment in their home country will always try to employ their methods of influencing the people to power to cut them some slacks or give them unfair advantages. This is understandable as this is how it worked there. Hence, it is critically important for Singaporeans to be sensitised of such practices and be on high alert and guard against such influence;

2. when you are tasked to uphold the laws but ended up violating it, you must be ready to face the very serious consequence of the laws. We cannot condone and tolerate such violation of public trust and authority. Singapore is built upon the 'clean government' platform that enable our society to function reasonably successfully. People in authority must realized the heavy responsibility they carried when performing their work. It must be done without fear or favour. This cannot be compromised nor violated;

3. for those who were thinking about abusing their power, this case will hopefully serve to warn them against trying their luck. The consequence is dire. This police officer's immediate future will be ruined. He will have to pay a heavy price for his irresponsible and corrupt behaviors. There is no mercy here. We must be steadfast. He can, however, turnover a new leaf AFTER he has served in sentences, if convicted. That is another story.

I hope the budget for Internal Affairs of the Singapore Police Force and the Custom Department has been beefed up as it is a line of defense that Singapore MUST hold if we do not want to pay a greater price to attract foreign talent!!

Go back to the basic: Personal Integrity is paramount and money should not be the main incentive for one to be in public services!