Daily Lessons from Life 06 August 2010 - Hong Kong government appeals decision to free judge's niece

"Hong Kong government appeals decision to free judge's niece - Fri, Aug 06, 2010 AFP

HONG KONG (AFP) - The Hong Kong government said Friday it would appeal a court's controversial decision to spare the niece of a top judge a jail term for her third conviction for assaulting a police officer.


Amina Bokhary, whose uncle Kemal Bokhary is a judge of the city's highest court, was given probation Monday for slapping a police constable who tried to stop her leaving the scene of her car's collision with a coach in January. She was also fined 8,000 Hong Kong dollars (S$1,393.60) for careless driving and refusing to take a breath test.

Magistrate Anthony Yuen said Monday he considered her 'good background, well-off family (and) outstanding academic achievement' as mitigating factors. He also noted she suffered from bipolar disorder."

I am glad that the Hkg government is appealing against this lenient sentencing of the niece of a top judge in Hkg! I recognized the medical term: "bipolar disorder" as it seems to creep up quite often these days in the defence of some celebrities or 'famous' or 'infamous' people all over the world! e.g. the recent ex-Miss Singapore Universal is a sufferer of bipolar disorder.

Lessons for me are:

1. the justice system MUST be free from fear or favour from the powerful and ruling elites of the nation it resides in. Otherwise, when the masses become resentful and feel that the justice system is not fair and just, troubles brew!;

2. while I am not advocating blindly enforcing legal penalties on any offenders of the laws, it is quite another thing to let a 3rd time offender of similar crimes, a serious one as it involved assaulting a law enforcement officer who were merely carrying out his duties and in a legitimate and firm manner, off citing irrelevant 'facts' like: ' from a good background, well-off family (and) outstanding academic achievement'!! It is wonderful to learn that the Hkg people and the government acts swiftly to try to reverse this injustice!;

3. at this point I wonder aloud if such an instance had happened in Singapore, would the government and the public and the Singapore Police Force would have taken the same stand? Or maybe, as some optimists would have pointed out, the lower court judge would NEVER had passed out such a lenient sentence as Singapore is known around the world for the fair and just way its justice system work!

May the young lady gets some help on the bipolar disorder issue with her well-off family's assistance while contemplate about how she can also help herself by getting off the habit of breaking traffic laws and assaulting law enforcement officer who try to do his or her job!