Daily Lessons from Life 03 November 2010 - Four men charged with murder of 19 year old

Channel NewsAsia: 3 November 2010 "SINGAPORE: Four men have been charged on Wednesday with the murder on Saturday of a second year Republic Polytechnic student, at Downtown East in Pasir Ris.

Three of them were charged in court, 21-year-old Tang Jia Min, 20-year-old Ho Wui Ming and 19-year-old Chen Wei Zhen. They appeared restless and were seen fidgeting and glancing nervously at the gallery as the charge was read out to them.

The fourth person, 18-year-old Edward Tay Wei Loong, was charged in hospital on Wednesday afternoon. It is believed he is in hospital after he hit his head while trying to get away from the police.

The four of them and several other unknown persons allegedly attacked 19-year-old Darren Ng Wei Jie between 5.30pm and 6pm on Saturday. Darren, who was reportedly hacked with choppers, died in Changi General Hospital about five hours later.

The three, who were dressed in identical red polo t-shirts, appeared restless in court. IF convicted, they will face the Death sentence!"

Rare to have a murder committed in Singapore let alone at a busy family entertainment public place at 5-6 p.m. in Singapore. The most sickening thing is that it was over an alleged 'staring' incident when the youth supposedly stared at one of the culprit with tattoos. It is one of the most perplexing reason to kill someone just because of that. It was reported that the suspects were shouting the 'slogan' of the gang, the number '369', when chopping the poor kid up and also flashed the 'V' for victory sign at the end of it. Well, they have to pay for it even though some 'smart' people commented that the victim should not have got into the fight with these hooligans. I beg to differ. A beating is bad even but when you brandished choppers and using them to chop and slash people, you got to know one of the unfortunate consequences is death!

Lessons for me are:

1. there are people, young or old, who will kill for no good reason. They CANNOT be tolerated. When they are caught the law has to come down on them the hardest. No mercy for someone who just took another life away just like that!;

2. while the suspects appeared nervous and what not it expected, they probably did not realise chopping someone else can cause death! They are young but unfortunately mistakes CANNOT be tolerated while a life is lost. They are young but not so young as to not understanding that chopping someone up can caused death!;

3. it will be interesting folders for the media HAD this been in the USA! Some lawyers will probably volunteer their services to defend the suspects just to get a light sentence for them and make a name for himself or herself. In Singapore, the laws are stricter and the court has no qualm about sentencing criminal, when proven beyond reasonable doubt, to face the death sentence!

The message had to be sent out to potential hot heads that you CANNOT escape death IF you caused death just because you lost control of yourself or your temple! No matter HOW PROVOKED you may be you just cannot kill someone due to a 'staring' incident. This is SINGAPORE. Get it!!

May the murder(s) be served their just sentence. If it is the death sentence, so be it.