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MCA man jailed for offering bribe to Singapore cop

MCA man jailed for offering bribe to Singapore cop
The Malaysian Insider7.01.09

SINGAPORE, Jan 7 — A Malaysian community leader initially fined S$15,000 (RM36,000) for offering a bribe to a traffic policeman was yesterday sentenced to jail for six weeks following an appeal by the prosecution.

Justice V. K. Rajah, handing down the jail term at the appeal hearing, stressed that the courts should take a firm, no-nonsense approach towards attempts at graft.

Any attempt to bribe a police officer will bring on a jail term, and if the bribe is accepted, both parties can expect “uncompromisingly stiff custodial sentences”, he said.

It is the way to go if the integrity of the police force as a pillar of society is to be upheld.

Rajah added that the jail term meted out to Lim Teck Choon, 56, took into account mitigating factors raised by his lawyer. He would otherwise have been jailed two to three months.

Lim, who has business interests on both sides of the Causeway, is a member of the MCA and the party’s deputy chairman in the town of Kampong Jawa in Johor. A philanthropist, he regularly donates money to temples and an orphanage; in 1988, he donated a building for a school.

A traffic police officer caught Lim making an illegal U-turn on Woodlands Road and driving against the flow of traffic for 50m.

While waiting for a vehicle to take Lim back to the police station, Sergeant Pah Wenxiang tried to defuse the tense situation by starting a conversation.

Lim told the police officer that he owned a few plantations in Malaysia and knew high-ranking officials.

During the conversation, he abruptly asked Pah in Mandarin: “Why want to do this? Be enemy? You should let me go. We can be friends. Next time you come to Malaysia, I will take care of you. Still got good things.”

He also made a gesture that the officer took as an offer of money.

When the sergeant told him it was an offence to bribe a police officer, Lim backed off on his offer.

Lim initially contested the charge of offering a bribe, but pleaded guilty on the second day of trial and was fined S$15,000.

He was also fined S$2,500 and banned from driving for six months for dangerous driving.

The district judge acknowledged that a jail term was the norm in graft cases but felt a more lenient sentence was justified in this case.

She reasoned that Lim offered the bribe only after the officer struck up a conversation with him, and had not persisted with the offer once the police officer rejected it.

The prosecution filed an appeal.

Yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Jwee Nguan argued that the district judge had no grounds to depart from the sentencing norm of a jail term for such offences.

Rajah, saying there should be a clear framework of rules for situations like this, agreed that the district judge had erred in “applying an intricately nuanced sentencing approach to what is a plain and unmistakeable case of attempted corruption”.

In this case, it was incorrect to conclude that Lim’s culpability was reduced just because the officer had initiated a casual conversation.

Rajah said it appears that Lim had assessed the situation and taken a measure of the officer before making his offer, thinking that the policeman might be vulnerable once his guard was down.

Lim’s lawyer asked for the sentence to start on Feb 1 so that Lim can spend time with his family for Chinese New Year. Rajah agreed and granted bail of S$30,000.

The prosecution appealed against the fine for the graft charge. — The Straits Times

48 Replies to “MCA man jailed for offering bribe to Singapore cop”

  3. This is a shame. The perpetrator was trying to export Bolehland tradition into Singapore! How could this be possible?!
    A pariah country is always a pariah country. One cannot carry pariah elements into a well-developed and corruption-free country. Didn’t this guy learn from Chow Kwai Lam’s experience?

  5. He may have thought that the habit that he has so meticulously cultivated here
    and used so successfully in Bolehland could also be used in squeaky clean land.
    It just didn’t occur to him that there are clean governments with non corruptible government servants and must have thought that the ‘boleh selesai kah’ way can also pull him thro in Singapore.SERVE HIM RIGHT.

  6. Nice one. Like a training scenario. Just need to get some Malaysian politicians, legal types and policemen to play the roles of all involved, rehearse it a few times, and tada! Modern society in no time at all.

    I’m sure someone will tell me the MCA guy beat the judge at cards the night before.

  7. Pornography…gangsters…bribers now….rightly in the slammer….MCA has them all….Pity Mat Taib didnt do the “I speako nno Eengglishee” thing at Singapore Customs….perhaps then UMNO would have woken up earlier….or would they have run amok and declared war on Singapore

  10. It used to that whenever we are travelling overseas and should we happened to offend the natives, we just put on our Malaysian smile and announce in a loud voice ,\Singapore!\ (implying that we are from Singapore and thus giving THEM the bad reputation).

    Sadly the joke is on us now!

    Guess now we just have to smile and say \MCA!\

  11. there’s fallacy in this trial – “He also made a gesture that the officer took as an offer of money.” … it’s not that there’s physical money there, it’s not that the corruption took place, it’s all just “conversation”. this is too much, if you bring this to hongkong, they will throw this out of trial. maybe the jail in sgpura is too spatial that they want to fit some ppl there.

    next time visit sgpura must be very careful…..

  13. No wonder we have so many road accidents; apa macam pun boleh, no signal, illegal u-turn, driving against the flow of traffic (AKA counter flow in KL, the legal way) etc. settled by making friend with traffic police the PAP (Pay And Pay) way and not as enemy!!! Got It!!!

  14. Why there’re no UMNO & MIC men caught in Singapore for bribing???
    The anwer is clear; UMNO & MIC men are smarter than MCA men!!! No wonder they are holding the PM & DPM and other important posts!!! Dont belittle MIC for holding the JKR post, it is very very important, without JKR, we might need to spend the whole day for travelling from KL to PJ!!!

  15. Malaysia civil servants has a lot to learn from Singapore. One can only blame the one at the top post for all this nonsense… To kill a snake, u got to chop of the head!! Mean UMNO has to go. I bet if this happen in Malaysia, he could’ve either got off easily or killed a guy coming from the other direction and got off again. This is Malaysia. Malaysia Boleh!! Apa apa pun boleh! (So long as u have the $$)

  17. Obviously he is a ‘regular’ to Singapore, maybe he had done it before, forgetting that NOT all over there are interested in a couple of dollars. Many forget the younger set, given the correct up-bring do not succumb that easily to immediate gratification!
    well a lesson learned. The shame is being a small time leader of a community. Anyway has he to give up his post?? I wonder.

  20. So there’s finally one way to get rid of corruption in Malaysia, and that is to import on 5-year contract the entire Singapore police force and let them enforce the laws here. The Malaysian police can take no-pay leave during this time. They can go home to their kampungs and rear chicks and goats during these 5 years.

  22. hahahahahaha..They are so used to taking and giving bribes in Malaysia….thinking everyone will be like them….money can buy a man’s dignity… to change his mind.
    Worst still….doing that to a Police Officer….in the land of no nonsense..welkown…no corruptions.
    MCA should be ashamed of themselves!!
    But they are like their master….UMNO….thick onion skin faces.
    This means nothing to them.
    Hope the can sleep well to show such examples to the young voters.

  23. Heard from a S’porean recently that the expansion plan for the local jail was cancelled due to lesser prisoners. That itself is a good testimony of a country’s state of affair. And since attempt at graft is jailable, this ‘philanthropist’ pays a very heavy price in wanting to settle it quick and swift.

    We are brought up in a different environment altogether and if I were to be in his position at that particular moment, I would probably have tried negotiating to be let off the hook. I think in this case the policeman had acted a bit too harsh and could have easily warned the offender about the seriousness of giving bribe and leave it at that. If the offender persist in offering of bribe, then only act on it.

    Please note that I’m not condoning the giving of bribe in any matter. But if any of you have travel to S’pore in the last 3 months or so would have noticed that the road leading to woodlands check point from Bukit Timah has some changes made to it. I was there and it took me many turns and driving around the whole area before I managed to finally get to the correct exit road.

    Thus, the man himself may have taken a wrong turn and ended on the wrong side of the road while heading back to JB. Let us not add salt to his wound as he is already paying his dues for his offence with fines and sentence. Concentrate on bigger issues like the KT by-election, LCCT for Labu, Tolls, etc.

  24. l-love writer….UMNO bribe their own race in Malaysia….2 million..not easy…need billions…..so much so…lazy blokes are happy and contented.
    But by doing so..not all receive equal same treatments.
    Therefore…a third class of their race is created by this evil deed…what we commonly say…the fortunate have plenty….doing nothing and the unfortunate..doping hard work…getting none.
    MIC???….Same style..same results.
    MCA leave their members to carry balls on UMNO…to be rich…..no need to bribe anyone in Malaysia.
    All done by their master….UMNO.
    They will behave and look so poor…that’s their style..real great actors!!…….so much so…UMNO learn from them…..how to be better hypocrites.
    MIC members steal from each other!!
    That is a class by itself….difficult to learn.

  25. The Sergeant started the conversation (a friendly gesture).
    MCA man told Sergeant that he owned plantations in Pengerang and they ended up talking about fishing and hunting on the plantations. In the course of their conversation, MCA man said in Mandarin, words to the effect, “Why want to do this, be enemy. You should let me go. We can be friends. Next time you come to Malaysia, I will take care of you, still got benefits.” There was no mention of money. MCA man made a “gesture” that the officer took as an offer of money. What gesture was that? Never mind, as long as one mentions “benefit” – and it need not be money – one comes under ambit of bribing/corruption.

    I don’t know whether MCA admitted he said those words. I doubt the Sergeant had a tape recorder that he could activate in time to catch these words. This means MCA man could deny he said those words, there being no third party witness around. If he had denied, it would be police words against his, and the police words will be accepted as true version.

    That is problem no. 1. : Police word is always “right”.

    Problem no.2 is that Sergeant could also initiate, “why don’t you settle this between us, whatever that means, and MCA Man would have taken that overture as a request for bribe and offer S$100 to setle the inconvenience.

    In that case Sergeant could either accept the bribe, or if he changes his mind, he could turn around and arrest the offeror.

    If the latter says that it is the Sergeant who asked, two alternative consequences may ensue: first, the Sergeant could deny he suggested settlement (even though he did) and first problem immediately arises – police’s words are always more credible and taken as true – and second, Sergeant could admit he did say those words (there was a 3rd party witness nearby!) but turn around and says that he was a mere agent provocateur, trying to test whether the motorist would bribe him by such an overture, and surely he did. Under our MACC an agent provocateur could set about entraping anyone and yet enjoy one sided immunity under it …

    The thing about a draconian anti corruption act like MACC may probably work all right where police is in the first place not corrupt (and hence their words may be entrusted) and in a cultural milieu that is staunchly anti corruption, meaning even if the Sergeant/agent provocateur initiates a “settlement”, a Singaporean motorist may not only not fall for that entrapment but may even report such an overture.

    In Malaysia, on both of the above counts, we’re different from Singapore , and one may well speculate on the effects of MACC which may be as if not more stringent than S’pore’s Prevention of Corruption Act.

    A corrupt police officer here therefore enjoys the advantage of first initiating settlement, then the luxury of weighing the options whether the amount is sufficient for him to take it, and if it is deemed not sufficient, then he can still arrest you enjoying immunity under MACC for that entrapment. Worse still if there were political motivation. Don’t forget the policeman’s word (even if concocted) against yours in a one-one situation is always true and yours false, esp in corruption.

    May be there is a lesson to be learnt from this. The next time, what happens here, might well befall a Pakatan Rakyat man. :)

  26. I think in this case the policeman had acted a bit too harsh and could have easily warned the offender about the seriousness of giving bribe and leave it at that. – ahoo

    In any country, it is an offence to bribe a policeman.
    If the MCA yahoo don`t know that, then he certainly should be MCA President, and, possibly future PM.

  27. first world country like hongkong, japan and usa don buy tape recorder without 3rd party approval (some neutral party). plus, who knows if the recorder has been tapped for the benefit of the owner. ….

    as if sgpura polis not corrupt like this, i remember there’s a case that a police involve in pimping, or some illegal activity….. in hongkong in order to catch the bribe-giver, the corruption must be take place, not based on some stupid conversation that can be take in as joke …..

  29. So that is what integrity means. Singapore is the least corrupted country in this region. (Ref: Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index CPI) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index]

    In 2008, Singapore was rank no. 4 least corrupted country in the world by Transparency International. Malaysian was ranked at the position of 47. (Perhaps corruption is defined differently in Malaysia ! …. and how about selective prosecution? (In Malaysia, the law enforcers seems to be following the Chinese proverbs : Before you beat a dog, find out who its master is!)

    We can see why Singapore deserve the ranking and Malaysia under the Barisan Nasional government deserve the ranking no.47. In Malaysia a similar incident would be easily ‘negotiated’ –

    The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) have a lot to learn from Singapore. Is is uses to have a new name, new structure but not functional.

  30. This is the STUPIDEST thing I have ever heard of. Offering bribes in S’pore???? hahahaha!!!!!! I guess this MCA guy has got out of his senses….. LOL… Can we put this blog post into some internet joke site?????

    For those of you who don’t know the stiff penalities of S’pore, let me tell you that I have a S’porean friend who got caught using a mobile phone while driving. He was sentenced to 5 (five) days in jail!!!

  31. Reading the ST article, it referred to the man as a community leader and businessman who had business interests on both sides of the causeway. He is also a philanthropist who regularly donates to schools, temples, etc. And yes, he happens to be a deputy chairman of a MCA branch.

    But all focus seems to be on him being a MCA member.

    Is there an agenda here? To score some cheap points against the party because of the individual’s misdeeds?

    Why not then highlight what school he came from, what religion he professes, which dialect group he’s from, which housing estate he lives in, what clan he’s from etc etc to put all of these in bad light?

  32. This MCA guy must have lost his head temporarily, thinking he was still on Malaysian soil when he commited the offence! The way he spoke to the policeman in Singapore would be exactly the way he would have spoken to any policeman in Bolehland, except that the reaction he receives will be totally different!

    In Bolehland, his “identity” as an MCA man may have accorded him with immunity from such apprehension but he used this identity in the wrong place and at the wrong time! Had he committed what he had committed in Singapore in Malaysia itself, his “personality” would have come in useful.

    The following is a true to life incident which took place in my housing estate a couple of years ago:

    A prominent MCA man stayed in a house behind my house and one night, the house was broken into by a gang of Indonesians. All the people in the house was tied up and one of the intruders even attempted to rape the daughter of this MCA man.

    After the intruders left, this MCA man telephoned the police several times but the police did not come to the scene of the crime. It was not until this MCA man shouted at the police that he was so and so from MCA that they quickly sent a patrol car to the scene of the crime.

    Indeed, in Bolehland, the utterance of the name “MCA” is equivalent to “hocus pocus” in a magic show but using this magic word in Singapore would not bring the desired results, what’s more misusing it would even bring TROUBLE!!!!

    Just hope our MCA men, UMNO men and men from other BN component parties bear this in mind when they step out of Malaysia!

  34. “Lim initially contested the charge of offering a bribe, but pleaded guilty on the second day of trial and was fined S$15,000.”

    Obviously he had what we say over here as ‘ineffective assistance of counsel’ (generic term for a bad job by a lawyer distracted by a pain in his ass) . All the defendant needed to do was just create reasonable doubt as to why he was scratching his hand. As the judge wouldn’t know where his hand has gone to, he would have to give him the benefit of the doubt.

  35. waterfrontcoolie is right. Our MCA man has done it before in Singapore. Talk about a wolf in a sheep’s skin. But so happen this time around, there is one who knows that corruption is a deadly sin. The younger Singaporean generation is more tempted to all these worldly sins. It is the old ones who set Singapore straight like Mr Lee Kwan Yew for one. Gone were those days when Sin $ 500 fine was strictly enforced. These days, there are so many foreigners with their juicy monetary currencies that the authorities are also wearing the pirates’ eye patch. For our beloved Bolehtakbolehland, there are some good ones in the police force. May be 1 in 100. Hopefully this 1 together with all the other 1, will be raised up to be the next new generation of a clean PDRM force. That is if Malaysians need it. That is if the government sees the need to. If not, there will always be a comparison between somewhere and our country. It will remain just a talk. A dream. Nothing will come true.

  36. “Obviously he had what we say over here as ‘ineffective assistance of counsel’ (generic term for a bad job by a lawyer distracted by a pain in his ass) .”

    ===

    now this reminds me – he pleaded guilty and yet punished with maximum sentence (appealed by prosecutor kononnya). i don’t get since the accused admit guilty, how come prosecutor can still appeal. the case can be fought actually, but probably accused after discussing with lawyer din want to prolong the case hence pleaded guilty. it’s not that he soliciting the bribe, he just asked one time and that’s it, is this amounting to jailing ???

    what a joke. jailed and fined, that’s too harsh!

  37. “melurian Says:
    Yesterday at 18: 45.43

    no wonder most sgpura are a bit dump – they have no freedom of speech ……. just say “treat you better” will be amounting to giving bribes…. this is too much…”

    Who is “dump” here? The police officer who reported the attempted bribe?

    The MCA man who admitted to the attempted bribe? or

    The person who makes the above statement?

    Your guess is as good as mine!!!

  39. Alamak. MCA man you picked the wrong counsel. Melurian is the best choice. His say-only-mah-also-cannot-ah defence would have got you off the hook. Look at Sime and IJN issue. See no takeover. Its say-only-mah-also-cannot-ah all the same.

    But then again on second thought melurian’s umno influenced say-only-mah-also-cannot-ah mentality would have to overcome singaporean’s dont-pray-pray attitude first.

    So on third thought, melurian may not have such an easy time with his say-only-mah-also-cannot-ah argument in singapore for there you are not suppose to anyhow-pray-pray.

  40. A Singapore criminal record is applicable in Malaysia and is registered with Malaysia criminal records. So this MCA man is a convicted criminal in Malaysia, too.

    How MCA? Do MCA still keep a convicted criminal as a party leader.

  41. Why should MCA worry about keeping a “convicted criminal as party leader” when Ahmad Ismail who has violated the Sedition Act by provoking racial sentiments and his “ma-chai” tearing up a picture of KSK in the presence of reporters can be “pardoned” by UMNO itself with just a three year suspension of membership? MCA would definitely follow these footsteps and “pardon” this guy by may be suspending his party membership for a couple of years. Besides, the offence was not committed on Malaysian land, so why should MCA worry so much. After all, what you cannot (or did not) see can’t hurt you!

  42. This a case where a law-breaker invited a law enforcer to become ‘his friend’.

    If the law enforcers always accept this kind of invitations, then the law enforcers will have many ‘friends – law breaker friends’. What would happen when law enforcers become law-breaker friends whenever a law is broken? –

  43. Most of us talked like a hero here. The reality of a clean and incorruptible society is ultimately dependent on both the government and its people. What this case clearly portray is this: don’t you ever try to corrupt a public officer on duty. If there are no givers, there are certainly no takers although the conventional argument is that takers and givers are usually not at arm’s length in their relationship. That is beside the point as far as Singapore is concerned. If a person bribes a public officer, he/she must face the full extent of the consequence. Are we Malaysians in general prepared to face the inconvenience when stopped by police? I think most Malaysians, particularly Chinese Malaysians, would try to wrangler their way out one way or another, including resorting to bribery if necessary.

    One more point, why the need to say “MCA man jailed for offering bribe to Singapore Cop”? And why so many contributers here immediately used this opportunity to run down MCA. We can criticise MCA in many ways, but this is certainly not one of the way. This is petty politics which I thought Sdr Kit and DAP should grow above it.

  46. This so-called community leader should be jailed 6 months instead of being reduced from 3 months to 6 weeks. Being a philanthropist does not entitle him to break the law. Can you accept that someone who regularly donates millions to temples, churches, mosques, etc be set free after raping your daughter?
    I think Singapore has given enough ace in tis case.
    The problem most of us is that we still have the feudalistic mentality. This helps to continue fueling such so-called community leader’s behaviour, and eventually grooming the next generation to go beyond.

  47. This so-called community leader should be jailed 6 months instead of being reduced from 3 months to 6 weeks. Being a philanthropist does not entitle him to break the law. Can you accept that someone who regularly donates millions to temples, churches, mosques, etc be set free after raping your daughter?
    I think Singapore has given enough “face” in this case.
    The problem most of us is that we still have the feudalistic mentality. This helps to continue fueling such so-called community leader’s behaviour, and eventually grooming the next generation to go beyond.

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