Monday, June 30, 2008

Tangs Chief in Kidneys-for-sale Case

In the first case of it kind, two Indonesian men who agreed to sell their kidneys have pleaded guilty to organ trading offences under the Human Organ Transplant Act. Court documents cite 55-year-old Mr Tang Wee Sung, executive chairman of retail giant CK Tang, as one of the patients who had offered to pay about 150 million rupiah (about $22,200) to Sulaiman Damanik. Although Mr Tang did not get his transplant because police investigations put a stop to the transaction, Ms Juliana Soh returned to Medan after receiving her kidney at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in March this year. Both patients were treated by renal physician Dr Lye Wai Choong, president of the Society of Transplantation (Singapore), who has a clinic at the Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre.
The high profile names must present a moral dilemma for Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan, who claimed that "no matter how desperate the situation is, we must never break the law." The last time he had to face down powerful personalities was when NKF CEO TT Durai and Chairman Richard Yong marched into his office for an opinion on the SPH defamation suit. During a walkabout in the 2006 general elections he stood his grounds about not be able to claim anything for bills that are below below the deductible amount, when a retiree asked for help with his monthly medical bill, which was just $1.00 short of the $20.00 limit. Except for this reneging of his no means test election promise, Mr Khaw's record has proved to be more acceptable than that of his cabinet colleagues. Specifically, nobody can do worse than the Home Affairs Minister with his Mas Selamat Kastari cartoonish escape from the Whitely Road Detention Center, the breakout debacle from the Subordinate Courts lock-up, and the embarassing revelation that a man could sail past airport security checkpoints with a wrong passport. In all three instances, only the "small people" were taken to task, although the public is still baying for the resignation of the Home Affairs Minister.
The duo who sold their kidneys are expected to be sentenced within a week, but what about the buyers, the "runner" and the doctor who made the organ swop in the operating theater?

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Cabby caught ranting on Youtube


The local press had reported the altercation as “Cabby caught ranting on Youtube”. But MediaCorp Executive (ME) Andrew Teo, who posted his personal video on STOMP, decided to delete it after attracting an avalanche of unsympathetic comments. It serves as an interesting commentary on stressful Singapore living that sociologists will be studying years from now, down to the reference on ex-PM Goh Chok Tong's recommendations. A rough transcript goes like this:

ME: What, you tell me to f–k off, is it?

Cabby: I’m tellin you to f–k off.

ME: He tell me to f–k off, you know, he’s against road directions and he ask me to f–k off! He say, he just asked me to f–k off, I have it on recording, ah. Get the hell out of here, you understand me?!

Cabby: Get out the hell!

ME: This is Medicorp okay, we’re staff here…
You get the hell out of my face now, get out now! Okay!?

CISCO: Sir, I need you to move, sir…

ME: Move, move your ass! Understand or not!

Cabby: You shutup, lah, shutup!

ME: What, shutup? I’m going to stick… no, none of my business… this is a civil, this is a civil… traffic police case, and civil case, against directions, I’m asking you nicely to get out… don’t get out, right?

Cabby: I don’t need you to tell me, okay?

ME: What? What? You get out now!

Cabby: I don’t need you to tell me, okay?

ME: What? I don’t need you to tell me? I’m a civil servant… civil minded ser….
You get out now, hey, get out lah, come on, get out now, get out!!
Two CISCO officers here, you don’t obey orders. Call police, Sally, say harassment now, just call triple nine, call triple nine, say there’s a police officer coming, send … just call triple nine, say…
Ah come on, lah, don’t try to be funny, lah... What do you mean here first, here second? I’m telling you to… arrest… I tell you you are against direction, you tell me to f–k off, right?

CISCO: Sir, I need you to move aside…

ME: No, no, I won’t move, I won’t move, he has to move… see!

Cabby: Okay, you win lah!

ME: No, what win? This is a police case, okay?

Cabby:You win lah!

ME: Not me, the government win.

Cabby: I don’t care if this is a police case..

ME: The government win, okay? The government… so? so? so? so?
You are against direction, you out! Get the hell out of here!

Cabby: (On) what authority, man…

ME: What no authority? I’m a citizen of Singapore, what no authority? What no authority? You are under citizen arrest now. Excuse me, officer, take down his office… his, his particulars now… Ah, go, go, better go, go… You want a citizen arrest or not? You want citizen arrest? Then don’t go, if you got the guts, don’t go! SHC XXXX… What, you are against direction now..

Cabby: F–k off, now, get out of my sight!

ME: No, I won’t f–k off, why should I f–k off?

Cabby: What you, bloody blur lah, on the street, you want to make nonsense…

ME: What? What? You don’t go, if you got the guts, stay one more, stay…
Yeah, stay, good, don’t go ah? Don’t go! Don’t go! Come on.. hey don’t go then don’t go, take down his particulars, officers…

Cabby: Tell him to shut up, tell him to shut up…

ME: No, you don’t go…

Bystander: Tell him to shut his mouth!

ME: If you got guts, don’t go… So! don’t go lah, don’t go… Hey, come on, chicken shit, don’t go! (Cab drives off)
Don’t go, you got the guts, don’t go…
Officer, I need you to be witness… to this, er, this is a crime scene, you know, person harass me, this is penal code 323… yeah. This is, er, this is, er, er, er, criminal, you know, criminal offence, you know… I was just telling him please don’t… park against direction. What’s wrong with..? I’m a citizen, I have the right to, you know…. SM Goh Chok Tong say blow whistle, what’s wrong
with that? I have the right, you know?