SingaporeSurf

Let's not have a country where some men are more equal than others.

Tan Kin Lian, CEO of NTUC Income, commented on the importance of innocence until proven guilty, especially with respect to "sensational or negative" articles from the mass media.

However, he drew a line between private suits versus suits brought on by the government. "It is a different matter, if the case is taken by the public prosecutor," he wrote. "The prosecutor has a duty to carry out some investigation to be satisfied that there is sufficient evidence to press a case."

This, I feel, is an extremely dangerous line to draw. The public prosecutor has a duty, that's right, but that does not mean the duty has been fulfillled. Corruption, incompetence, political pressure, or even plain old honest mistakes, are just some of the reasons we cannot simply just blindly trust the public prosecutor. Even when we know the public prosecutor is a honest competence man.

The courts decide who is innocent and who is guilty, and all men are innocent until proven guilty by the courts. To say that suspects sued by Lee Kuan Yew is more guilty than suspects sued by Random Person X is just plain wrong.