Naturally, Mr. Ng did get sentenced to jail and therefore that means some justice was served. What was very appalling about Mr. Ng Hua Che’s final judgment, however, was that the juries declined Ms Chasanah’s death from ‘murder’ to ‘manslaughter’. This would mean that what Mr. Ng committed was somewhat an accident and that he had no intensions of killing Ms Chasanah. Clearly all of that is nonsense and I strongly agree that the case certainly does not close there.
Some people really have the nerve to start taking risks these days, however, I really can’t seem to understand why this tragic death could not have been prevented because I know it would have easily been with just a simple report. It is people like Ng’s wife and sister, and Mr. Neo who give their country and bad name. Even Ms Chasanah doctors and nurses did not report any distress that anyone could have obviously detected from Ms Chasanah’s state. They were all were either present through Ms Chasanah’s beatings or just knew that it was happening, and unfortunately for Ms Chasanah, no action whatsoever was taken by any of these characters to stop to torture.
These people can’t get away with this. It must be stopped. I said earlier that I don’t believe Singapore is at fault, however, I do unmistakably believe that Singapore needs to act fast and clear its name of this accusation. These people believe that they should just ‘mind their own businesses? Almost everyone including myself would understand the meaning of personal space and privacy, but to this extend, where you know this kind of abuse is happening and not saying anything about is just unacceptable. This type of abuse is not just like any old being-caned-in-school-for-being-a-naughty-child type abuse. This woman was actually dying from injuries.
Is it very surprising and shocking to know that such an organisation of the government exist i.e. ‘Ministry of Manpower’ (MOM) Again, I consider something to be done about the pressure towards the agencies. There are a vast amount of agencies that obviously only care about making money. They will almost do anything to achieve easy money and high profits. Gaining the client’s trust and then leaving them suck dried of their money. There have been several hundreds cases where maids have been cheated by their own agency. Above all, it really is quite idiotic of the ministry to believe that beatings can’t result to death. How could their guidebook not even mention death and only have 11 cases of maid abuse? Their statistics are extremely insulting, especially the fact that 11 doesn’t even compare to the thousands who suffer. It really does just make you wonder how many others are suffering at this moment. Your article was published quite a while ago, on the 27th July 2002. That was almost 5 years ago, yet still these cases are very common and occur almost all around the world.
People really need to be reminded, so that they know the consequences and that it will move people to do the right thing when they are in a difficult position such as the Mr. Neo. This would increase the respect for those who do make a difference, not just in Singapore. I thought that your article was excellent and was very clear in what you wanted to say. Thank you for your time and I hope you take comments into account.
With regards,
Nabilah Hamid