Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Hard to swallow
In the Cantonese dialect, there is this expression which translates literally as “Eat dead cat”. This is used when one is forced to admit to something that he/she is not guilty of. Eg., a person is said to be forced to “eat dead cat” when he is held responsible for something that he did not do.
I had a very bad morning. I went to sleep with a sinus headache – no doubt caused by the terrible haze. I woke up in the middle of the nite wif a bad migraine. When I finally woke up in the morning, I was totally exhausted. Thank God tho that the headaches were gone.
When I read the papers, I was very sad to read of a former client pleading guilty to the crime that he was charged wif.
Look, I know that I can get into trouble for writing this post but I’m really fed up bout the whole thing.
Let me put it this way – whenever you read a securities crime case where the accused pleads guilty, dun think for a moment that he or she indeed is guilty!
I won’t mention details etc – as this is considered privileged info. I speak generally of criminal cases instituted by the Securities Commission (SC) in this country – of which I have had a lot of experience being involved in.
In my learned view, I humbly state that most of them are not guilty of the crime that they are purported to have committed. In fact, I honestly believe that a lot of cases are politically motivated.
However, at the end of the day, the SC boasts of their wonderful track record, of the number of accused who have pleaded guilty to the charges brought against them.
Now why, you may ask, would all these people plead guilty if they are not in fact guilty?
They do so because there comes a point of time when one just cannot bear having the charge hanging over their heads (like the sword of Demacles). The SC normally uses high handed tactics to intimidate the accused. They will call the accused in, search (read – fishing) their premises and offices, object to bail and generally try to make life difficult for the accused.
Further, the accused is usually a high corporate person. They cannot afford to have a criminal charge hanging over them. But the reality is that some of these cases take YEARS before they are completed. The SC will insist that their passports be handed to the court which means that each time these people have to travel overseas for work, they will have to make a Court application to obtain back their passports. And the SC will usually vehemently object to these applications. Some of these accused are from overseas and they would have to travel up to Malaysia each time their case is fixed for hearing – and which usually never goes on.
It will come to a point of time (after 3 or 4 years) when the accused gets fed-up and makes a deal with the SC – plead guilty and pay off a fine. No imprisonment. The money is not is a big thing to them.
There have been so many cases that I have been involved in when I was so confident that the SC will NEVER be able to prove their case. But every one of the accused can only hang on for so long. They know they can win. But when will that day come? SC will not be in a rush. Might as well “eat the dead cat” and get on wif their life back to normal.
That’s the truth. :-(
I had a very bad morning. I went to sleep with a sinus headache – no doubt caused by the terrible haze. I woke up in the middle of the nite wif a bad migraine. When I finally woke up in the morning, I was totally exhausted. Thank God tho that the headaches were gone.
When I read the papers, I was very sad to read of a former client pleading guilty to the crime that he was charged wif.
Look, I know that I can get into trouble for writing this post but I’m really fed up bout the whole thing.
Let me put it this way – whenever you read a securities crime case where the accused pleads guilty, dun think for a moment that he or she indeed is guilty!
I won’t mention details etc – as this is considered privileged info. I speak generally of criminal cases instituted by the Securities Commission (SC) in this country – of which I have had a lot of experience being involved in.
In my learned view, I humbly state that most of them are not guilty of the crime that they are purported to have committed. In fact, I honestly believe that a lot of cases are politically motivated.
However, at the end of the day, the SC boasts of their wonderful track record, of the number of accused who have pleaded guilty to the charges brought against them.
Now why, you may ask, would all these people plead guilty if they are not in fact guilty?
They do so because there comes a point of time when one just cannot bear having the charge hanging over their heads (like the sword of Demacles). The SC normally uses high handed tactics to intimidate the accused. They will call the accused in, search (read – fishing) their premises and offices, object to bail and generally try to make life difficult for the accused.
Further, the accused is usually a high corporate person. They cannot afford to have a criminal charge hanging over them. But the reality is that some of these cases take YEARS before they are completed. The SC will insist that their passports be handed to the court which means that each time these people have to travel overseas for work, they will have to make a Court application to obtain back their passports. And the SC will usually vehemently object to these applications. Some of these accused are from overseas and they would have to travel up to Malaysia each time their case is fixed for hearing – and which usually never goes on.
It will come to a point of time (after 3 or 4 years) when the accused gets fed-up and makes a deal with the SC – plead guilty and pay off a fine. No imprisonment. The money is not is a big thing to them.
There have been so many cases that I have been involved in when I was so confident that the SC will NEVER be able to prove their case. But every one of the accused can only hang on for so long. They know they can win. But when will that day come? SC will not be in a rush. Might as well “eat the dead cat” and get on wif their life back to normal.
That’s the truth. :-(
// posted by imissw @ 7:42:00 pm 
