SINGAPORE, June 10 — Two Singaporean men were each fined S$3,000 (RM9,215.61) by the State Courts today for verbally abusing public servants during the recent circuit breaker.
The first case involved 66-year-old Lee Ah Loo, who pleaded guilty today to a single charge under the Protection from Harassment Act. A second similar charge was taken into consideration for his sentencing.
The court heard that Lee hurled Hokkien vulgarities at a safe distancing ambassador, who was performing enforcement duties with a colleague at Beo Crescent Market in Tiong Bahru around noon on May 2 this year.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani said that Lee recognised the ambassador from an earlier incident on April 26, when the ambassador instructed him to wear his face mask properly.
On May 2, Lee approached the ambassador to ask for his details and became agitated when the ambassador did not provide the information. The ambassador told his colleague to get police help at this point.
Lee then threw his National Registration Identity Card onto the table and again challenged the ambassador to provide his particulars, before uttering Hokkien vulgarities insulting the ambassador’s mother.
Lee, who was unrepresented but accompanied by his family, was visibly upset during the hearing, swaying his body and audibly gnashing his teeth.
When he heard how much he would be fined, he slapped his head, bent his body over his knees as he sat in his chair and mumbled that he would have to “jiak loti” (“eat bread” in Hokkien).
Speaking through a Hokkien translator, Lee pleaded for leniency, telling District Judge Marvin Bay that he earned very little as a cleaner and was on a financial assistance programme.
Furthermore, he said he was a regular patient at the Singapore General Hospital and Institute of Mental Health. Court documents said he has hepatitis C and depression.
District Judge Bay replied to say that safe distancing ambassadors perform a critical task of ensuring that necessary distancing measures designed to contain the Covid-19 pandemic are followed.
“Their work is integral to our efforts to keep Singapore safe,” he said. “They should therefore not be subject to abuse or harassment in the course of their work.”
In response, Lee said that “sometimes they bully old folks”, but details of Lee’s claims were not heard in court.
District Judge Bay said that safe distancing ambassadors still have a job to do and reminded Lee to respect them nonetheless.
The judge then granted Lee permission to pay his fine in instalments.
Illegally hawking face masks
The second man to be fined was Eddie Neo Zhong Jie, a 36-year-old drink stall owner at a coffee shop along Jurong East Street 24.
Neo similarly pleaded guilty to one charge under the Protection from Harassment Act today.
Court documents stated that enforcement officers from the Singapore Food Agency had gone to the coffee shop on April 13 this year to investigate a tip-off that Neo was illegally selling face masks.
When the officers arrived at the coffee shop, they found Neo seated next to a trolley that had 43 boxes containing surgical masks. There were about 50 pieces in each box.
The officers identified themselves to Neo and asked if he was selling them. Neo said that he was not and claimed that he was only “loading and unloading” them.
Noticing that masks appeared to be on display for sale, the officers questioned Neo further, but he insisted that he was not doing anything wrong and that they had not seen him selling the masks.
The officers proceeded to ask Neo for his particulars, but he was uncooperative and uttered a vulgarity at them, then said: “Why should I give it to you?”
The documents said that when police officers were called in to assist, Neo persisted in being vulgar, despite reminders by the police to mind his language.
The punishment for anyone found guilty of using abusive language against a public servant is a jail term of up to 12 months, a fine of up to S$5,000, or both. — TODAY
