Death of a 14 year old boy: what is justice in Singapore?

Hi all. I was deeply disturbed by the story of the 14-year old boy Benjamin Lim who killed himself after being questioned by police over allegations of molestation. My heart goes out of his family as it was clear that he has killed himself after the way he was interrogated at the hands of the police. It was something that is preventable had the interrogation been handled better and the worst part of it all is that given the nature of law & order in Singapore, no one will be held responsible for the death of this child and no lessons will be learnt at all. I know there will be a lot of ranting and raving in Singapore, but in this post, I just want to offer some common sense and something different.

Firstly, a some Singaporeans have said that you deserve no justice when you are accused of a crime like that, people like that are horrible monsters etc - but let's consider this case: someone had followed an 11-year old girl into a lift and she alleges that she was molested in the lift. This is a very serious allegation if it is proven to be true - but this also presents a very difficult situation for the investigating police. How do you prove what happened in the lift, unless you have CCTV images from what actually happened in the lift? If such CCTV images were actually available, then the investigation would be of quite a different nature if they do have concrete evidence of the crime. But no criminal would be so brazen (or stupid) to commit a crime like that whilst being filmed in a very small and confined space like a lift, so one could probably assume that there wasn't CCTV in that lift in question.

Thus what actually happened in that lift is actually very difficult to establish - did Lim admit to actually following the girl into the lift? Can the police prove without a shadow of doubt that Lim did get into the lift with that girl. And even if that could be proven, you then have the burden of proof to establish what actually transpired between the two in the lift. Did the 11 year old girl have any kind of re-existing relationship with Lim or his family and if so, what was the nature of that relationship?  Furthermore, we know that this investigation was launched because a neighbour had anonymously filed a report against Benjamin. What kind of re-existing relationship did this neighbour have with Benjamin and his family? Indeed, there are many questions which we will never know the answers to but it does point to one thing: without a classic "yes I confess, I did it" confession, the police simply cannot secure an easy conviction for such a complex case.

Thus the police have two routes to take: launch a complex investigation into the complex nature of the relationships amongst the different parties involved in this case or interrogate a 14-year old until he confesses. It seems they went for the latter, given that the boy did confess despite telling his mother that he didn't do it. However, in Lim's own words, “You say I am guilty, I’m guilty then.” That shouldn't be the way it works, but it does remind me of the way justice was rough when I was in primary school. Let me take you back to my primary six class in Sembawang, when I was just 12 years old. A group of students were left alone in a classroom whilst the teacher was called away to the office for an urgent matter for a few minutes, when the teacher returned, a girl in the classroom was crying, claiming that one of the naughty boys in the class had beaten her. The boy said "no, we were arguing and she anyhow say I got beat her to get me into trouble," The teacher examined her arm but found no bruises, it was a case of he said vs she said. The teacher had to believe one version of the story, but how did she arrive at her conclusion?

She tried turning to the students in the class whom she trusted - the well behaved ones who never caused any trouble. "Did you see what happened? Tell me what happened?" I was asked that very question and I said I didn't witness what happened, I had heard them arguing loudly but had only turned to look at them after  I had heard the girl crying after she was allegedly 'beaten'. It seemed clear from the witness statements that some kind argument had taken place, but no one actually saw the alleged 'beating'. The accused boy may have well been capable of lashing out during the heat of an argument, but no one actually saw him doing it. However, in spite of the total lack of evidence, the teacher jumped to the conclusion that the boy did actually hit the girl as alleged and this was based on his track record for bad behaviour. I remember thinking that the girl who made the allegation was no angel - she was a habitual liar and there was also a possibility that she got away with making a false allegation, but as the teacher was very keen to bring a swift resolution to the situation, she had defaulted to jumping to conclusions. I still don't know what actually happened that day in 1988 - but I do think the teacher handled that case rather poorly; the boy did walk away with very little faith in the teacher and her system of justice, he could have well said the very words, "you say I am guilty, I'm guilty then."

Is the girl playing the victim's card?

Such is the risk of placing justice involving minors in the hands of adults - the lack of concrete evidence and the overwhelming desire to reach a swift conclusion could rush one into making assumptions and taking sides. Children can be unreliable witnesses and trying to interview them is tricky at the best of times. In light of what has happened, it does seem that the investigators have indeed made some assumptions about the guilt of the boy they had interviewed. The question I want to raise though is whether their investigations have been totally one-sided: what kind of investigation have they made about the girl at the center of these allegations and also about the 'anonymous neighbour' who made the police report? Will they bother continue to hunt for the person who allegedly molested this 11 year old girl or will they close the case now that Lim is dead (thus assuming his guilt in the case)?

It is painfully difficult to find concrete evidence in cases like this. I'm afraid justice can be messy at times - our human nature is to desire instant solutions, instant justice when something goes horribly wrong. An 11 year old girl being molested in a HDB block is a horrific story, our children should be able to feel safe moving around the neighbourhoods where they live. However, if the case is going to boil down to "he said vs she said", then it is probable that the best justice we may have is simply, "we can't prove what happened or did not happen in that lift." That is hardly going to be a satisfactory outcome to many - but is interrogating a 14 year old in this manner on the presumption of his guilt, coercing him to confess and driving him to suicide any substitute for justice? No, this is wrong on so many levels - it just reminds me of the horrific mob violence seen in far less civilized countries where people are lynched to death on the basis of rumours and allegations. This ought not have happened in Singapore, if Singapore was a civilized society.

I am also somewhat bothered by the way the suicide of the boy has been reported in the alternative media in Singapore - of course the suicide of a 14 year old boy is extremely tragic, but many people who commented on the article assumed that he was totally innocent and the victim of a grave miscarriage of justice. We should not make any assumptions about what he may or may not have done, even if we can all agree that the police investigations and interrogations could have been better handled. I am reminded of the case of Brian Banks, the American man who was falsely convicted of rape by classmate. The woman later admitted that she had made up the false allegations, so she could sue the local education authorities for the school not being a safe environment (she won US$1.5 million in damages). Did anything happen between Lim and the girl; and if so, what happened, under what circumstances? If this was a false allegation, then what actually did happen? (Has the girl been questioned?)

I am reminded of this story I heard during my NS days - a married officer regularly had gay sex with an NSF of junior rank during guard duty. It was their little secret, in return for the sex, the officer treated the NSF very well in the unit. One day, a very senior officer saw the lights in the office on late one night when he thought that everyone had gone home - he thought, "oh someone left the lights on, I'll go turn it off." Instead, he found the officer and the NSF naked, in the middle of having sex - they were caught red handed. Sensing that he could get into a lot of trouble for having gay sex on SAF premises (and his ORD was just a few months away), the NSF turned on his officer, claiming, "he coerced me, he made me do it." So as it turned out, the married officer had the book thrown at him, whilst the NSF played the victim's card and claimed that he was coerced and manipulated into gay sex. This illustrates how sexual contact can start off completely consensual but somehow still lead to an allegation that one party was not at all willing.

I'm not saying that I have a solution for such situations, but what I am saying is that we should be prepared to accept that life can present us with complex situation where there exists no simple answers and solutions. Maybe an investigation into this case would be fruitless and depend mostly on circumstantial evidence - but presuming the guilt of any party based on assumptions is hardly justice either. If the boy was indeed guilty of the crimes he was accused of, he should still have been dealt with through the criminal justice system rather than driven to suicide at the hands of the investigators who subjected a minor through a traumatic interrogation process. It is a very sad state of affairs indeed. This is the system in Singapore today and 70% of Singaporeans voted for it. That's why I am glad I have left a long time ago - incidents like this just confirms to me that I made the right decision. 

So, that's it from me on this story. I'd like to know what your thoughts are: what if it had been your younger brother, husband, nephew or son who had been subjected to the same allegations, would you have faith in the Singaporean justice system? What would you have done then? Do leave a comment below please, many thanks for reading.