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Jail term voided for NS defaulter who left S'pore as baby
22nd July
THE High Court yesterday set aside the jail term given to a national service defaulter and fined him $5,000 instead.
Seow Wei Sin's dodging of his national service obligation stands out as one of the longest periods of default - 23 years - by a Singaporean to have surfaced in the courts. He was born a Singapore citizen, but in 1963, when he was just a year old, his parents moved to a small town in Terengganu, Malaysia, taking him along.
In Malaysia he stayed, and he did not step foot here from the late 1970s. The issue of his national service obligation arose in 2008, when, at age 47, he applied for a Singapore passport.
He returned to Singapore last year and was arrested for failing to fulfil his national service liability by having remained outside Singapore for 23 years without an exit permit.
In March, he pleaded guilty in a district court to one count under the Enlistment Act and was sentenced to 18months' jail. He could have been jailed up to three years.
Both prosecution and defence appealed.
Yesterday, Justice Chao Hick Tin noted that Mr Seow was taken away at age one and had stayed in Malaysia, save for a few visits as a teen. The appeal judge said he did not think a jail term was warranted, considering past cases. He will issue his written judgment later.
Mr Seow's lawyer, Mr Tan Jee Ming, had argued that since a High Court decision in 1993, fines have been meted out to national service defaulters; only those with aggravating factors such as repeat offences or past criminal records have been jailed.
In 2005, pianist Melvyn Tan was fined $3,000 for defaulting in his 28 years away. Controversy arose and Singaporeans called for tougher penalties for those who evaded national service.
In 2006, the Defence Minister reiterated the tough stand against national service defaulters; the maximum fine was raised to $10,000.
Yesterday, Mr Tan argued that the district judge who jailed his client had erred in placing weight on that statement, which came after his client's failure to enlist between May 1978 and August 2001.
Mr Tan said Mr Seow believed his father had taken care of his national service matters.
He noted that Mr Seow was educated, had worked, married and raised his five children in Malaysia and had not gained from any of the Singapore Government's schemes, privileges and incentives.
But Deputy Public Prosecutor Chay Yuen Fatt, pressing for jail time, asked for the term to be brought closer to the maximum three years. He argued that since Mr Seow cannot be called up for national service as he is now over 40, he has effectively evaded it entirely. He noted that the 18 months was still shorter than two years of national service.
Of course, a lot of bitter slaves are saying they'd also pay $5,000 to avoid Slavery - ignoring the fact that the circumstances are very different (in fact, it's ridiculous that he was even convicted in the first place, but then the ilLogic of Slavery is such as it is).
For example, if someone breaks into my home and I shoot him with a gun 5 times and he dies, and I get 1 month's jail for excessive force (assuming that I live in a country where it is legal to possess firearms and legal to defend your home from attack), and someone comes along and says "Oh, I don't mind killing someone if I only get a month in jail".
Naturally, if you killed someone in cold blood you'd get 15-25 years in jail - not 1 month.
