After 142 days of trial, 9 presiding judges, more than
700 pages of judgment (not including the judgment in Chew's two appeals), 3
years of investigation, 3 apologies, several senior counsels and DPPs, millions
in legal fees, and not forgetting, a corporate anointing in end 2015 with the
passing of a personal bible from one to another, the CHC saga is finally over.
Like it or not, I
can't say that I disagree with Sun Ho when she said: "I'm very thankful
for everyone that has journeyed with us and prayed for us and loved us in spite
of everything."
The journey that
she is talking about is one that had started with an unusual vision in 1999 and
had ended up with six lives held behind bars in 2017.
And I hope that
when Sun Ho talked about "in spite of everything", she was referring
to not just what I had written in my first paragraph above, but also the faith
lost, lives broken and hope crashed in the wake of the ironclad refusal to
accept responsibility and to be held accountable for one's actions until all
legal defences and appeals are thoroughly exhausted (or maybe not?).
Mind you, this is
the second longest trial in Singapore history, and it is definitely the most
sensational and heartbreaking one. The longest trial goes to a drug trafficking
case in the 1990s which lasted for 168 days.
But I guess both
trials share something in common, that is, there is an element that is
psychedelic in nature; where one is about a certain heightened vision, and the
other, a certain hallucinogen.
But say what you
want, it has taken its heavy and at times, unbearable toll.
Families of the
accused have to go through great anxieties and disruption in their normal
routine to stake out at home worrying over their loved ones. Tears were quietly
shed and the uncertainty over the seven years was not only emotionally
tormenting but financially draining.
Somewhere, and
somehow, it has just got to end and end it did with a twist that even the most
enlightened of the spiritual oracle would not have predicted.
As it turned out,
it has got nothing whatsoever to do with the much touted "theological
legitimacy". But it has everything to do with the legislation, the highest
law-making body of the land, which takes precedence even over the highest Court
in the land.
As the CA wrote in
its conclusion, "...the shaping of a remedy should be left to
Parliament."
Well, it took seven
years (or 40) to unravel that, that is, more specifically, section 409 is not
applicable to directors, the governing board members, key officials of charity,
and in this case, pastors of the church. And the CA has eschewed the broad
interpretation of the section by past judges on the ground that "a tough
case shouldn't be allowed to make bad law".
As such, directors,
leaders of charity and pastors of churches face only a max of 7 years
imprisonment if they should commit CBT as they would be charge under section
406 (and not the more serious section 409).
However, clerks,
storemen and employees of the company (and presumably church salaried support
staff) are not that fortunate.
If they should
commit CBT, they face a max of 15 years imprisonment under the more serious
charge of section 408.
So, you can say
that Kong Hee and the rest escaped on a godsend technicality, premised on the
reservation of justice to close a gap that justice had quite presumptuously,
but wrongly, bridged for the last 40 years (until yesterday) when a high court
judgment in 1976 misinterpreted "agent" in section 409 to include key
decision-makers and high-salary-earners like directors, charity leaders and
church pastors, which it shouldn't have.
With this newly
minted COA decision of five justices on the 1st of February 2018, we now know
beyond reasonable doubt that they do not come under section 409. They are
clearly off the sharper hooks of the law into its relatively more gentle edges.
Ironically, what
unfolded in this CHC saga after such an exhaustingly long time was not so much
justice pursued and meted out, but on the contrary, the highlight was how
injustice was uncovered for all those who had once held high positions in the
company and were erroneously charged under section 409 (before yesterday's
legal "rude" awakening) when they ought to have been charged under
section 406 instead.
And there is
another side to this so called "unjust" outcome, at least
potentially, if it is not already obvious by now.
And that is,
henceforth and until such time when parliament convenes to remedy the lacuna,
directors and pastors are liable for shorter maximum sentence (section 406) as
compared to their salaried employees at the bottom rung of the organization
(section 408); while section 409 is only reserved for external agents like
bankers, merchants, broker and an attorney (who are in the business or
profession of providing agency services). That much is clear.
FYI, Malaysia has
long taken the initiative to amend its equivalent section 409 to tailor fit it
to modern commercial realities to cover trustees, directors, managers of
company, partnership and association.
On this, we are lagging behind, and as
the Court said, "is long overdue".
Alas, the law was
finally clarified yesterday. The prosecution will just have to accept it and
move on.
The defence have
done their job and they can send their robe to the cleaners to fight another
day. Kong Hee is at last at peace with himself and is "getting on with his
life."
Sharon Tan can
safely migrate to Canada to be reunited with her beloved family. Eng Han is
granted a reprieve to celebrate a solemn CNY with loved ones before he
surrenders himself on 22 Feb.
The other accused
with proper remission may just be out very soon. Pastor Sun Ho is, as she had
said, very thankful for the prayers and love in the journey.
And in the words of
Serina Wee's husband: "Now I can tell the kids a date that mummy is coming
home."
Now, what has CHC
to say about all that?
Well, her pastors
Aries and Bobby made this public statement:-
"We thank God
for His mercy and kindness for sustaining us through these seven years and
bringing this to an end. We thank you, Church, for continuing in prayers all
these years and for your faithfulness and support."
Lesson? One.
In the end, my
personal view, if it is worth its two cents, is that God has really nothing to
do with all that.
If anything,
Galatians 3:3 comes to mind: "How foolish can you be? After starting your
Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your
own human effort?"
And if it is not
obvious by now, then let me spell it out.
The only person
clearly not involved in all the legal saga, spiritual wayanging and leadership
drama (in particular the crossover project) for the past seven years (or my
god, for the past 18 years since that vision first started) is God himself.
Somewhere along
that "own-human-effort" journey was someone in the high places of the
church leadership using His name in vain, for self-gain, and as the appalling
legal trail shows, it's simply insane.
It bears repeating
that God cannot be in any part of it or at all, or else, someone up there will
have to fill in another lacuna of a wholly spiritual kind, and that is, how on
earth (or in heaven) is it ever possible that God could have personally and
directly masterminded and engineered this whole unfathomable legal and
spiritual mess that has clearly divided believers, broken hearts, ruined faith,
destroyed innocent lives, tormented families, caused millions of dollars
(wasted), and ended up in six lives imprisoned, 7 justices washing their hands
over a 40-year-long misapprehension (since the case in 1976), and a certain
anointed passing of the leadership mantle that leaves more questions hanging
than answered?
If at such time, we
as believers are still checking our brains at the door before we enter the
church, and blindfolding our eyes because we refuse to face reality, then we
would sadly need much more than just prayers to continue this journey of faith.
I recall Jesus once
said: "Whoever has ear to hear, let them hear." And by an extension
of that, "whoever has eye to see, let them see."
Most times, it not
that we are in a metaphorical sense deaf or blind. But it is because we choose
not to hear and see that which is staring at our face as it goes against what
we so eagerly want to believe about our leaders and our church.
This is, I believe,
a major part of the reason why we are where we are today in the first place.
And why leaders of megachurches (or for that matter, current leaders of the
world) have such unbelievably wide latitude and license to act as they please.
And if this lesson
of checking our leaders, putting them in their place, exercising moral courage
to speak out, is not nurtured and learned (even after all that has happened),
we will surely repeat it at the most unwitting season in subsequent lulled
years.
In Psalm 107:2, it
says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord speak out, those whom he delivered
from the power of the enemy".
Let's
just hope that we will all move on from here and as a redeemed people, will
always be prepared to "speak out" (not just on a celebrative tone but
on a cautionary note), even at the expense of losing our membership in a
tight-knit community for the "blissfully unperturbed" who rather
treads gently with cold feet than walk firmly and boldly in faith and in truth.
Cheerz.
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