Ex-Law Society V-P says he’ll reflect, change after inappropriate post on rape survivor: Shanmugam

The former vice-president of the Law Society of Singapore who made comments about a rape survivor that received strong backlash has said he will “reflect and change”.

Mr Chia Boon Teck said this to Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam, whom he met on April 10.

In a Facebook post on the same day, Mr Shanmugam said Mr Chia had asked for the meeting in the wake of the lawyer’s comments, which the minister had described as “quite inappropriate”.

“When we met today, I told Mr Chia that he needed to reflect on his comments, and his approach. I suggested that he consider a journey of deeper reflection and understanding, appreciate that his remarks were quite wrong,” Mr Shanmugam added.

“Mr Chia has said that he will reflect, change, and find ways of contributing to society.”

Mr Chia, the co-managing director at Chia Wong Chambers, had posted on his LinkedIn page on March 22 about a High Court case in which Lev Panfilov was convicted of raping a woman he met on dating app Tinder. The LinkedIn page has since been disabled.

Among other things, Mr Chia said in the post that “Tinder ain’t no LinkedIn”, in reference to how the victim and the perpetrator first met.

In the same post, he described the victim, who is 30 years old, as “not exactly a babe in the woods” and commented, “Wow. Was she awake during this marathon?”, in reference to the sexual assault she was subjected to.

In an earlier post, Mr Shanmugam said that he was worried about the impact Mr Chia’s comments might have on other victims.

“Philosophically, I take a different view from those expressed by Mr Chia. And that has been expressed in changes we have directed, both to the laws we have in Singapore, and the way (the) police conduct their investigations,” the minister said.

This includes the 2012 repeal of a provision in the Evidence Act that allowed defence lawyers to question an alleged victim of rape, to try and show that she was of generally immoral character.

Among others who had spoken up against Mr Chia’s original comments was Ms Sugidha Nithiananthan, director of advocacy and research at gender advocacy group Aware.

She said the law has made great strides forward in dealing with such cases, with both Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justice Vincent Hoong, judicial commissioner of the Supreme Court, having highlighted the importance of not perpetuating rape myths or victim-blaming.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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