I had earlier wanted to wait for the authorities to report its findings on the Benjamin Lim case first. This is the case of the 14 year old boy who jumped to his death from his Yishun home after returning from a police interview following some allegation of outrage of modesty. Many people I spoke to recently have expressed great concern about this incident.
First of all, my deepest condolences to the parents and family of the late Benjamin Lim.
I expect that the authorities will carry out a thorough and impartial investigation on the entire incident, including how the interview was conducted, and let the public have full details of the investigation in due course so that public confidence in the police force will not be adversely affected by this incident.
When a minor is interviewed by the police in other countries, it is not uncommon for the minor to be accompanied by an adult such as a parent, guardian, lawyer, social worker or even an adult of his choice. Sadly, this is not the case in Singapore so far. I welcome our police force’s decision to review its procedure on the interview of minors. I hope that the review will result ultimately in improvements to the current law and protocols.
Dennis Tan
Workers' Party
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