Following the high profile bribery of state-owned company Keppel costing Singapore taxes US$422 million, Law Minister K Shanmugam yesterday (Jan 15) said he will legalise corporate corruptions for big companies by allowing them to be granted amnesty if they “meet certain requirements”.
Called the Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPA), the new law will operate on the basis that companies do no wrong so long as they “strengthen internal controls” when caught. This allows any corporation to get away with corruptions and prosecute only the individual employees.
Law Minister K Shanmugam said that he already introduced the proposal back in July 2017 as part of his 50 proposed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code and Evidence Act. The Minister claimed that the 50 proposals were enacted following public feedback and consultation, but most Singaporeans are unaware of the proposed changes.
In recent years, the dictatorship has been putting up obfuscating legal amendments for “public consultation” knowing that few will understand or bother attending the these propaganda sessions. The fake public consultation process will then give the regime basis to enact any law they like.
Legalising corruptions is common in Singapore due to the single-party majority in parliament. Despite winning only 70% of the votes during the 2015 General Elections, the ruling party PAP occupies 92% of the parliamentary seats through undemocratic election processes. Thanks to legal corruptions, the PAP administration pays themselves S$53 million a year, the highest salaries in the world. The dictatorship also managed to legally appoint a PAP MP to be President, and even changed her race from Indian to Malay through legal corruptions.