Not correct to say that majority of lawyers in Law Society favour retention of Section 377A
I REFER to Mr Jason Wee Kheng Hoe's posting, 'Section 377A should be repealed - reputation in legal and multinational community at stake' (Online forum, Aug 16).
In the third paragraph of his posting, Mr Wee states (and in so doing, wrongly premises) that, apart from a minority view, 'Singapore's Law Society' (sic) favours the retention of Section 377A of the Penal Code in its present form. Not only is this incorrect, it is also grossly misleading. It is sincerely hoped that Mr Wee has made a careless but honest mistake.
In point of fact, in November last year, the Council of the Law Society appointed an ad hoc committee comprising legal practitioners and academics to review the proposed Penal Code amendments including the issue of whether Section 377A should be retained.
Members of the Law Society at large were asked for their feedback. Comments were received from various members and the ad hoc committee submitted its report to the council in March 2007. It is important to note that the society's members were not asked to vote on a referendum.
After due consideration of its members' feedback and the views of the ad hoc committee, the council submitted a report on March 30, 2007 ('Report').
On the issue of the retention of Section 377A, a majority of the council members considered that the retention of Section 377A in its present form cannot be justified. The Report was careful to add that the council recognised that this view does not necessarily represent the views of its members collectively. Indeed, a significant minority of council members as well as numerous members of the society at large took an opposing view, and strongly supported the retention of the section 377A in the Penal Code.
It is therefore clear that Mr Wee is wrong in stating that the Law Society is not in favour of the retention of Section 377A in its present form. It is all too convenient to generalise that the majority view of some 21 members of the council is one and the same as the majority view of the over 3,000 members of the Law Society. It is not.
Ong Chin Lee
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