Me: Eh, this way la Shannon. Got people here.
Shannon: No la. I checked already..It's opposite the Ministry of Manpower building. Must walk a bit farther.
Me: Oh ok. I see..
We then took a right, another right and then a last one. Guess where we ended up after that? The corridor of the Subordinate Courts, which is just a few metres away from where I stopped Shannon. Then I gave him the told-you-so look.
Shannon: Ooops, sorry.
And then we met Ben and Steven at the court entrance. I realised that it was already 1400 hrs. by then. So, I decided to call Marcus who was suppose to meet us at the MRT. "Oh shit." That was the first thing he said to me when he picked up my call. He just got up then. Apparently he was watching 'Heroes' till 6 plus. Haha! Both Marcus and I learnt a valuable lesson today: early to bed, early to rise. Anyway, he said he'll be there by 1430 hrs. While we were chatting outside the court building, there came Harish much to our surprise. Lol! No offense Menon. At the same time we saw this group of KC girls approaching the court as well. We knew that instant that they were going to join us for the tour because Malcolm told me the night before that there will be a group of girls joining us, and so we shouldn't be late. Oops Marcus! Haha! After taking some photos outside the entrance, Steven called Ms. Sarah Lim (hope I remembered the name correctly) on the phone. She was our tour guide for today XD. Actually, she is a court staff by profession of course. We met her a few minutes after that which was about 1430 hrs. After telling us the procedures to follow when the court building, she counted, "1-2-3-4-5. Where's the other one?" So, I told her that Marcus was on his way, rushing for the court tour. Hehe. Since she could empathise on our condition, she allowed me to switch my handphone on so that I could wait for Marcus to call me when he arrives (do you all know that we are suppose to switch OFF our handphone and any other beeping devices inside the court). An extremely nice person I must say. We then moved on to the screening gate where they screened our bags and belongings and us too. Some of the KC girls had to surrender their cameras to the security counter because no audio/video recordings are allowed inside the courthouse too. Poor them. It was so damn strict la!!! Rawr! But then again...it is the Singapore Subordinate Court after all. We were then brought to Court 17 (it was empty then) for an introduction to the judiciary system. She told us about the various courts in Singapore e.g. High Court, Appeal Court, Family & Juvenile Court and the Subordinate Court itself. We were also informed about which court handles what cases etc. 10 minutes into the briefing, Marcus called me. So, Ms. Lim excused me for a moment so that I could go all the way down to show him the way up to Court 17. The briefing went on for the next 15 minutes or so. We had plenty of chances to ask her questions about the judiciary system and she answered every single question! Wow! Oh btw, court staff have no law backgrounds. We then went to an actual hearing which was already in progress. After we enter the courtroom, we must bow to the court and only then can we take our seats. The hearing was quite interesting actually. It was about this guy accused (yup, we can't call someone a 'criminal' until he is proven guilty) of dealing drugs, ketamine to be specific. Apparently, it was his wife who lodged the report about him. When we entered, the first witness was testifying. She was from the crime lab where they test for drugs and stuff like that. She couldn't answer almost all the questions that the prosecutor, the defense counsel and the judge posed her. "I'm unable to comment on that, Your Honour." the one standard line she kept on repeating. Sigh...this was when we all fell bored and became uninterested in the hearing. We were expecting more drama from that hearing. But after that, they called on the next witness. And there came Sgt. S to the rescue (shouldn't reveal his name to protect his identity). He was super funny :D. Sorry Sgt. S, but for starters you spoke broken language when you were testifying in the court. I was shocked because he is from the CNB and shouldn't their officers be able to at least speak proper English? Oh well, just a random thought. You know, that wasn't the funny part. Apparently he was the officer who recorded the wife's report and the first thing that he asked the wife was when she found out that her husband was dealing ketamine. So, the judge was asking him what he based his first question on. Here it goes.
Judge: How did you know that she knows that her husband is dealing drugs in the first place?
Sgt. S: Well, err...they live together in the same bedroom and, yes that's why. (NO LINK!!!!)
Judge: (smiles) Ok, I believe that you have misunderstood the question. Let me rephrase it for you: how did you come to the conclusion that she found out that her husband was dealing ketamine?
Sgt. S: (paused and flip through his copy of the lodged report) It was because it was in the previous report where Staff Sgt. X...as in P-14.
Then, the judge was sort of prompting him to answer the question correctly. Man! We had a good laugh after we left the courtroom. That wasn't the only time when he totally misunderstood simple questions. On top of that, the defense counsel too had some debate with the judge which kind of frustrated the judge. The judge had already told him something and even confirmed it but the counsel kept on asking over and over again. I wonder how do judges put up with this kind of lawyers. So, how do you do it Malcolm? Oh wait! Do you all know that Malcolm was the judge for the Coroner's Court where they investigate death cases with unknown reasons. Whoa! Oh I forgot to add that the KC girls also found Sgt. S hilarious. By then, we all felt pretty cold. They just blast the air-con in the court to the fullest, I tell you. So, anyway we were then taken on a tour around the 3rd floor by Ms. Lim. She showed us the various courts and even explained their specific functions to us. Oh, btw we found out that Steven wants to study law by observing him. He was asking so many questions about the judiciary system. Things that people like me have never heard of. Steven, our future attorney... You go dude!! I've seriously never heard of a night court before. We don't have it in Malaysia btw. We even saw the court where Malcolm worked before. And finally, she took us to Court 26 which is a Mention Court in the morning, a Bail Court in the afternoon and a Night Court at night. Triple kill!!! Oops, shouldn't deviate. There, we asked our final questions and filled out the survey forms. Whew! A two-and-half-hour visit finally came to an end. After we thanked her, we went outside the court's entrance to take more photos. My stomach was already grumbling by then. So was Marcus' stomach. So, Shannon, Marcus and I walked to the Macs near the MRT. The other three went back home because they had to study for exams. Shucks! What am I doing right now?? I'm suppose to study for Mid-Year Exams. Oh well...04 VENTURES ROCK!! At Macs, Marcus told us about his Pioneering Instructor's Course. It was damn funny! All the trouble he and his venture buddies went through just for one component of the Venture Badge Scheme. My God... But, I'm pretty sure it was worth it nonetheless. After chatting for about 20 minutes or so, we left for the MRT. And it was goodbye after that. What a day! The visit was quite entertaining and above all, it was informative and fruitful. Well, I guess our unit will be inactive until our MYE is over. So, all you nice people out there reading this blog, keep it up :D and please continue checking this blog for further updates on any of our future activities.
"Menon, I sentence you to life imprisonment for swindling our unit fund!! "-aravind-
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