Defamation Law Suits - A Double-Edge Weapon
Defamation Law Suits - A Double-Edge Weapon
Think.
Why is the public at large willing to donate to the crowd-funding of Leong Sze Hian and Roy Ngerng the required full amount in double-quick time?
I think the public at large saw RED. Anger rose. Blood boiled internally with agony. Witnessing fellow citizens unable to fight and win any battle for a just, fair and equitable playing field in our own society, on our own land, many of them took action - the simplest and easiest action offered and opened in this long and winding path, the path of least obstacles and least resistance - for the redress of injustice done, as they saw it and as they saw fit to do it. So much so, many are willing to let their money do the talking and walking.
Their collective message to the power that be is very clear and enlightenedly significant.
It clearly shows that defamation law suits can be transformed into a double-edge weapon. It can operate both ways. One may gain something but one may also lose something. One may gain some monetary rewards from the judge's awards to fatten one's already over-bloated bank accounts, but one can also create a negative image of oneself, a more damaging aspect that one might not have calculated for.
In today's context, using the legal process and hoping to indirectly "intimidate" the public at large (via making someone become a scapegoat of convenience - killing a chicken to frighten the monkeys, so to speak) is not only a no-brainer but also of bad taste and is disgusting, to say the least. Time has changed. People have changed. It is not LKY's time anymore.
Today, there is the Internet and more people are educated and more discerning. They can and are willing to spend time to think deeper and obliquely into what the whole issue really means - the wider ramifications that involve the social fabrics of our society, of our beloved country.
Over time, this defamation law suits thingy has also become out of fashion and out of synchronization with the inspirations of our more matured society.
Our society, by and large, has already moved on beyond such old-fashion, petty, small-minded, convenient quick-fix. It's just like flogging a dead horse now. In fact, it has become counter-productive and counter-effective.
Instead of mending the alleged damage caused to one's reputation, it actually inflicts more damages to one's own image and reputation. Ironically, self-inflicted - like self-mutilation.
Lesson learnt:
Next time, before one starts suing and inadvertently also helps one's favourite lawyer becomes richer, think again. One may inflict more damages to one's own image and reputation instead of mending them. It's better to act like a lotus flower. Let whatever dirty or contaminated rain drops fall off by themselves without soiling its petals at all. That requires anger-management and self-restraint. That requires a person with a big heart, magnanimity and patience - a higher level of beings that money-making professional lawyers do not and will not understand.
If not possible, just simply think of what the public may perceive of one's actions. It is not a one-way traffic. It is definitely not going to be a win-win situation. It is highly probable to end up in a lose-lose conclusion.
In the eyes of the more discerning public today, they are likely to perceive a huge bulldozer ploughing through the earth and killing thousands of innocent helpless worms without an iota of feelings for the deaths and sufferings it has caused!
Even with artificial intelligence, a machine simply cannot have feelings!
Think harder.
SSO - 23 April, 2021.
