Man shouted gang slogan in front of police officers, uttered expletives
SINGAPORE — A car workshop owner repeatedly shouted a gang slogan at a club in the presence of police officers, a court heard.
When secret society branch officers arrested Chua Kok Thye, 49, he put up a violent struggle and directed expletives towards an officer’s mother.
At the State Courts last Thursday (20 June), Chua was sentenced to two weeks’ jail and fined $5,000 after he pleaded guilty to acting as a member of an unlawful society and using abusive words on a public servant.
Two other charges - of being a member of an unlawful society between 1984 and 1990 and committing affray, which is disturbing the public peace by fighting in a public place - were considered in sentencing.
Chua is appealing against his sentence.
Police raid at nightclub
Chua was a former member of the ‘Sio Gi Ho’ secret society of the ‘18’ group operating at Farrer Park Market. He was recruited by the society in 1984 as a ‘fighter’ and remained as a member until 1990.
He was arrested for affray after he fought with another person on 16 August 2017 and released on bail.
On 2 February last year, police officers from the criminal investigation department’s secret societies branch (SSB) conducted spot checks at various locations. They entered Club Nexus on the third floor of Oriental Plaza along New Bridge Road at about 1.15am the next day.
Chua, who was drinking alcohol with business partners and friends, repeatedly shouted the slogan ‘Yo Ah Yo’, a chant of the ‘Sio Gi Ho’ secret society, along with the crowd.
An assistant superintendent of police identified himself to Chua as an SSB officer. He asked Chua to follow him.
But Chua refused to comply and behaved aggressively. When other SSB officers came over to arrest him, he put up a violent struggle.
Chua was then led out to a police vehicle. While on the way out, he hurled expletives at the assistant superintendent, directed at his mother. He continued doing so despite the officer warning him to stop.
At the police vehicle, Chua told SSB officers that he was ‘Marlboro’ from the ‘Sio Gi Ho’ secret society of the ‘18’ group and that he was not afraid of the police. He continued to hurl the expletives he was earlier spewing.
In written grounds released on Thursday (27 June), District Judge Christopher Tan agreed with the prosecution that Chua’s repeated shouting of the gang slogan in a public place would have given rise to disquiet among club patrons. It also had the potential to trigger gang violence.
“The risk of triggering gang reactions at the club could not be dismissed out of hand. The accused himself had asserted that there was a crowd at the club chanting ‘Yo Ah Yo’, so he would be hard put to assert that the club was free of secret society elements. I further note that the club was, after all, a spot which the SSB had specifically identified for conducting its enforcement rounds”.
The judge found aggravating factors which merited a jail term for the offence under the Secret Societies Act: Chua was out on bail at the time of the offence, had resisted arrest and was also heavily intoxicated. He had drunk at least 20 glasses of alcohol at the club, including beer, stout, red wine, white wine and whisky.
Said the judge, “If excessive consumption of alcohol is going to make a person shed his inhibitions towards criminal conduct, it behoves him to exercise responsibility in his alcohol intake. If that person sees fit not to do so and consequently drinks himself to a state where he has no compunction about breaching the public peace, his failure to exercise restraint at the point of alcohol intake can ordinarily be held against him during sentencing”.
For acting as a member of an unlawful society, Chua could have been fined up to $5,000 and jailed up to three years.
He could have been fined up to $5,000 and jailed for up to a year for using abusive words on a public servant.
In April, a getai singer who shouted a gang-related slogan during a performance in Yishun last year was fined $1,000 after pleading guilty to a charge of using threatening words that were likely to cause alarm under the Protection from Harassment Act.
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