Singaporean advocate and solicitor Chia Boon Teck has resigned today from his position as Vice-President of the Law Society of Singapore after he sparked outrage with a lengthy social media post blaming a rape victim.
Among those who have criticised Chia’s post is K Shanmugam, Singapore Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law, who has said: “Shaming and blaming victims steps over the line. And misogyny should have no place in our society.”
Even though the rape case was tried in court and the perpetrator was convicted on the basis of evidence, the social media post by Chia Boon Teck listed a number of points why he believed that the rape was not rape. One of his points, listing the charges against the perpetrator, a TikToker named Lev Panfilov, said: “…‘two counts of rape, one count of sexual assault by penetration, and one count of outrage of modesty’. Wow. Was she awake throughout the marathon?”
The post referred to the victim’s age — she was 30 at the time of the rape, in January 2021 — and called her “not exactly a babe in the woods”.
Chia, whose post was published on LinkedIn on March 22 this year, started listing his points by saying that the victim had first met the man (who later raped her) on the dating app Tinder. “What’s Tinder well known for? It ain’t no LinkedIn,” he posted. The disgraced advocate has reportedly removed his LinkedIn profile after his post triggered an outcry.
Soon after the post was published, Lisa Sam Hui Min, president of the Law Society of Singapore, told Chia to resign, “saying that his comments posted on LinkedIn on March 22 were unacceptable”, reported The Straits Times.
ST reported that in a statement, Lisa Sam Hui Min said that Chia should not have questioned the rape victim’s morality the way he did. The news publication quoted her as saying: “Such comments and views are also inimical for a person in a position of leadership to espouse.”
Referring to Chia’s post, Singapore Law Minister Shanmugam wrote on his own Facebook page yesterday: “I was surprised to read comments made by a lawyer, Mr Chia Boon Teck, about a rape case recently reported… The accused has been convicted.”
Analysing the points listed by Chia in his LinkedIn post, Shanmugam wrote on Facebook: “Mr Chia in effect suggests that the female victim should not be believed. Even though the High Court found that the victim was ‘an unusually convincing witness’ whose evidence was ‘internally and externally consistent.’”
Even though the LinkedIn post by Chia contained his “personal views”, his position as the vice-president of the Law Society of Singapore could have a detrimental effect on rape victims’ morale in general, indicated Shanmugam. “My concern is that some people might actually think that the views he has expressed indicate the norms in Singapore. And I worry what impact his statement may have on other victims,” said the law minister.
Stating that Singapore as a country — and its legal framework — has been “moving quite in the opposite direction from the personal views Mr Chia has expressed, no matter what institutional position he holds”, the law minister spelt out the need to support rape victims.
I hope that we will continue to be a society that provides a proper framework to protect women in sexual assault cases. Too often victims remain silent. We need to help them come forward and report. We ought to refrain from typecasting women, who are often victims of sexual assault.
K Shanmugam, Singapore Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law
Alluding to the dismissive tone of Chia’s post, which made light of what the victim had suffered and tried to make it look like a date rather than a rape case, Shanmugam’s post said that while there had been “false allegations” of rape in the past and while the accused had the right “to fully defend themselves”, lawyers needed to be “mindful” of statements “which minimise or dismiss victims’ concerns”. Such statements could, he said, “have a disproportionate impact on other victims – who may then not be willing to report what happened to them”.
The law minister concluded by saying: “The penalties [for a rape accused], if found guilty, are serious. But Defence Counsel must observe the proper boundaries in Court. And outside Court, too. Shaming and blaming victims steps over the line. And misogyny should have no place in our society.”
