This is a law that should be supported given the prevalence of harassment by dubious people particularly in cyberspace. I am not too familiar with the incidents on stalking but that is definitely a violation of a person’s freedom to be stalked by someone everywhere. And some of the stalking incidents reported were serious in nature.
In cyberspace, incidents of harassment are so frequent that they have become an unacceptable normal. People are harassed constantly and viciously by perpetrators under the veil of anonymity. This has to be stopped. It is ok to disagree with someone else but to constantly hurling abuses at another person for reasons of hatred and grudges or simply differences in opinion is not an act that should be tolerated. Let’s be more civil and discreet with one another. Disagree for as much as you want, have your say and your views, but personal attacks, character assassinations and harassments must not be condoned.
One of the usual tactics that is being adopted, seemed so legal and proper, is to file police reports or threaten another person to file a police report against him. This is harassment of the worst kind. This is abusing the police and making use of the police in harassment. Should the police allow this to happen when many of the complaints were either very minor, spurious or unjustifiable? Should the police issue warning to such vile and wild accusations and charge the complainants for abusing the law, yes, for harassment instead?
I hope the men in blue are reading this and review their protocol and procedures to stamp out such harassments, like the saying, using the police hands to catch snakes. The police are being made use of by unscrupulous troublemakers in many such cases. What have the police to say about this kind of harassment?
There are also misgivings about this new law on harassment and stalking. Let’s hope that the law will be applied judiciously and fairly and not be abused by anyone to settle a personal feud. The law is good but can be bad in bad hands and can be badly abused for objectives that the law was not meant to serve.
Would it be abused or misused against individuals on the wrong side of the equation?
Chua Chin Leng AKA RedBean
*The writer blogs at http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com/