Regarding Ms. Han Hui Hui and CPE
I think I saw this news a few months back but I didn't thought much of it, and today, I happened to see this news article on Yahoo, I read about it and found that CPE was trying to sue Ms. Han for defamation. This really kept me thinking, I don't really know much about CPE except that it regulates private schools like Informatics, MDIS and etc, it's like the private school watchdog to ensure they do things correctly, same like how IDA regulates telcos, see the recent record-breaking fine handed to M1 for service outage.
CPE was only setup in recent years, I don't really remember which year but when I was studying for my private diploma and advanced diploma at Informatics, they didn't exist, and that was from 2004 to 2007. During that time, many private schools can suddenly close down, leaving many local and foreign students in the lurch, most lost their money and had no way to recover since the school owners went missing.
Lucky for me, Informatics was one of the largest private school at that time, so I didn't have to worry about them closing down and running away with my money. I think later part there was an arrangement by CASE with the big private schools to take in these students who were left hanging, I saw a lot of them transferred into Informatics, which was a good move, at least they were able to continue with their studies and get their certification, but I'm not sure how the course fees were settled.
Next was the worst financial crisis seen by mankind in 2008, even more private schools went bust, owners went missing, leaving more private students lost, confused with big holes in their pockets. That time Singapore was trying to be an education hub, this kind of news only ruins that image, international students were losing confidence in our private education system.
Then came CPE, I think they were mainly setup to protect students in our private education system, then came EduTrust to certify private schools, and the Fee Protection Scheme, and some other measures, all meant to protect private students, be it local or foreign, and seems like they have been doing a good job so far, I don't see news of private students losing their money anymore.
So what I'm thinking next is, who is Ms. Han, was she a private student? How did she get into this situation with CPE? What transpired between her and CPE that lead to the potential lawsuit? I still don't understand the whole story, but one thing is for sure, CPE was trying to sue her.
What I'm thinking is, if Ms. Han is a private student, and CPE was trying to sue her, this really defies the mission of CPE, they were meant to protect private students, even if Ms. Han was indeed wrong and said or wrote something defamatory, lawsuit is just overkill, how can a young girl have the capability to take on a statutory board?
In the first place, how come a statutory board can sue her? Am I right to say that they are using my money to sue her? Who's paying for it? How did she attack CPE? Did she question their policy or did she attack a particular person in CPE? If she attacked a particular person, then that person should sue her on his/her own capacity, not via CPE using taxpayers' money, but if she attacked CPE's policy, then wow, does that mean a statutory board can sue people just because their policy was criticized? I've been criticizing ICA and HDB for a long time, how come I don't see them suing me? Maybe I should shut up from now on? Then how to improve?
I really think our government should come out and clarify this issue, this concerns every resident in Singapore, if people have to be afraid of speaking up just because of fearing a lawsuit from a statutory board, then how will they know whether they are doing things right?
CPE was only setup in recent years, I don't really remember which year but when I was studying for my private diploma and advanced diploma at Informatics, they didn't exist, and that was from 2004 to 2007. During that time, many private schools can suddenly close down, leaving many local and foreign students in the lurch, most lost their money and had no way to recover since the school owners went missing.
Lucky for me, Informatics was one of the largest private school at that time, so I didn't have to worry about them closing down and running away with my money. I think later part there was an arrangement by CASE with the big private schools to take in these students who were left hanging, I saw a lot of them transferred into Informatics, which was a good move, at least they were able to continue with their studies and get their certification, but I'm not sure how the course fees were settled.
Next was the worst financial crisis seen by mankind in 2008, even more private schools went bust, owners went missing, leaving more private students lost, confused with big holes in their pockets. That time Singapore was trying to be an education hub, this kind of news only ruins that image, international students were losing confidence in our private education system.
Then came CPE, I think they were mainly setup to protect students in our private education system, then came EduTrust to certify private schools, and the Fee Protection Scheme, and some other measures, all meant to protect private students, be it local or foreign, and seems like they have been doing a good job so far, I don't see news of private students losing their money anymore.
So what I'm thinking next is, who is Ms. Han, was she a private student? How did she get into this situation with CPE? What transpired between her and CPE that lead to the potential lawsuit? I still don't understand the whole story, but one thing is for sure, CPE was trying to sue her.
What I'm thinking is, if Ms. Han is a private student, and CPE was trying to sue her, this really defies the mission of CPE, they were meant to protect private students, even if Ms. Han was indeed wrong and said or wrote something defamatory, lawsuit is just overkill, how can a young girl have the capability to take on a statutory board?
In the first place, how come a statutory board can sue her? Am I right to say that they are using my money to sue her? Who's paying for it? How did she attack CPE? Did she question their policy or did she attack a particular person in CPE? If she attacked a particular person, then that person should sue her on his/her own capacity, not via CPE using taxpayers' money, but if she attacked CPE's policy, then wow, does that mean a statutory board can sue people just because their policy was criticized? I've been criticizing ICA and HDB for a long time, how come I don't see them suing me? Maybe I should shut up from now on? Then how to improve?
I really think our government should come out and clarify this issue, this concerns every resident in Singapore, if people have to be afraid of speaking up just because of fearing a lawsuit from a statutory board, then how will they know whether they are doing things right?
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