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| Singapore Civil Society Activists. Left to right: Dan De Costa, Kieran James, Prabu Ramachandran, Jeanne Ten, Anonymous @ Joo Chiat Road, 20 May 2019. |
ARTICLE: Dear Honourable Mdm Hotovely,
Shalom Aleichem and I hope this email finds you well and in good
spirits as it has not been with myself.
I wish to raise awareness about a Professor Lily Kong in
Singapore. I strongly believe that the Embassy of Israel in Singapore and Her
Excellency Simona Halperin are unaware of the disreputable character of this particular Professor, whom Her Excellency
exalted in a post. The post also includes a photograph of Her Excellency
standing beside the mentioned professor. Kindly refer to the copy of the aforesaid
photo and attached link at the end of this email.
Professor Lily Kong is a dishonest individual, who abused her
power to conceal wrongdoing during her tenure as Vice-Provost at the National
University of Singapore (NUS). When I blew the whistle on the wrongdoing of her
fellow colleague who is another another faculty member, Lily Kong attempted to
silence me and when I refused to submit to her intimidations, she retaliated by
expelling me from the University, thus destroying my career in the process.
The High Court of Singapore has already found that Lily Kong's
actions against me were "wrongful" in a written judgement in the
Singapore High Court entitled Ten Leu Jiun Jeanne-Marie v National
University of Singapore [2018] SGHC 158, which is available online in
the website of the Court via this link:
I reproduce parts of paragraphs [229], [230], [231], and [234] of
the written judgement of Justice Woo Bih Li below. These paragraphs deal with
some of the High Court's findings regrading key facts of the case. The threats
Lily Kong made against me are found in her letter dated 11 Aug 2006 which is
reproduced at paragraph [185].
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| Dan De Costa, Khush Chopra, Jeanne Ten, Kieran James. |
In a normal, functioning first world democracy, any professor or
university administrator found guilty of such abuses of power would have been
fired! However, this was not the case and Lily Kong has gone on to
be promoted and even honoured as the new President of Singapore Management
University (SMU) after a purported international
search was conducted which found no other suitable candidate besides
herself. Lily Kong has managed to get away
relatively scot-free, unscathed, with absolutely no accountability, and without
the requirement to make any restitution.
Let me elaborate.
My interest in the posts of your Embassy, "Israel in
Singapore," stems from my interest in the cultures of the Middle
East. Academically, I have studied on the Jews of Medieval Iberia,
and in fact, I had a discussion with a Professor about the possibility of doing
a PhD at your esteemed Ben Gurion University upon completion of my second
Masters degree.
However, I did not pursue that route as I had to return to
Singapore to try and extract some accountability from the National University
of Singapore (NUS) in the wrongful denial of my (first) Master of Arts degree.
Although I had completed and met all of the academic requirements for the award
of my first Masters degree at NUS, the same Lily Kong, then NUS Vice-Provost,
expelled me from the university after I refused to cave in to her unreasonable
demands that I stop complaining about her mishandling of a complaint that I had
made against the wrongdoing of a professor.
Lily Kong, who was the Vice-Provost at the time of my complaint to
NUS, lied to me about the outcome of an NUS investigation regarding the
complaint I made against her dishonourable colleague, who had defrauded public
funds by utilising a grant application that plagiarised my original research
work. Lily Kong deceived me into believing that a Committee of
Inquiry (“COI”) that she had convened to look into my complaint, had exonerated
the faculty member. When I demanded transparency and accountability
from her regarding how she had conducted the investigation, Lily Kong attempted
to silence me, by threatening (in writing) to deny me the award of my degree
unless I agreed to stop complaining. When I refused to submit to her improper
demands despite her intimidation, Lily Kong followed through on her threats and
proceeded to expel me from NUS.
In expelling me and depriving me of my Masters degree, Lily Kong
had breached NUS Statutes and Regulations, which stipulate student expulsion
via a Board of Discipline hearing, and deprivation of a student’s degree
through the resolution of the University Senate. None of these
statutory instruments were applied before Lily Kong expelled me from NUS..
The High Court of Singapore has already determined that Lily
Kong's actions against me were "wrong". These findings were set out
in a written judgement. The High Court has determined that:
"... importantly, it was wrong of VP Kong [Vice-Provost Lily
Kong] to impose the first part of the Acceptance requirement as a condition for
awarding the Degree ..." (Source: para 229 of the
written judgement of the Singapore High Court).
"... on the second part of the Acceptance requirement, ie, to
require the Plaintiff to accept the decision of the COI ... VP Kong
[Vice-Provost Lily Kong] admitted in cross-examination that it would not be
correct for her to impose such a condition on the Plaintiff. As I have
mentioned above, she did impose that condition. I also conclude that it was
wrong of her to do so." (Source: paragraph 230 of the
written judgement of the Singapore High Court.)
"... VP Kong [Vice-Provost Lily Kong] was also wrong in
imposing the second part of the Acceptance requirement..." (Source: paragraph 231 of the written judgement of the
Singapore High Court.)
"... I am also of the view that VP Kong [Vice-Provost Lily
Kong] was also wrong to impose the Cessation of Correspondence requirement
that the Plaintiff had to accept in order to obtain the Degree." (Source: paragraph 234 of the written judgement of the
Singapore High Court.)
May
I point your good self to the published High Court judgment Ten Leu
Jiun Jeanne-Marie v National University of Singapore [2018] SGHC
158 at this link:
Lily
Kong was promoted to the position of President of Singapore Management
University (SMU) in 2019, despite the findings of the High Court. It
is most appalling that an educator who has been found guilty of wrongdoing by
the High Court nevertheless managed to escape liability, with zero
accountability and total impunity, and has even been promoted to higher office,
as President of SMU!
In
spite of the High Court’s findings that Lily Kong was guilty of wrongdoing
while she was the Vice-Provost of NUS, the High Court nevertheless allowed NUS
to escape all liability for Lily Kong’s wrongful actions against me, which
destroyed my career and caused me great distress in the
process. Lily Kong’s retaliation against me sabotaged a PhD course I
had already started at the University of Illinois in Chicago,
USA. Without my Master of Arts degree, I was unable to find a place
in another PhD course. I was therefore compelled by the
circumstances to study for what was effectively my second Masters degree.
Without a PhD, my reasonable hopes for a career in my field of expertise were
diminished. I do not wish this upon anyone
who is studying in NUS or SMU now or in the future.
NUS has spent at least S$700,000 of (presumably) public funds to
hire top lawyers to fight the case in Court to protect dishonest officers such
as Lily Kong. It is reasonable to believe these monies were derived from public
funds, since NUS is a public university funded by tax dollars. At the last
hearing on 13 May 2019, NUS repositioned the amount it is requesting the High
Court to order me to pay NUS (originally at around $700,000 ) to $400,000
plus. This sum will effectively render me a
bankrupt. With this, NUS is sending a signal to would-be whistle
blowers who have been or were wronged, which is: "If you even try to blow
the whistle on us (NUS), we will certainly destroy you!”
NUS is currently blocking my efforts to appeal this case to the
Court of Appeal by insisting that I pay a "security deposit” to NUS.
This is a matter of public interest since NUS as well as SMU are
institutions funded by the Singapore taxpayer and Lily Kong is its public
officer.
By
associating with Lily Kong, Israeli officers have degraded their own public
image and prestige. I hope you will update your Facebook page "Israel in
Singapore" accordingly once you have arrived at an informed decision of
what is the right course of action to take after reading this letter.
May
I also respectfully urge your good self to reconsider the Embassy's decision to
collaborate with disreputable and dishonest public officers such as Lily Kong
unless there are fundamental changes which require such public officers to be
held accountable for their wrongful actions.
Yours faithfully,
TEN, Leu-Jiun Jeanne (Ms)
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