Fight to finish -the Tartar and his Catcher

 Francis Seow came back from England as a qualified barrister-at- law and soon joined the Attorney Chambers as a prosecutor. He soon showed himself as a powerful prosecutor wih a prowess that struck fears in defence counsels. But David Marshall was a lawyer with exceptionally high legal counter-offensive skills that less audacious public prosecutors keep shy of. The Michael Nonis murder case in 1950 which he defended with success if spite of very strong prosecution evidence was an example of his wizardry court craft propelled him to such a dizzying height of popularity ever received by a lawyer. But history had it that an equally formidable prosecutor that providence divined matched the mighty legal eloquence of David Marshall. Their consumate flowery legal oratory in their highly sophistic exchanges of arguments was a sight that nobody can remember in Singapore. The court room could not be the same after their departure.

   Tan Boon Teck was the Attorney-general when Sunny Ang's murder case was studied by him and quite amazingly dismissed it as NOD.(no offence detected).The investigating officer was devastated by incredibility. He was convinced that Ang was the murderer as the evidence was so overwehlming   it could convince a blind man. Suddenly a thought came over him and he took the case up with prosecutor Francis Seow. Francis just took a good look at the IP and decided to resuscitate the case. Sunny Ang was re-arrested and charged with murder and Francis Seow with his inimitable prosecution skill had Sonny Ang convicted of murder. He was sentenced to hang. 

Francis Seow never looked back but Tan Boon Teck remained Attorney-general until he retired. Francis Seow was the Solicitor-general.  Don,t you think there was something wrong in Lee Kuan Yew's perception?

Francis Seow played into the hand of Les Kuan Yew in accepting the sppointment of public inquisitor in the Committe of Inquiry for Education where he exposed the President of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce Ko Teck Kin (高德根) for financing the Chinese High School students' communist activities for a long time but wheher he was able to demolish his standing in the business circle and community was a conjecture. Francis Seow did not realise that this would damage his image among the Chinese.

Francis Seow resigned from his government service after this and set up a private practice which was doomed for disaster because it was on the scale of a well established western law practice in a luxurious building with heavy overhead and lack of clientele especially from the Chinese.

What he did after that was not very clear but he was such a pugnacious justice upholder hauning the mind of Lee Kuan Yew that  did not leave him with any peace of mind Lee Kuan Yew decided that Francis Seow had to be put away for good.. His Commissioner of Inland Revenue Tsu  Tse-kwang was a ready-made hachet man. here was some animosiiy between Tsu and  Francis.  who reported hm to CPIB for illegal share trading. George Bogaars intervened and pursuaded me to give Tsu the benefit of the doubt. 

As if by sleight of hand Tsu managed to dig up so-called evidence  for two charges of tax evasion against Francis. Francis knew that his time was up and time spent in prison was not exactly a fun vacation. So he highjacked to America where he sought asylum and eventually joined his ancestors.

It's a pity he took a contentious path in his career. With his talent and high intellect he could have been mor prominent in society.