Walter Woon
Walter Woon Cheong Ming SC (born 12 September 1956) is a Singaporean lawyer who served as the fifth attorney-general of Singapore between 2008 and 2010.
He is currently an Emeritus Professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, Lee Kong Chian Visiting professor at the Singapore Management University Yong Pung How School of Law, and the dean of the RHT Legal Training Institute.
Woon, an ethnic Singaporean Chinese of Peranakan descent,[1] was born on 12 September 1956 in Singapore[2] to schoolteachers.
degree with first class honours from St. John's College, Cambridge, which he completed on a Commonwealth Academic Staff scholarship.
[8] In November 1990, Woon appeared before the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment No.
[11] Never afraid to speak his mind, in July 1991 in an interview by The Straits Times Woon commented: "We effectively don't have a Constitution.
"[12] In reply, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong pointed out that past changes to the Constitution had been made only with a two-thirds parliamentary majority and not done lightheartedly, as the intensive discussions and the two-year gestation period of the Elected President Bill proved.
[14] In 1992 at the start of the Government's annual Speak Mandarin Campaign, the Minister for Information and the Arts George Yeo said in a newspaper article that the rising use of English by Chinese Singaporeans was a "disturbing trend" as "[w]e become very exposed to Western cultural influences via books, magazines and films.
He noted that "[t]he emancipation of women, the rule of law, the equality of citizens irrespective of race, language or religion, the right to representative government: These are values we have adopted from the 'decadent' West.
[2][8] On 23 May 1994, Woon moved a Private Member's Bill which was eventually passed by Parliament on 2 November 1995 as the Maintenance of Parents Act.
[18] The Act, which entitles parents at least 60 years old and unable to maintain themselves adequately to apply to a tribunal for their children to be ordered to pay maintenance to them, was the first public law that originated from a private member's bill since Singapore's independence in 1965.
[19] In its 5 December 1994 issue, Time magazine picked Woon as one of 100 young world leaders, the only Singaporean to make the list.
1 of 1995,[21] which involved the interpretation of provisions of the Constitution of Singapore touching on the ability of Parliament to curtail the President's discretionary powers.
He then served as Ambassador to Belgium (from 22 August 2003)[2] with concurrent accreditation to the European Union, the Netherlands (from 22 October 2003),[23] Luxembourg and the Holy See.
[8][24] In this capacity, he represented Singapore together with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Law S. Jayakumar at the funeral mass of Pope John Paul II in the Vatican City on 8 April 2005,[25] believed to be the largest gathering of heads of state in history.
[26] In 2006, the Vatican made Woon a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Gregory the Great,[27] which is conferred on Roman Catholic men and women in recognition of their service to the Church, unusual labours, support of the Holy See, and the good example set in their communities and country.
Between January 2007 and 31 March 2010, he was a member of the advisory board of the School of Law of the Singapore Management University.
[30] In February 2008, Woon was appointed by the Ministry of Finance to chair a steering committee to review the Companies Act.
Rajah wrote in a judgment that such comments could undermine confidence in the courts' verdicts and the criminal justice system, which was based on the doctrine of the presumption of innocence.
Nonetheless, it was "entirely possible for a person to have committed acts which amount to a crime and yet, there may be no conviction", as the trial process was designed to prove guilt and not innocence.
On 28 July 2008, he argued before the Court of Appeal that a woman, 24-year-old Aniza bte Essa, who had manipulated her 17-year-old teenage lover Muhammad Nasir bin Abdul Aziz into killing her husband should be given a life sentence.
[41] Subsequently, in response to further comments by Dr. Lee,[42] he wrote an extended article entitled "Wrong Facts and Faulty Logic" that appeared in The Straits Times on 18 September 2008.
[43] He also prosecuted a number of contempt of court cases, including suits against Dow Jones Publishing Company (Asia), Inc. for material published in The Wall Street Journal Asia;[44] against US-based lawyer Gopalan Nair for comments on his blog;[45] and against three Singapore Democratic Party supporters, John Tan Liang Joo, Isrizal bin Mohamed Isa and Muhammad Shafi'ie Syahmi bin Sariman, who wore T-shirts bearing the image of a kangaroo dressed in a judge's gown outside the Supreme Court Building.
on 31 October 2009, Woon expressed the view that prosecuting teenagers from having underage sex with each other served little purpose.
[27] In 2015, Woon joined RHTLaw TaylorWessing LLP, one of the few largest law firms in Singapore, as its non-executive Chairman and Senior Consultant.
In September 2017, Woon wrote a piece in The Straits Times illuminating how the office of the Attorney-General carries out its prosecutorial function, and suggesting that this could be separated from its other role as legal advisor to the Government.
Both books are crime novels set in 1930s Singapore with Dennis Chiang, an English-educated Peranakan lawyer, as the protagonist.
Although the protagonist Chiang's "view of human beings other than himself is patronising at best" and might leave readers with a "rather sour aftertaste", the novel's "light touches of romance and compassion do much to lift the storyline" and had "masterful pacing".
