Everything Also Complain

From ‘Man who punched and fractured gangster’s jaw escapes jail’, 23 June 2012, article in asiaone.com

A Singaporean businessman was fined $3,000 on Thursday for punching and fracturing a gangster’s jaw. The Straits Times reported that he was spared a jail sentence as the judge said it was an exceptional case.

Ong Long Hock, 64, had pleaded guilty to causing hurt to Lee Tze Wei, 32, a sales executive. The incident occurred on Feb 17, 2009 at about 7pm. Ong and his family had drove down to the Punggol Nasi Lemak stall near Tanjong Katong Road.

Ong’s daughter-in-law, Delia Chiang Chia Yen, 31, was on the way to queue for food when she was pestered by Lee and his friend. Claiming to be gangsters, the duo swore at her and her husband. The two men started punching and kicking Ong’s son before family members could call the police. A third man also joined in the assault. Ong tried to break up the fight and was also hit. When the three assailants tried to flee, Ong and his son managed to grab Lee and pin him to the ground. That was when Ong punched him.

…Ong told the Shin Min Daily News on Thursday that he had lost five teeth in the fight, and spent $20,000 on dental treatment.

This is the second senseless brawl in a week, following a biker gang assault on a SIM student which was later classified as ‘rioting’. One shouldn’t underestimate the strength of old uncles, and Ong Long Hock, who may actually be as ferocious as his loanshark-ish name sounds, packs a nasty punch here. He even has real teeth knocked out of him. Most seniors his age would have choked on their dentures fending off gang attacks before getting their wrinkled fists anywhere near someone’s face. Others in a bid to play ‘tough guy’ end up embarrassing themselves after quarreling over seats on a bus, their bark worse than their bite (assuming they have teeth to do so)

Any hooligan who harasses innocent couples queuing for nasi lemak deserves to be taught a lesson, and nobody dishes out pain and humiliation to a shoddy whippersnapper like a ‘Lao Hero’. The tough-as-nails ah pek used to be a cinematic myth, particularly in the Asian context where retired pugilists with white flowing beards are almost always expected to give upstarts a solid dressing down.There is something satisfying about elderly men who appear meek and hobbling about on walking sticks turning into badass fighting machines, from Jackie Chan’s ‘shifu’ in ‘Drunken Master’ to the Karate Kid’s Mr Miyagi and even non-human seniors like Yoda in the Attack of the Clones.

Attack of the Crones

But Ong’s plot most resembles that of a Western film, namely protagonist Clint Eastwood’s character in Gran Torino, a one-man army who beats up a bunch of Asian hoodlums and scares people with gun gestures.

Feeling lucky, punk?

So poetic justice demands that a protective father and senior citizen who can beat me in arm-wrestling be spared a jail term, though if it were true that his victim did belong to a gang of some sorts, Ong should watch his back. Perhaps fellow gang members are keeping an eye on his back as we speak, withholding a revenge attack only because of a possible dragon-Guan Yin tattoo decorating it.

Most fist-fights between elderly men don’t end well. In 1986, a 77 year old died of a heart attack after tussling with another old nutter. In 1998, a 68 year old killed his fellow senior flatmate in a heated frenzy (Man, 68, gets jail for killing flatmate, 31 Dec 1998, ST). Being a hero is also a hazardous task in the golden years; In 1981 a 70 year old hawker sacrificed himself to save a blind elderly man from a fire, BREAKING DOWN A DOOR in the process. Compared to our namby-pamby thugs of today, our hardy old geezers are Sparta warriors, men who in their prime could disarm hacks with penknives, or disassemble a rickshaw with nothing but a spanner. Unlike the Coen brothers’ refrain that we live in No Country For Old Men, with the flourishing of troublemakers of late and men my generation having evolved into softies who have never swung a punch in their entire lives despite 2 years of NS, we probably need our frisky old men to double up as  surrogate cops more than ever.

Filed under: 1980s, 1990s, 2012, Justice system/Lawsuits, Parenting, Singaporean men, Violence Tagged: | elderly, justice system, parenting, parents, Singaporean men, Violence