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Crowdfunding is like Batman: full of cool gadgets, seeks justice when the law falls short. But it’s not enough.
Crowdfunding, I like to think, is the grand enabler of ideas – it dares inventors and entrepreneurs to dream big, validate, and make those dreams come true with others. A series of unfortunate incidents this year, however, has proven that it can go beyond just making ideas happen – crowdfunding can also be the enabler of justice where the law fails to mete it out.
Three incidents that happened in Singapore over the last couple of years have proven that the crowd will readily leap to the rescue of those deemed to have been unfairly treated by the legal system.
First, there was the case of Gary and Kenneth – a Singaporean gay couple of over 17 years – who challenged Section 377A of the Singapore Penal Code banning sex between men. The LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transexual) community rallied behind them with an Indiegogo campaign, looking to raise enough funds to cover their legal costs. The final amount raised was US$107,730, more than twice the initial funding goal.
Then there was the now-infamous Singaporean blogger Roy Ngerng, who ran a crowdfunding campaign on his own blog. The goal: to raise money for his court case against the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, who was taking Ngerng to court on the charge of false defamation. Long story short, locals leapt to his aid with S$85,970 (US$68,355), surpassing his target of S$70,000 (US$56,000).
Finally, a few days ago, one kind-hearted Singaporean startup founder took it upon himself to raise money on Indiegogo to compensate a Vietnamese tourist who had been scammed by a shop owner in Sim Lim Square. Despite the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) coming to his aid, the poor man still lost S$550 (US$440) in total for absolutely no reason at all. Even minister for manpower Tan Chuan-Jin acknowledged the weakness of the law in this respect in a Facebook post:
Be that as it may, we should see how to strengthen or adjust our laws to deal with these cases where individuals face such hurdles to seek resolution. Some are disputes that may fall short of violating any laws or regulations, but they clearly assault our sensibilities!
We operate closely to the law. In some instances, the laws do not provide for particular actions and even if we may not like it, we can’t go beyond the remits of the laws. So in these instances, we may have to review it.
The Indiegogo campaign, however, went on to raise over S$11,000 (US$8,500) for him, several times the amount he had forgone.
Happy endings? Not quite
These cases might all seem to have happy endings – and if these were fairy tales, they would end there. Unfortunately, crowdfunding is not the magic solution to the inefficiencies of the law either – not by a long shot.
To start with, money isn’t always capable of making things happen. Despite raising funds in excess of what they were aiming for, Gary and Kenneth still ended up losing the fight to overturn the 76-year-old law.
In the same way, while the Vietnamese tourist ended up recouping his losses – and then some – the perpetrators of the incident continue to be at large, with CASE only able to give them a warning.
It gets worse when the “horse” that the crowd chooses to back ends up becoming a villain. This was the case for Ngerng, who ended up going overboard at a demonstration he organized when he disrupted a charity event being held at the same location:
Post by Fabrications Led by Opposition Parties (FLOP).
He was consequently charged in court with public nuisance and demonstrating without a permit, according to Channel NewsAsia. This time, the tables were turned against him:
So yes, much like Batman, crowdfunding can indeed dish out its own brand of justice. However, it can never replace the long arm of the law completely – it can only cure the symptoms, but never the root cause. And sometimes, even the best of us can get taken in by peer pressure and back someone who might turn out to have not-so-chivalrous intentions.
To coin a phrase from a popular movie: “[Crowdfunding] is the hero [Singapore] deserves, but not the one it needs right now.”
See: Scammed Vietnamese tourist could now get back 3x the money he lost, thanks to kind Singaporeans
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