Events & Speeches

Speech delivered by Mr Goh Joon Seng at the "Hello And Goodbye" Get-Together

Friday, 30 May 2003 at the East India Room, Raffles Hotel

The Honourable the Chief Justice, the Honourable the Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs, the Honourable the Attorney-General, Ladies and Gentleman

Good evening. Thank you for honouring us by your presence at this function, SARS notwithstanding. It was 7 years ago, although it does not seem that long, that the Attorney-General asked if I would lead a pilot project to test the ground for setting up a commercial mediation centre for the Singapore Academy of Law ("SAL"). One does not say "no" to the Attorney-General. So although I did not know what it was all about, I said "yes" and looked around for someone within the service, who did and was prepared to shoulder the additional concurrent responsibilities of a CEO for the project. I did not have to look hard or far. There was Hwee Hwee, an Assistant Registrar trained in ADR in Harvard and eager to take on the job.

In January 1997, the pilot project was launched as a mediation service of SAL. The results were encouraging. So the Singapore Mediation Centre ("SMC") was launched by the Honourable the Chief Justice on 16 August 1997. The rest is history.

To date SMC has mediated around 1,000 cases with a settlement rate of 80% with over 90% consumer satisfaction. SMC is now a regional player in non-confrontational methods of conflict management.

SMC has been invited to share its experience and its methodology with ADR trainees from Bahrain, Bhutan, China, Egypt, Fiji, Seychelles, South Africa and Uganda. It has conducted training courses in Austria, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Malta, Philippines and Thailand. Early this year, the Attorney-General of Malaysia led a team of around 15 officers from his Chambers to study our start up and operation. SMC now has entered into 29 Memoranda of Understanding (ìMOUî) with prominent institutional partners. In this coming October, the International Federation of Asian and Western Contractors' Association will be entering into an MOU with us when it holds its convention in Singapore. This will give SMC a foothold in construction dispute mediation in 14 countries thus giving SMC and our mediators and neutral evaluators more international exposure.

I would be remiss if I do not take this opportunity to pay tribute to and thank those responsible for SMC's success.

Since the launch of the pilot project, the Honourable the Chief Justice has constantly kept abreast of SMC's performance and development. His vision, inspiration and leadership helped us navigate our way forward.

The Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Prof Ho Peng Kee and the Ministry of Law have been in the forefront of the mediation movement in Singapore. Their support especially their financial support saw us through the start up years and continues to drive our motivation.

The Attorney-General is always generous with his time, giving us guidance and help. It was his call made at the 1996 Opening of the Legal Year for the setting up of a commercial mediation centre that led to the establishment of SMC. Knowing the benefits of mediation as against adversarial methods of dispute resolution he has successfully pushed for public sector construction contracts to incorporate a clause mandating considering mediation at the SMC before taking adversarial proceedings.

Then there are the members of the Board of SMC who have freely given their time and counsel and shared their insight in guiding SMC forward, willingly sitting through meetings that often ended late in the evenings.

It is not possible to pay specific tribute to all those who have contributed in one way or another to the development of SMC. But mention must be made of the Registrar of the Supreme Court, Mr Chiam Boon Keng, the Senior District Judge, Mr Richard Magnus, the members of the Board of Advisors of SMC, Members of the Advisory Committee on Construction Mediation, Members of the Singapore Information Technology Dispute Resolution Advisory Committee, our institutional partners and the clients who make use of the services of SMC.

Acknowledgment must be made of the contribution of our mediators, neutral evaluators and our Singapore Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy Panellists. It is their skilful management of disputes that helped SMC achieve an impressive settlement rate.

Last but certainly not least, mention must be made of the SMC staff, the CEO Hwee Hwee, her deputy Loong Seng Onn and all those in SAL seconded to do SMC work for their support over the years. Their dedication, drive and diligence went a long way to make SMC what it is today.

It now remains for me to present the next chairman of SMC, Judge of Appeal Justice Chao Hick Tin whom I have always affectionately addressed as Chao J. Chao J besides his heavy workload in the Court of Appeal, also serves as Chairman of the Publications Committee of SAL, Chairman of the Singapore branch of ASEAN Law Association, Chairman of the Review Committee under the Internal Security Act and many more, and now Chairman of SMC. Chao J does not need introduction. But to those who do not know him well, I can tell you, you will like him. I have given Chao J my pledge of support if it is needed. I have no doubt you will give him the same wholehearted support that I enjoyed during the past 6 years. Thank you once again.

Over to you Chao J.