Glenn Knight - The Prosecutor 1

I borrowed a book from the library titled The Prosecutor written by Glenn Knight. The book is about the author himself. From what I have heard about this man, he was quite a figure in the legal fraternity as a public prosecutor during his heydays. During the prime of his stature, he was arrogant to a fault (a friend of mine colloquially calls his behavior, “the most yaya of papayas”). And he made many enemies from his arrogance which did him in at the end, as he found himself facing the taste of his own medicine, being charged, sentenced, hauled to jail, and subsequently disbarred from being a lawyer. His fall from grace was as quick as his monumental rise. I am skeptical though of the narrative proffered by my friend, which suggest a form of political element in the way Glenn Knight was treated, and a wrongness of conviction. I would certainly like to hear what the Attorney General Chambers have to say about Glenn Knight's prosecution, and what Glenn Knight would say in his own story.

Glenn Knight talks about his family background in the first chapter. He was bornt towards the very end of the WWII era. His parents were divorced, and he was raised by his mother. He never knew his father, and only knew his mother at the age of six because his mother had gone overseas to study Zoology at the University of Manchester. He describes telling his mother at his first meeting that while he knew that she was his mother, he wouldn’t call her mother.  It took him two years before he was able to call her “Mommy”.

He went to Anglo-Chinese Junior School, followed by Anglo-Chinese School at Barker Road. He describes his time at Barker Road as not being as academically bright. He says, for various reasons, he lost interest in his studies, and thus didn’t do well enough in his “O” levels to get into the pre-university classes and do his Higher School Certificate. He wanted to be a surgeon, but was rather poor in mathematics.

He did his A level as a private candidate, and did well in it. He says that his life changed profoundly, especially with his acceptance by the University of Singapore into its law degree course the following year.

He says that he didn’t think of himself as anything more than an average law student in his cohort. But suddenly, he topped his class in evidence law, and everyone began asking “Who is Glenn Knight?” He said that cemented the belief that he had the potential to become a good lawyer. He also became chairman of the Students’ Union and was also treasurer of the Law Society and secretary of the Drama Society for a spell.

He graduated top of his class with another student, Harbajan Singh, in 1970, won the Leow Chia Heng prize for being the best student in law, and also obtained the highest accolade at the time, of a Second Upper with two distinctions, one for shipping law and one for revenue law. He was also awarded the Silver Medal – the top prize for the entire campus, presented to him by a committee chaired by then-Minister Toh Chin Chye. I really can’t identify with his law school experience as that of an average law student.

He graduated and subsequently went into the Legal Service Commission under the Attorney-General’s Chambers, and stayed put there for the next 15 years before he was asked to start the Commercial Affairs Department.

Glenn Knight certainly had an illustrious and fulfilling law school experience. He was a big social personality as well as a top achiever in law school, and he made a name for himself in the legal fraternity. I do aspire to do great things in my life as well, but for now, I am quite a mediocre student, and a nobody in law school. I don’t think I would be a big figure in the social arena of law school because of my social difficulties because of my having Asperger's Syndrome, but I am trying to improve my social skills and lead as meaningful a social life as possible. I do wish I could have performed better academically in law school and found some avenue for fulfillment in my law school life.