Jehovah Witness member 'unfit to teach'

Jehovah's Witness loses suit
Jehovah's Witness fight sacking verdict
A MEMBER of the Jehovah's Witness religious sect who was sacked from his teaching job was not fit to teach and his employer was right to dismiss him, the Court of Appeal heard yesterday.

"He's not fit to be a teacher," Tang Khin Wai, lawyer for the Institute of Technical Education, told the court.

The institute was sued for wrongful dismissal by Peter Nappalli, who was sacked in 1994 for not reciting Singapore's national pledge and anthem.

Mr Nappalli, appealing against the case he lost in October, said the sacking violated his constitutional rights to freedom of religion and freedom of speech and was discriminatory.

The Jehovah's Witness movement, which has been banned in tightly controlled Singapore since 1972 on the grounds it is prejudicial to public welfare and order, considers such recitations acts of worship and against its faith.

The movement believes in the imminent end of the world and refuses to accept civil authority where it clashes with its own principles.

Mr Tang said teachers had to be role models to students and that reciting the national pledge and singing the national anthem - which were made mandatory by the institute in 1988 - were central to that.

Chief Justice Yong Pung How, chairman of the three-man Court of Appeal panel, reserved judgment and the court was adjourned.

A reserved judgment typically took between two and four weeks to be delivered, lawyers said.