A raving luna

I sympathise with Mdm Amutha Valli, if all that happened in Court the past week or so is real. Mdm Valli's reportedly disturbing behaviour in Court - alternately 'forgetting' what she had provided the police in her affidavit in her suit against Novena Church, with demonstration of selective memory recall is both disturbing and, well, disturbing.

For the benefit of those not in the know, Mdm Valli is suing Novena Church's two priests and other workers for destroying her life due to an alleged exorcism two years ago. She alleged that she has not been able to live a normal life since - and she demonstrated what she meant every time she stood on the dock to give evidence or was cross-examined by the defendants' lawyers.

I don't know Mdm Valli and I am not a Catholic, but from what I have read thus far, I am inclined to believe that Mdm Valli is a very very good actress. I don't know who framed the charges in the first place against the defendants in this case, but it was certainly not the work of a lunatic. It is really serious business. When time came to back up these charges, what better way than to demonstrate in open court her (alleged) problem so as to gain everybody's (including the judge's) sympathy. That is far better and more effective than a day of learned arguments. Because of her startling behaviour, the Court has had to re-schedule hearings, I suppose, to give her the space to compose herself so that she can provide clear testimony. But with all due respect to the Court's learned officers, giving her additional time won't change her brilliant strategy of acting like a lunatic. She'll just go on playing to the public gallery and the wider media till she gets what she (and/or her accomplice(s)) wants. A person in her condition, if it is genuine, should be seeking live-in full time psychiatric treatment at the Institute of Mental Health, not going to Court to give testimony. What would her testimony amount to anyway, except to gain the sympathy?

If there weren't a hint of fraud in the whole thing, this would have been a tragic situation for Mdm Valli, who had won international sporting honours for Singapore in her younger days.

Now, don't sue me. This is just my opinion. Perhaps the ridiculous and farcical nature of the whole thing is driving me mad to write these lunatic lines, just as Mdm Valli is raving madly in Court.