SINGAPORE - The Law Ministry's move to encourage mediation as a means to resolve disputes is commendable.
Unfortunately, attendance at mediation sessions is voluntary. Understandably, no one relishes the prospect of being summoned to answer accusations made against oneself.
To face no greater penalty than to have one's "absence recorded" makes it all too easy to take the easy way out and simply not turn up.
How then can the mediation process be effective? The ministry must devise a way to prevent the instrument of mediation from becoming a farce; make it punishable by law to ignore a summons to attend mediation.
- Pauline Wee (Ms)
