Man Who Allegedly Wakeboarded at the War Memorial Park will be Charged

While it may not be expressly talked about all the time, there are some things in life that you just know you should never do.

This includes:

• sneezing or coughing in public during the COVID-19 pandemic
• petting wild boars
• turning up naked for a work meeting

What we’re forgetting, though, is that common sense is a rare trait these days. So things that you and I would never do, for some reason, appeal to some people out there.

Of course, if they’re breaking the law in the process, they’ll have to face the consequences.

Man Allegedly Wakeboarded at the War Memorial Park

If you cast your mind back to July this year, when we were playing hard-to-get with Phase 2 (Heightened Alert), you might remember a video of a man wakeboarding at War Memorial Park.

The video was shared by a witness who was at the scene and recorded the incident on his phone.

The 31-second video starts out with a man strapping his feet to the boots connected to his wakeboard.

He then wakeboards across the water at the war memorial to the other side.

In the process, he performs a stunt that involves bouncing off the base of the monument with his wakeboard and landing back onto the water.

Netizens chided the man for what they called “disrespectful behaviour”.

Others pointed out that the man wasn’t wearing his mask either during the stunt.

A few commenters, however, believed the man who recorded the incident should have just “minded his own business”.

The witness said he made a police report after the incident, and it didn’t take long for the authorities to act.

Wakeboarder Charged For Wilfully Interfering With a National Monument

Today (13 Sep), the wakeboarder in the video was charged in court with wilfully interfering with a national monument.

The man, identified as Stephen Kovalkov, was charged under Section 22 of the Preservation of Monuments Act.

According to the police and National Heritage Board, four other people aged between 18 and 24 are being investigated for their suspected involvement in the act.

In a joint statement, the authorities explained why such acts cannot be tolerated: “National monuments are important markers of our identity and highlight key milestones in Singapore’s history.”

“The Civilian War Memorial, a national monument, is dedicated to the civilian victims of the Japanese Occupation. Due respect must be accorded to our national monuments, in particular war memorials, and all acts of disrespect are unacceptable,” they said.

If convicted of the rarely-invoked law, Kovalkov could be fined up to S$30,000, jailed for up to six months, or both.

Here’s the full video:

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Featured Image: Facebook (Malvin Fang)