Tan Cheng Bock v AG [2017] SGCA 50 from the general purpose underlying the statute as a whole”, and it may therefore be necessary to separately consider the specific purpose of a particular provision when the court endeavours to ascertain the legislative intent. This is only logical given that different provisions may target different specific mischiefs. 41 The distinction between the specific purpose of a provision and the general purpose of a statute is a significant one. The same point was made by the Federal Court of Australia in Evans v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs [2003] FCAFC 276 when it observed at [16] that “[u]nder the umbrella of the general object is a multitude of objects of specific provisions”, and by the New South Wales Court of Appeal in Edwards v Attorney General (2004) 60 NSWLR 667 when it observed at [72] that “it may be said that there is an underlying object of the Act as a whole and there may be a separate object of discrete parts of it, subject of course to the purpose of the whole”. We note from the use of the phrases “[u]nder the umbrella of the general object” and “subject of course to the purpose of the whole”, that these cases appear to contemplate that the specific purpose can never be contrary to the general purpose. We need not go quite as far given that this issue does not arise in this case; for present purposes we prefer to leave it on the footing that in a truly exceptional case, it may be that the specific intention of Parliament is so clear that the court should give effect to it even if it appears to contradict, undermine, or go against the grain of the more general purpose. Such cases would, however, be rare (as noted in Ting Choon Meng at [60]), if they ever occurred at all. The court must begin by presuming that a statute is a coherent whole, and that any specific purpose does not go against the grain of the relevant general purpose, but rather is subsumed under, related or complementary to it. The statute’s individual provisions must then be read consistently with both the specific and general purposes, so far as it is possible. 21