Tag: Lee Hsien Loong

Kenneth Jeyaretnam: Amos Yee – Singapore’s Youngest Political Prisoner

Yesterday I attended Amos Yee’s sentencing hearing at the State Courts at 9.30am. As you may be aware, Amos has refused to accept probation. The AG had asked for probation, presumably to save the PAP the international opprobrium for jailing a child who had spoken the truth about the late Lee Kuan Yew.

Instead Amos requested that he serve a jail term instead. After all he had already served a longer period in remand than the man who assaulted him received after automatic good behaviour. However the AG objected and asked the judge to sentence Amos to reformative training instead on the grounds that he was unrepentant.

For those of you who are not familiar with what “reformative training” is in the Singapore context, let me enlighten you. The regulations governing it can be found in the Criminal Procedure Code (Reformative Training) Regulations 2010. A person sentenced to reformative training must serve at least eighteen months but no longer than three years. However after release they will be under the supervision of a probation officer and must comply with any conditions imposed. Any breach of those conditions will result in six months additional sentence. This supervision lapses four years after the date of the original sentence so in the case of someone sentenced to three years reformative training the supervision period is one year but if the sentence is only eighteen months the supervision period is three years.

This is what an AsiaOne article had to say about reformative training:

Reformative training is a strict prison regime for young offenders. It consists of foot drills, counselling and education. Offenders spend at least 11/2 years behind bars. Upon release, they are placed under supervision, which includes wearing ankle tags that track their movements electronically.

The article was about how the courts deemed reformative training as a suitable punishment for young loan shark runners who would not be allowed the “soft” option of probation even for a first offence. However the runner in this case was 20 years old and in NS.

It revulses me that the court and the AG could somehow think that the punishment option for someone defacing and vandalising the flats of those owing money to loan sharks, presumably with threats of violence intended to intimidate the unfortunate debtors, and other violent young criminals is appropriate for a child like Amos.

I say “child” advisedly even though our law treats him as an adult when he reaches 16 despite not being allowed to vote till you are 21. Yet another inconsistency in Justice Kaur’s judgement was that she claimed to be protecting the youth of Singapore from being corrupted and depraved by Amos’s supposedly obscene image while she was treating Amos as an adult for the purpose of sentencing. Amos’s blog and video were clearly aimed at adults and viewed mostly by adults and not children.

I will get back to yesterday’s hearing. The queue for the public gallery was quite short, perhaps because the hearing was originally scheduled for 2pm but was then moved to 9.30am. Singaporeans do not like to get up so early. The atmosphere among the crowd was slightly flippant considering that it was a child’s future we were talking about. When I said that the Government was out to break Amos, some people said jocularly that he would be more likely to break the AG and the judicial system by his refusal to bend. A young man in a suit made some comment to the effect that unlike the “soft” West we treated criminals like Amos as adults from the age of 16 and that the “shackles” which presumably soft-hearted liberals like myself objected to were just cuffs.

After a delay while the prosecution and defence lawyers met outside the courtroom, Justice Kaur entered at about 9.50am. I expected someone older and tougher looking. Instead she looked quite slight and undoubtedly younger than me. She was extremely soft-spoken so it was very difficult to hear what she was saying. It was difficult to fit her image to her reactionary and inconsistent judgement.

The DPP argued that as Amos had not “learnt his lesson” and refused to agree to probation that a reformative training sentence was necessary. He said that Amos’s conduct and his decision to make the image and video public again demonstrated the need for rehabilitation and appropriate counselling. The DPP said a jail term or a fine would have no rehabilitative effect on Yee and would therefore not be “tenable, because we cannot be popping back into court every other day.”

The judge agreed with him and said that “Rehabilitation is the fundamental tenet of our justice system” and ruled that he be remanded for three weeks to assess his mental and physical suitability for reformative training.

Alfred Dodwell, Amos’s lawyer, argued in vain that Amos should be given a fine or a jail term equivalent to the time he has already spent on remand and pointed out quite correctly that Amos was being punished for a second offence for which he had not been tried.

At the end of the hearing Amos was taken into custody again. I saw his mother passing him a plastic bag which made me feel very sad.

There can be no doubt that in this case “rehabilitation” is just a euphemism. The PAP Government mean to break Amos’s spirit through a harsh regime that is worse than prison. They would like to show Singaporeans that anyone here who dares to challenge the official narrative will be harshly dealt with.

In totalitarian regimes like Communist China, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany “rehabilitation” meant years of imprisonment in harsh concentration camps. Everyone remembers the infamous words above Auschwitz which said “Arbeit Macht Frei” which loosely translated meant “Work Makes You Free” which was meant to be a sadistic joke about rehabilitation.

I feel only a slightly milder version of this punishment regime is in store for Amos. He will be forced to work and if he refuses will likely be punished. I am concerned that reformative training may include caning if Amos refuses to obey the orders given to him by his captors. He has years of imprisonment to look forward to and when he is inducted into NS he will probably end up serving his time in a military prison. Meanwhile a father who failed to strap his toddler into a car seat causing her death in an accident was only fined. And Lee Kuan Yew made countless racist remarks designed to wound the feelings of minorities and was commended globally for his wisdom and candour.

Even with his time on remand Amos has served more time than the man who attacked him. The reports said that he would not be with adult inmates. However since Amos is already being treated as an adult that seems just another example of the AG’s disingenuity. He will presumably be placed with the kind of hardened criminals who are normally considered suitable for reformative training. He wlll probably be bullied and may be sexually assaulted. Of course many comments from PAP supporters and LKY worshippers on the internet were that rape was much too good for him.

The PAP Government’s treatment of Amos is an international embarrassment to them and to Singapore. The PAP always justify draconian restrictions on our freedoms by saying we enjoy Swiss standards of living as a result. But I look around and I can see that we have neither, except maybe PAP Ministers and their relatives and wealthy foreigners. Steve Wozniak, who founded Apple with Steve Jobs. said no innovation or creativity would come out of SIngapore. Is it any surprise?

I called Amos Singapore’s youngest political prisoner which led to the usual fierce attacks from people saying that he was tried and convicted. However so was Nelson Mandela who received a sentence of life imprisonment for terrorism. Yet today no one would dream of calling Nelson Mandela a criminal let alone a terrorist.

I will end by letting Amos’s own words speak for him:

“And yes, to the chagrin of numerous people, I have not ‘learnt my lesson’, nor do I see any ‘lesson’ that needs to be learnt.If you are going to try to tower over me and say that you know something important that that I don’t, make sure you have a compelling argument for that. And if your lessons are borne from a corrupt, archaic Government lead by primitive monkeys,…then sorry if I doubt the credibility of your quote unquote ‘lessons’.

Hopefully history eventually vindicates me. But as of now, district judge Jasvender Kaur has deemed me guilty and the Prosecutor does in fact feel, that 30 months of a place worst than Prison (RTC) should be given to a boy who has posted an internet video.

Unless you do in fact relish in my misery, I hope both of you will be able to sleep at night, and live with the fact that right now, as it is written in the annals of history, my blood is on your hands.”

Source: http://sonofadud.com

June 5, 2015
Mohd Khair: Kaum Sodom Di Bumi Temasek

Negara kita rapat dengan sebuah kuasa besar dunia yang juga merupakan pengeksport terbesar gayahidup kaum Sodom ke merata dunia.

Negara tersebut menggunakan pelbagai taktik putar belit dan ancaman demi memaksa negara-negara lain menerima dan menjadikan gayahidup Sodom itu sebagai normal, ‘halal’ serta dilindungi undang-undang berdasarkan hak asasi manusia.

Negara kita, Alhamdulillah, masih lagi mempertahankan undang-undang yang mengharamkan kegiatan seks luar tabii sepertimana termaktub dalam Seksyen 377A Kanun Kesiksaan (Penal Code). Dan kegiatan seks luar tabii ini adalah piala agung dalam gayahidup kaum Sodom.

Namun, pada masa yang sama juga acara tahunan untuk mempromosikan gaya hidup kaum Sodom tetap dibenarkan di negara kita. Ini menimbulkan semacam percanggahan nilai terhadap nilai-nilai kekeluargaan yang dipertahankan Kementerian Pembangunan Sosial dan Keluarga (MSF) dan juga bertentangan dengan dasar perlaksanaan Seksyen 377A.

Apakah ini permulaan negara kita mula tunduk dengan tekanan kuasa dunia yang rapat dengan negara kita?

Atau apakah ini cara pihak berwenang untuk tangani tekanan dari kuncu-kuncu korporat kuasa besar tersebut agar negara kita tidak dipengapakan di peringkat ekonomi global?

Harapan kami sebagai rakyat Singapura adalah apa yang diucapkan PM Lee Hsien Loong baru-baru ini di Istana semasa acara IRO itu adalah petanda yang pihak pemerintah akan terus mempertahan Seksyen 377A dan untuk pihak-pihak yang menghidupkan gayahidup kaum Sodom untuk mengakui dan menghormati bahawa sebahagian aspek sosial rakyat Singapura berkait erat dan tidak dapat dipisahkan dari aspek keagamaan yang kami anuti. Kedua-duanya itu tidak dapat dipisahkan.

Pihak yang menghidupkan gayahidup kaum Sodom tidak boleh memaksa dengan cara terang-terangan mahupun cara licik pihak majoriti rakyat Singapura untuk menghalalkan gayahidup kaum Sodom itu dan menghapuskan Seksyen 377A.

Dan inilah nampaknya yang sedang mereka itu lakukan melalui acara tahunan untuk mempromosikan dan mengagungkan gayahidup kaum Sodom.

Apakah kita masih lagi tak nampak, atau buat-buat tak nampak?

Kepada yang ingin Kembali Kepada Fitrah, silakan. Kami terima dengan tangan terbuka.

Walau apapun, semoga ALlah melindungi dan mengampuni kita semua di atas perkara-perkara yang kita lakukan dan TIDAK lakukan mengenai perkara ini.

Kita juga memanjatkan doa’ semoga negara kita tidak tunduk kepada tekanan demi tekanan dari pihak-pihak luar dari kuasa besar tersebut.

Dan tidak kurang kritikal juga, sama-samalah kita berdoa semoga kita semua tidak ditimpa musibah bersebab adanya kaum Sodom di bumi Temasek ini.

ALlah Maha Besar!

Source: Mohd Khair

June 3, 2015
Roy Ngerng: One Year After Being Sued By Lee Hsien Loong

Today is one year since I was sued for defamation by the Singapore prime minister.

Since then, the government admitted for the first time that it has been taking Singaporeans’ CPF retirement funds to invest in the GIC. Previously, the government has kept denying this.

Also, more and more has been revealed. The government claims that Temasek does not invest our CPF but it has been found that the government had taken our CPF to fund the construction of infrastructure then gave them to Temasek to manage.

After I trawled through the government websites to dig up these evidence, I was told to take down two articles I wrote about these and the government then changed and deleted the information on these websites.

We now know that the prime minister, deputy prime ministers and several ministers and ex-ministers also sit on the board of the GIC but the GIC still claim that the government does not interfere in it and the government still claims likewise. But how can that be possible when they are run by the same people?

In the past, many Singaporeans would cry out about the CPF. Indeed, Singaporeans have one of the least adequate retirement funds in the world and we also have the lowest returns on our retirement funds in the world.

However, the GIC and Temasek Holdings which take our CPF to earn are the among the top 11 richest sovereign wealth funds in the world. We still do not know how much their management pay themselves using our CPF monies, because there are no full reports from the GIC and Temasek Holdings.

We continue to demand that the PAP government be transparent and accountable to Singaporeans but the PAP has simply ignored Singaporeans. Once, Lee Hsien Loong also told The Telegraph newspaper that the funds are accountable to the government. But who is the government accountable to? He said that he does not believe that transparency is everything.

But if transparency is not everything, then what is? Today, many elderly Singaporeans cannot retire because they simply cannot earn enough to do so. Not only that, several academics and even government officials have also estimated that 30% of Singaporeans are living in poverty today, which means that a third of Singaporeans cannot even earn enough to pay for basic necessities.

Last year, Khaw Boon Wan finally admitted that the government controls the construction of the HDB flats. He also admitted that the PAP fixes the prices of the flats.

Today, we know that of the money that Singaporeans pay into the CPF, as much as three quarters are spent having to pay for the flat mortgages. The PAP claims that the flats are affordable. Why then are Singaporeans paying for the most expensive public housing in the world? The PAP Old Guards wanted to build truly cheap flats so that Singaporeans can have a home. But the current PAP has instead turned the flats into money making machines for themselves.

Yet, the PAP would dare claim that it is losing billions by building the HDB flats. But we have found out instead that the government has not declared $20 to $30 billion in surplus every year to Singaporeans, because of the money it earns from the land. And then, the PAP makes Singaporeans pay 60% of the flat prices into land, even though we will not get to own the land and even though the PAP has bought the land very cheaply from Singaporeans in the 1960s and 1970s. This is a lot of money that the PAP is earning from us.

Indeed, the tens of billions in surplus that the PAP earns from Singaporeans every year would enable Singaporeans to have free healthcare and education, all the way from childcare to university, and still have a lot to save. However, the PAP refuses to do so. Instead, it does not even declare this surplus that it has earned from Singaporeans.

Today, Singaporeans are made to pay for one of the most expensive university tuition fees in the world, if not the most expensive. We are also made to pay possibly the most expensive childcare fees in the world. Yet, the PAP would not take care of our own children, but would spend $400 million every year to give out free scholarships to foreign students. And then, Singaporeans are made to pay $400 million to study in our own universities. The money that the PAP gives to foreigners will be able to educate our children. But the PAP does not want to take care of Singaporeans.

Not only that, the PAP also spends the lowest on healthcare among the developed countries, so much so that Singaporeans also have to pay the most out of our own pocket to pay for healthcare, in the world. What’s the point of having nice-looking hospitals when many Singaporeans simply cannot afford to go there and have to sell their homes to pay for their medical bills or even choose to die?

But even so, the PAP and their cronies keep telling Singaporeans to live within our means. For goodness sake, Singaporeans are already trying their darnest to live within our means. But how else does the PAP expect Singaporeans to do so, when the PAP would not even let Singaporeans earn enough to even live?

Today, Singaporeans earn one of the lowest wages among the highest-income countries. The poorest in Singapore also earn the lowest among these countries. However, the PAP would pay themselves the highest salaries in the world. It wants to earn high salaries, so it asks Singaporeans to foot the bill. And to do so, it claims that this is to prevent corruption and to have capable leaders.

But what a fluke. Today, Singaporeans are seeing the worst leaders we have ever seen since independence. The trains have been breaking down for many years now and the walls in new HDB flats crack as soon as they are built. The PAP’s only solution to grow the economy is to depress wages and import cheap substitution labour, and allow Singaporeans to languish, as we are forced to accept depressed wages and where many of our degree holders are forced to lose their jobs and have to compete with people who have degrees from degree mills. And even then, the PAP would still defend these degrees and say it is willing to overlook them.

This is the PAP. This is the capability that they want us to pay for them. And yet, they want us to keep letting them to run the country. Sure, that is if we want to continue to let them run the country to the ground.

It is clear to most Singaporeans by now that all the PAP care about is money and profits for themselves. The Economist has also ranked Singapore as 5th on the crony capitalism index, which means that Singapore is the 5th easiest place in the world for the rich to get rich, if they are affiliated to the government. Indeed, the rich in Singapore has gotten richer – the share of income that goes to the richest 10% in Singapore has grown from 30% in 1995 to 42% in 2011. The richest 10% most probably owns half of the income in Singapore today.

However, the rich-poor gap has only kept growing bigger and bigger. Today, Singapore has the highest income inequality among the developed countries and Singapore also has the highest poverty rate among the developed countries.

And this has resulted in many social problems. Because Singapore has the highest income inequality among the developed countries, this has resulted in Singapore having the highest rate of prisoners, after the United States. We also have the lowest level of trust, after Portugal. Singapore also has one of the lowest social mobilities among the developed countries.

The PAP keeps wanting to psycho Singaporeans to make believe to us that it is taking care of Singaporeans. But it has been revealed that the PAP spends the least among the developed countries on social protection, and on healthcare and education, for Singaporeans.

In fact, Singapore is one of very few countries in the world which still do not a minimum wage and we are still one of very few countries in the world which still do not have unemployment protection for Singaporeans who have lost their jobs.

But the PAP would let themselves and the rich among them earn higher and higher incomes. In fact, the PAP reduced income tax over the years so that it can allow itself and the rich with it to pay the lowest tax among the developed countries, and one of the lowest in the world. Yet, the PAP then forced Singaporeans to pay the highest social contribution rate in the world, into the CPF.

The PAP wants to let itself keep its own income while making Singaporeans lose ours.

The PAP keeps claiming that the CPF is not tax and should not be lumped together with tax. But do you know that the PAP gives Singaporeans the lowest returns on our CPF, among retirement funds in the world, so much so that if we have $200,000 inside our CPF, there is at least another $100,000 that the PAP should have returned to us but which they have taken to earn instead – Singaporeans are being robbed of as much as half of our CPF which is rightfully ours. The interest that the PAP has taken to earn and not returned is known as implicit tax. The PAP is making Singaporeans pay implicit tax on our CPF.

Not only that, the PAP fixes the housing prices and keeps increasing the prices, thus forcing Singaporeans to lose even more of our CPF towards buying them. The PAP has also made Singaporeans pay more than $70 billion into the Medisave but only allow Singaporeans to use less than 1.5% of it every year. And when Singaporeans grow old, the PAP takes the rest of our Medisave to put inside MediShield. In short, the PAP has found many different ways to lock up our CPF, so that they can earn for themselves. And this is not forgetting the CPF Minimum Sum (now known as the Full Retirement Sum) which the PAP keeps increasing to lock even more of Singaporeans’ CPF inside.

In short, the PAP is perhaps right to say the CPF is not tax. It is a goldmine for the PAP. Your money and my money is being taken by the PAP to earn heaps of money for itself. Meanwhile, the PAP forces Singaporeans to work the longest hours in the world, and earn one of the lowest wages among the highest-income countries, and force Singaporeans to struggle and fight among ourselves, in order to survive. But for the PAP and the rich among them, Singapore becomes their playground as the rest of us languish beneath them.

This, my friends, is what some of you had voted for. This is what we have allowed to control us and take advantage of us. We allow the PAP to become our masters and us their slaves.

A study funded by NASA showed that all unequal societies in the world have all collapsed in history, because as the elites grew richer and more arrogant, they started enriching themselves and started to become detached from the common people. They become out-of-touch, as the PAP has today. Then as the rest of the population suffer and fight among themselves for the leftovers, the elites remain oblivious to the problems until the problems become so big that it is too late, and the whole society collapses.

This is what Singapore is going through today. Many Singaporeans keep quiet and pretend that everything is fine. We choose to keep our heads down and hope that if we don’t think about these things, they will all go away. They will not.

In fact, if we don’t do anything about it today, it will be your children and their children who will suffer tomorrow.

So, my friends the question to you is, are you willing to take a good look at what is happening around us today and admit that things are in need of dire change? If we wait any longer, we might not have much else to wait for by the time comes.

The opposition parties have proposed many policies. In fact, the academics and think tanks have also proposed many solutions that need to be implemented in Singapore real soon, in order for us to turn Singapore around. However, the PAP refuses to do so. The PAP refuses to define a poverty line, implement minimum wage, reduce rents, reduce their own salaries and increase subsidies for healthcare, education and retirement so as to kickstart domestic consumption and the economy – these are the most basic solutions that need to happen in Singapore soon but the PAP refuses to implement them.

My friends, if we want our families, our children and our future to be protected, there is only one solution. We need to vote the PAP out.

We need to vote in the opposition parties to form a new government. We need a new government that will be willing to take care of and protect Singaporeans.

Only then will Singapore continue to have a chance. Only then will we continue to have a new lease of life.

The answer is clear. But it is up to us to be willing to see what is going on in Singapore and for us to be willing to see the PAP for what it is.

We no longer have a government in Singapore. The PAP is not a government. It is a bunch of businessmen who only have their own self-interests at heart. They do not care for Singapore and will not care for Singaporeans.

The PAP Old Guard cared for Singapore. Under their leadership, in the first 20 years of Singapore, wages went up, the CPF interest rates went up and income inequality went down. Singapore was becoming a better place. We were indeed moving from the Third World to the First.

However, under the current PAP, Singapore is already moving backwards, from the First World back into the Third World.

So, my friends, it is no longer the time for us to pretend and put our heads in the sand. It is time for us to look up and look to the future. It is time for us to face up and look at the possibilities that stand in front of us.

For our country and our children’s future, there can only be one answer. This current bunch of PAP does not care for Singaporeans and do not have our interests at heart. It is time to stop hoping that they will do anything for Singaporeans. We waited for 30 years. They have made used of us for 30 years.

This coming general election, let us finally stand on our two feet. Let us finally put our feet down and decide once and for all that we want to protect ourselves and that we want to do what is right for ourselves. Let us fight for our future and let us give our children a hope and a dream to look forward to.

It is time we take control of our own country. It is time we stop letting someone else take over our country and leave us in the dust. No, we will take back our country. We will own our country.

50 years ago, our forefathers fought for the independence of our country.

Today, as Singapore goes into the 50th anniversary of our country, we will renew their fight and we will take back our country.

We will renew the fight for independence and regain our lives back.

For ourselves, our own future, our families and our children, it is time we stand up and we start anew, as a promise to ourselves and as a respect to our forefathers, to let our country regain the hope that it once was, and start ourselves in a new journey for our country, and for ourselves.

It is time, my friends. It is time we take a stand.

My next hearing will be held from 1 to 3 July to determine how much I would need to pay the prime minister in damages.

Source: http://thehearttruths.com

May 31, 2015
Strong Hints From Lee Hsien Loong That Elections Are Coming Real Soon

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday gave the strongest hint yet that the General Election (GE) is imminent, and could be held before it is due by January 2017.

During a radio call-in programme on Chinese-language station Capital 95.8FM, Mr Lee was asked by presenter Gao Yixin when the next GE will be held. In response, Mr Lee used the analogy of a pregnancy, and said the timing of the GE is unlike giving birth where there is some predictability when the child will be born.

Borrowing Mr Lee’s analogy, Ms Gao asked if “a baby has been conceived”. To which, Mr Lee said, smiling: “The baby has already been conceived earlier on.”

Turning to his message to voters, Mr Lee said leadership renewal has always been an important issue raised during previous GEs and the coming elections will not be an exception, which is why Singaporeans should not take the elections lightly.

To vote based on the assumption that the People’s Action Party will form the Government, and, therefore, think about giving away some seats to the Opposition “is a dangerous thinking”, he added.

Reiterating a message to party activists at the PAP60 Rally in December that the next GE will be a “deadly serious fight”, Mr Lee said: “I think the Opposition will contest in every GRC in the upcoming elections, unlike in previous GEs where many areas were not contested. In such a situation, every vote is important, every Singaporean’s decision has an impact, we have to consider it carefully.”

Asked if a new batch of leaders will be introduced at the coming polls, Mr Lee said about half of these leaders have been introduced in the 2011 GE. More potential candidates for ministerial positions will be among the newcomers introduced at the next elections, he added.

Mr Lee also noted how the times have changed and Singapore can no longer be ruled under a “parenting-style” leadership. Instead, Singaporeans should be involved and discuss national issues, he said.

He also said the Government had not expected the outpouring of grief when founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew died in March.

In particular, he said he was surprised at the reaction from the younger generation, given that they did not have as much interaction with the late Mr Lee as the older generations did.

During the one-hour radio show, Mr Lee took questions from eight callers on topics ranging from parents’ stress about the PSLE, to ways to change society’s mindset about pursuing degrees and graciousness in Singapore.

Mr Lee’s hints of the timing of the next elections come after two research firms released reports last week, saying a GE is likely to be held this year.

BMI Research said the People’s Action Party may look to hold elections before the next Budget is introduced and possibly before the end of the year.

Blackbox Research also said in its bulletin last month that “there has not been a better time for the PAP to begin planning for an early election”, reporting that overall satisfaction with the Government has risen eight points from a year ago.

Source: www.todayonline.com

May 20, 2015
Amos Yee: The Boy Who Criticised Lee Kuan Yew

Dressed in a black T-shirt and khaki shorts, Amos Yee cut an unassuming figure when he showed up at the Singapore State Courts on 17 April.

The 16-year-old was facing serious criminal charges – some of which he would be convicted of on 12 May. They were of wounding religious feelings, harassment and posting obscenities. But the teenager breezed past reporters, munching a banana.

This is Amos, the enfant terrible who has fascinated and infuriated Singaporeans ever since he was arrested in March over a Youtube video.

To his mother, he is just “different”, a child born in the wrong place. But to many others he is seen as the boy who dared to insult Lee Kuan Yew.

Jeers and cheers

On 23 March Singapore lost Lee Kuan Yew, the deeply respected former prime minister seen as the country’s founding father.

Days later, Yee posted his video, titled Lee Kuan Yew is Finally Dead! – becoming one of the few Singaporean voices openly criticising Lee’s legacy.

He likened Lee to Jesus Christ, and criticised Christians in general, a serious crime in a country which has seen race riots in the past and takes a zero-tolerance approach towards insults of race and religion.

Later, he posted a crude cartoon depicting Lee having sex with Margaret Thatcher, a personal and political ally of Lee’s.

At least 30 people lodged police reports; he was swiftly arrested and charged.

Since then, Yee has attracted insults and death threats.

But he has also earned praise and support from those who see him as a free speech advocate.

Several strangers stepped up to act as his defence lawyers and post bail. A local humorist started a campaign calling for leniency with a blog post titled Je Suis Amos.

Another blog detailing his quirky outfits went viral, as did jokes about “Famous Amos”, referencing the US cookie brand. Dozens held a vigil on the eve of the verdict.

Sociologist Tan Ern Ser said some may have agreed with him but disapproved of his “show of disrespect”, while others marginalised by Lee’s policies were “inclined to see someone who dares to openly speak up against the system as a kind of folk hero, and worthy of praise”.

‘So different’

Yee’s mother, Mary, told the BBC that her son was “a fantastic child, perhaps born in the wrong country”.

She described him as a precocious boy who loved reading and making videos. He won awards in a short film contest and acted in a local movie.

But he cut short his studies, and in a blog described how he struggled to fit in at school, where he had few friends.

The media has seized upon the fact that Mrs Yee took her son to see a psychiatrist after he posted his video. But his mother insisted that it was just a health check, and that the test results were “fine”.

Generational anxiety

Perhaps one reason Yee has become the object of deep fascination is his utter lack of remorse.

In recent years, Singapore has seen several people torn apart online for offensive posts. Faced with public fury, these people without exception have apologised,gone into hiding, or even left the country.

In contrast Yee broke bail spectacularly by not only reposting his material but also unleashing a torrent of Facebook and blog posts criticising his bail conditions. He pleaded not guilty to his charges during his trial.

Such unrepentant insouciance, and the fact that he insulted a founding father, may have tapped into a recurrent anxiety among Singaporeans that a younger generation, having known only prosperity, takes the country’s stability for granted.

This may be why the slapping of Yee on 30 April by a stranger, as he arrived at court, drew not just shock but also approval in some quarters.

Many denounced it as vigilantism, and the attacker jailed for three weeks, also being publicly condemned by the law minister.

But Singapore remains a place where corporal punishment is still seen by some – including the state itself, which sentences people to caning – as an acceptable form of discipline.

The 49-year-old attacker argued in court that he only slapped Yee because as an elder, he wanted to teach him a lesson.

There were those who thought “it’s about time the boy got his comeuppance”, while some did not condone the violence “but they’re still gleeful that [the attacker] did what they have an urge to do themselves if they could or had the guts to”, noted one blogger.

Wave of emotion

The state made it clear that it was prosecuting Yee for his remarks about Christians, not his criticism of Lee – a harassment charge for his anti-Lee comments was dropped.

But it was those Lee comments which sparked the most public anger.

Many Singaporeans accept Lee was a controversial figure, and comments criticising him are not new. At any other time, an anti-Lee rant by a teenager may have at most caused weary eye-rolling or jokes.

But when Lee died, the city state saw an unprecedented wave of emotion overcome its normally stoic citizens, as they lost the man seen as their anchor.

“Sensitivities were high after Mr Lee’s passing and also, I don’t think the vast majority of Singaporeans have a nuanced grasp of the discourse of free speech… or about the proportionality of criminal sentencing,” said Colin Goh, the humorist behind the campaign for Yee’s release.

‘Lack of boundaries’

Youth counsellor Vincent Law, who treated Yee and posted bail for him, said he did so because he wanted to show that as a Christian he was not offended by the video.

He said Yee was “like any 16-year-old rebellious kid”, who is “challenging authority, feeling he has to fit in a mould and conform to society’s norms”.

“He’s very intelligent, bright, pleasant and courteous… But he lacks a sense of boundaries and empathy for other people. He says he has to be honest and cannot compromise.”

Mr Goh sees Amos Yee as “a true litmus test for Singapore’s maturity in a post-Lee Kuan Yew world”.

“During [Lee’s] funeral, I thought Singaporeans behaved in a very mature fashion – calm, reflective, thoughtful, forgiving. There is some irony that Amos’s case has perhaps revealed quite the opposite.”

Still others believe it is a sign of a changing Singapore, whose strict hate speech laws have been criticised for muting critical discussion on such topics.

“We have a new generation that needs the space to be themselves, to express divergent views,” said Mr Law. “As a society, we need to give them that space and not stifle them.”

Source: www.bbc.com

May 14, 2015