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Singapore Bloggers Charged Under Sedition Act
ChannelNewsAsia is reporting that for the first time in at least 10 years Singapore has invoked the sedition act and charged two local bloggers for posting racist comments on an online forum. From the article: 'Said Singaporean blogger Benjamin Lee (Mr Miyagi):" A lot of them will be looking at their blogs and wondering if they made any legally seditious remarks. I think because of the way this will be played up, it's negative publicity for the Singapore blogging community."'
Is this the link?
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I didn't know stating racial divisiveness equated sedition anywhere! Methinks this is negative publicity for Singapore as a country (by those with a Bill of Rights). This will have a chilling effect on the Singapore blogging community and cause a permament subtle change (as the establishment of limits tends to do) in Singapore society, but it won't be looked down upon. Why would you look down upon a community for limits unwillingly placed upon it?
/ct/ls
Ew. Article is getting pounded (yes, I actually READ them)...here it is in its entirety.
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Two bloggers charged under Sedition Act over racist remarks
By Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE : Two bloggers have been charged with sedition for posting racist comments online.
This is the first time bloggers are being charged in Singapore and it is sending shockwaves through the local blogging community.
Lawyers say the last time the sedition act was invoked in Singapore was at least 10 years ago.
Twenty-five-year-old Nicholas Lim Yew and 27-year-old Benjamin Koh Song Huat are being accused of posting racist comments on an online forum and on their blog site.
They are both being charged with committing a seditious act, by promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility between races in Singapore.
They were not represented by defence lawyers and were granted bail of S$10,000 each.
This charge came as a shock to many in the blogging community.
Said Singaporean blogger Benjamin Lee (Mr Miyagi):" A lot of them will be looking at their blogs and wondering if they made any legally seditious remarks. I think because of the way this will be played up, it's negative publicity for the Singapore blogging community."
"Currently if you surf the net you will come across a lot of bloggers making such comments. You will probably see a drop in such cases henceforth. At the moment I am not aware of any cases except of a case in Iran where bloggers are charged. But Iran has a different legal system from Singapore," said Leonard Loo, managing partner of Leonard Loo & Co Advocates & Solicitors.
Channel NewsAsia understands that the Media Development Authority had asked host servers to remove a racist blog from the web.
Police are now investigating this matter.
While many racist blogs by Singaporeans can be found online, the blogging community is also quick to criticize any racist comments.
Channel NewsAsia has received many emails from viewers informing us about a few racist sites.
Viewers said they were "appalled as well as disappointed that a Singaporean could condemn" other fellow Singaporeans of a different race.
Lawyers warn that anybody who forwards seditious remarks to others via email can also be charged with abetment.
The case is expected to be heard in court again on September 21.
A person is deemed to have committed an offence under the Sedition Act if he performs any act which has a seditious tendency, or conspires with any person to do so.
It is also an offence to utter any seditious words or to print, publish, sell, distribute, reproduce or import any seditious publication.
First time offenders can be fined up to S$5,000, or jailed up to three years, or both.
For subsequent offences, they can be jailed up to five years and have their seditious publications forfeited and destroyed. - CNA
Copyright © 2005 MCN International Pte Ltd
for non-southeast asian slashdotters:
singapore is an outpost of chinese in a malay region
it is a country independent of malaysia simply because the chinese there feared dilution of their power by malays
there is a history of friction between the chinese merchant class and the local malay population throughout the region, actually very similar to the resentment europeans had for the jewish merchant class that led to so much racially motivated nastiness there for centuries
malays and filipinos to this day complain of how they are treated by the chinese in singapore, who they say view them as little more than domestic servants or coolies
in the 1960s, under the guise of fighting communism, indonesians slaughtered thousands simply for having chinese ancestry... and confiscated their businesses
so maybe some of you who are very idealistically attached to the concept of free speech, without any mitigating conditions, perhaps you can at least understand why singapore would be so interested on clamping down on hate speech in its territory: it's not a big country, and it must remain at peace with its huge malay neighbors, at whom this hate speech is directed by some really stupid chinese bigotted bloggers
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Wrong! Nobody, that I have EVER heard of, has ever been prosecuted in the US for denying the holocaust. In fact, there are plenty of people who deny the holocaust and they are allowed to continue on and print/publish/say whatever they want. While you can certainly point to some flaws in the Hate Speech legislation, we are nowhere near the state of Singapore. And for good reason.
Don't make a mountain out of molehill. It's not even a close comparison.
Because the Republicans would never stifle free-speech.
Before you point out that the Dems did more or less the same thing, I'm not even attempting to exonerate them. It's actually possible to see the flaws in both parties.
However, from my perception, the Republican track record does seem worse than the Democratic one. Many right-wingers like to talk about the shackles of political correctness, but have no problem with calling you anti-American if you point out that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
His blog can be found here and the post where he talks about the charges can be found here.
The government has declared (rightly or wrongly) racial incitement to be a danger to public order and stability. They therefore class such incitement as sedition.
>>Look, this is a city-state who canes graphiti painters.
First of all, caning as a principal only applies to violent crimes. In the situation regarding Michael Fay, the dumb American kid who vandalized cars, the story was that Fay _and_ a group of expatriots were valdalizing cars. At the time, it cost $13,000 to _buy the right_ to purchase a car (known as making a bid). And after you pay your $13,000 you can buy your car, which are all foreign cars by the way. There are no Singapore auto makers.
So the fact that cars are hella expensive in Singapore, and the government saw this as "gang activity" (yes, stupid, bored expatriots vandalizing cars as gang activity) thay quickly clamped down and made Michael Fay an example...all six strokes of the bamboo cane of an example.
For example:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1
Or for myopic xenophobic Murricans:
Even the lapdog domestic press can't hold back the truth:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9287434/
What the HELL does it take? Clinton ran a reasonably competent government, and the hypocritical neo-con PseudoChristian fuckers lambasted him for a girl under the desk! The US starts wars based on a pile of transparent lies, and all that matters is "loyalty", and any questioning of authority and their version of 'Truth' is seditious treason! Hello? Mr Orwell? You can stop spinning now!
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Your point is well taken, but the cost of the Certificate of Entitlement (CoE) is not a fixed $13,000.
The CoE system (and its effects on car buying market) are not a constant, but essentially, the government restricts car ownership by restricting these certificates.
My in-laws have called the way these are distributed a 'lottery', and I took that literally. Wikipedia indicates that they are distributed via auction.
Whether via lottery or auction, thost of the CoE can be as much as the cost of the car. Also, Singapore imports all cars, and there is a 1:1 import duty. Also, the exchange rate is 1.67 to the US dollar.
Because of the CoE system and also perhaps some degree of brand awareness, most of the cars purchased are higher end models.
They are buying expensive cars, and they are paying 4x the price.
Oh, and it doesn't end there. Parking is paid everywhere (at work and at home). Furthermore, there is a tax/coupon system for using certain roads during certain hours of the day.
Oh, and there is also forced obsolence, the car retired, and another CoE much be obtained.
Michael Fay and his friends scratched the paint off more than one car. There was graphitti involved, but that isn't all that was involved. You would also be hard pressed to call the damage in any way 'speech'.
In this case, the Singapore gov't is NOT showing fear of being criticized by its own citizens. They're just trying to keep people in line because Singapore's prosperity depends on it. Singapore is a tiny country whose economy depends (partly) on the goodwill of its Muslim neighbors, Malaysia and Indonesia (the largest Muslim country in the world -- 200 million people). Where do you think the city-state's water comes from? Background on Chinese in SE Asia: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1514 916.stm
In 1965, HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of ethnic Chinese were killed in Indonesia during "anti-communist rioting"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/indonesia/specia l_report/51981.stm
In 1998 there were more riots and ethnic Chinese were scapegoats as usual.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/indonesia/your_c omments_so_far/93837.stm
When you have touchy neighbors, keeping a low profile is a smart thing to do.
Has he bought you the 'fine' t-shirt yet? (you can get them at most tourist shops)