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."'

Comments

Link?

[Saiyine]

Is this the link?

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some background

[circletimessquare]

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

Re:some background

[cswiii]

True enough, based on some singaporean college classmates of mine from back in the day, I knew what this would be about w/o reading the article.

Not just Malaysians either - my friend told me that even up to a couple of years ago, you would see signs outside construction sites that said "Indians need not apply".

Re:Kettle calling.

[tacokill]

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.

As opposed to the upstanding Republicans?

[benhocking]

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.

Mr Miyagi

[epiphany_man]

The blogger quoted in the post, Mr Miyagi (aka Benjamin Lee), is one of the most popular bloggers in Singapore. He helped organize the first Blogger-con in Singapore and has given numerous public talks on how to blog to the uninitiated.

His blog can be found here and the post where he talks about the charges can be found here.

Here's what happened

[Henry V .009]

I found some info on the contents of the racist remarks from this blog.

The backstory according to the report is that on June 14, ST Forum Page published a letter asking if "cab companies allowed uncaged pets to be transported in taxis, after she saw a dog standing on a taxi seat next to its owner." The concern is that the animals pay "drool on the seats or dirty them with their paws"--and for most of the Muslims in Singapore (which subscribe to the Syafie school of thought on the issue), they are prohibited by religion "to touch dogs which are wet, which would include a dog's saliva".
Enter the duo Nicholas Lim Yew, 25, and Benjamin Koh Song Huat, 27. The first "allegedly responded [to the Forum Page letter] by twice posting anti-Muslim remarks on an online forum for dog lovers, www.doggiesite.com," allegedly criticising "certain aspects of Islamic law." The latter "was said to have made similar racist comments on his blog, Phoenyx Chronicles, on www.upsaid.com on three occasions."

Re:Caning . . .

[brazilofmux]

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'.