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

how have they defined "racism"?

[ChipMonk]

Without that much information, am I supposed to just believe the charges? (Yeah, right!)

Speaking as an Irishman

[$RANDOMLUSER]

Remember: It's only sedition/rebellion if you lose.

Re:Arrrrgh...

[Skye16]

In my experience, it's the opposite.

"Racism doesn't exist in America anymore!" followed quickly by "Fucking niggers stealing hubcaps!" (Rural Western PA, about 2 months ago)

Why does this have to be negative?

[RentonSentinel]

I think its respectable for a country to punish people for seditious behavior, if done appropriately.

Re:Why does this have to be negative?

[Bogtha]

I think its respectable for a country to punish people for seditious behavior, if done appropriately.

Sedition is an act of rebellion against the state. How is classifying racist comments as sedition appropriate?

The logic seems to be that "promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility between races in Singapore" is inherently seditious. You could redefine theft to be sedition using that logic (hey, it "promotes suspicion amongst neighbours in Singapore").

If racist comments are not tolerable in Singapore, then they should pass a law about that instead of leaving it up to an official to twist the meaning of an existing law out of all proportion to punish somebody for something he doesn't like.

This doesn't appear to be somebody breaking the law and getting caught, it appears to be somebody doing something legal but distasteful, and having somebody in the government abuse the law to pursue a vendetta because they don't like it.

One of these things is not like the other

[$RANDOMLUSER]

sedition
n : an illegal action inciting resistance to lawful authority and tending to cause the disruption or overthrow of the government.

racism
n : discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race.

Re:[NT] No Title

[Anonymous Coward]

www.hrw.org/reports/2001/prison/

Singapore Canes 1000 people per year. About 22% of all use inmates are raped at some point in their stays in prison. Which is really the less humane society?

Singapore cultural values are different....

[postbigbang]

Although another poster claimed friction by the 'Chinese' class, this is a country that claims four official languages, and is a melting pot on the order of Hong Kong, or Bangkok.

Holding this contentious group together is a miracle given the tensions in the region. The economic success of Singapore is legendary in a region where its neighbors routinely slaughter each other- Indonesians with rebels, Malaysians with sectarian strife, Thai with sectarian strife, and so on. Singapore has to hold together ethnic Chinese, Malay, Tamils, as well as expats from all over the region, Euros, and so on. They take racial prejudice very seriously, and if they didn't they'd have bedlam.

Yes, Singapore is draconian in other ways, and is also known as the "Fine City" where every offense is a S$500 fine. They execute drug smugglers. So, don't smuggle drugs there. It's a follow-the-rules place. Not much crap is put up with. But it's not a police state, it just lacks a lot of democracy and free speech. This seems to suit the population, who are the envy of all of their neighbors. I've traveled the region many times; Singapore is the 52nd US State (after British Columbia)

*Sigh* look at it like this.

[mcc]

Ignorance is the natural breeding ground of racism.

This means that you cannot combat racism by limiting information or expression. The only effective way you can combat racism is by countering it with good information-- demonstrating the racists wrong, rather than silencing them.

If you try to fight racism by silencing it, you are only hurting yourself in the long run. Even aside from the slippery slope problem, you inevitably wind up with a situation where the fact you are trying to silence these people brands them with a false stamp of legitimacy. The old "help help I'm being oppressed" thing is a powerful tool, even to those whose message is itself in favor of oppression; the racists can easily twist the fact the government is trying to silence them into an argument in their favor.

In the long run this just isn't helpful; it's like trying to put out a grease fire by pouring oil on it. No good will come of what Singapore is trying to do here, only collateral damage.

Re:The Price of Being Chinese

[MightyMartian]

Ah my, but it isn't just darling to see governments that are so cowardly that they fear their own citizens. Of course, such vile oppressive governments will always defend themselves via that pathetic "society must be protected" defense, but they are vile and wicked never the less.

Of course, what is more pathetic is that the West should stand up to such governments, but the West has been taken over by corporate lackeys who are only interested in bottom lines.

"We don't like what you do, but we like what you pay."