jail sentence

yes, singapore has scored another “first”.

the 2 guys charged under the sedition act for posting racist remarks online have been convicted.

28-year-old Benjamin Koh Seng Huat, a kennel keeper at an animal shelter, has been sentenced to one month's jail. Separately, the court sentenced 25-year-old former assistant marketing manager, Nicholas Lim Yew, to serve one day in jail and a maximum fine of $5,000.

In passing sentences, Senior District Judge Richard Magnus said the two had crossed the red line by wantonly breaching the basic ground rules. He said passing a deterrent sentence was necessary so that such offending acts are tackled early and contained.

The judge also said that young Singaporeans may have short memories that race and religion are sensitive issues.

He said callous and reckless remarks on racial or religious subjects had the potential to cause social disorder, regardless of which medium or forum they are expressed.

The judge added the right of one to propagate an opinion on the Internet is not and cannot be an unfettered right.

It is only appropriate social behaviour of every Singapore citizen and resident to respect the other races in view of Singapore's multi-racial society.

channelnewsasia.com

as much as i recognise that what they have done should not be condoned, but has the law been overly heavy handed in these 2 instances?

would not a warning and a fine suffice?

as noted by the judge, young singaporeans do not have any memories of race and religion issues because we’re “blind” to them.

we grew up in a multi-racial and multi-religious society. having to interact with people of different races and religions is part of our everyday lives. i don’t think our generation or those after us judge a person on the basis of his race or religion anymore.

neither do i feel that racial or religious hatred can be so easily propagated by a few bigots here because we do think of ourselves as singaporeans first and foremost regardless of creed and colour.

that had been evidenced by the reportedly more than 200 responses to 1 of the offender’s online posting.

as i’ve mentioned before, i’ve never heard of the sedition act prior to this episode. i agree that ignorance is not a valid defence for breaking the law. but shouldn’t the investigators looked deeper into the intentions behind the remarks of the 2 accused?

were they really made in an attempt to incite racial and religious hatred or out of hot-headedness and idiocy? shouldn’t the law distinguish the difference?

the blogging community has waited with abated breath for the judgment.

while many have argued that blogs are personal journals that are meant to be read by a selected group of people, the fact remains that these private diaries exist on the web which is accessible by practically anyone in the world.

the sentencing has clearly acknowledge that the internet is a mass medium just like your trusty newspapers and other paper publications, that means the same standards will be applied uniformly to it… at least here in singapore.

that said, maybe it’s time for the internet-savvy younger generation to be media-savvy as well.