First spotted this on Used Brains for Sale.
By Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE : 17-year-old private school student Gan Huai Shi has pleaded guilty to two charges of making seditious and inflammatory remarks about Muslims on the Internet.
His lawyer hopes the remaining five similar charges can be taken into consideration so he can get a probation sentence instead of a jail term.
Gan is the third person charged under the Sedition Act recently for making racist remarks in his blog.
He made inflammatory comments about Malays and Muslims. He also called himself an "extreme racist."
The defence lawyer said the main reason why Gan had such feelings of ill will towards the Malay community is because of the death of his younger brother when he was only seven years old.
His month-old brother had breathing difficulties and needed to be taken to the hospital in a cab, but a Malay couple refused to let them go first despite his mother's pleas.
By the time the family got to the hospital, his brother was already dead. His mother was subsequently diagnosed with post-natal depression.
Gan's lawyer said as a result of the incident, he became an introvert, spending most of his time on the computer.
Gan's teachers and Malay friends wrote in their testimonials he had never shown any racist tendencies toward them.
One Malay friend, Ismail Kassim who Gan got to know during his part-time work, said he got along well with Gan and often discussed football together.
Defence lawyer Edmond A. Pereira said: "They have all described him as a very quiet person, so none of them knew about his deep sentiments.
"But in front of the computer, he's a different animal. He is extremely remorseful for what he has done and wishes to say sorry to all Singaporeans."
Gan is currently sitting for his 'O' levels which ends on November 22. His case will be heard again the day after.
- CNA /ls
4 comments:
I had a laugh when I read this: I had meant to send this article to Singabloodypore, but it somehow ended up in my own blog instead. And now it is here. LOL.
what with the appeal for Van Tuong Nguyen I have become rather focused and forgot the ongoing sedition charges being imposed. I believe there is also a fourth blogger under investigation.
Yeah. Heard about that. Good luck to him. Not.
Generally,
What people fail to realise is that 'inflammatory' is not an evil in itself. What is an evil worth censure is the conditions that are allowed to continue that serve as the basis upon which sensitivities grow. i.e. discrimination. It is 'discrimination' that is inflammatory and NOT attempts to address them. If we had proscriptions against 'inflammatory speech' during the times of slavery, we would have seen all abolitionists imprisoned for 'inciting race problems' by seeking to end the slavery of Africans, and, of course, slavery would have continued to this day - not that it is not continuing in more 'modern' forms. By sweeping 'sensitive issues' under the carpet in the guise of maintaining social stability, what is actually being achieved is the continuation of the status quo and the relegation of certain sectors of the population as second class citizens.
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