Opinion

Come on, Singapore. If you’re going to make tough rules for blogs, enforce them properly

Yesterday, I had the displeasure of reading a blog post that should cause offense to anyone with half a brain.

Now, I’m all for freedom of speech, and one of the reasons I’m based in Hong Kong and not in Singapore is because the press here is relatively free.

But how this post, which was published on the independent news site The Real Singapore, is allowed to exist in the public domain in a country with fiercely strict anti-discrimination laws is a mystery to me.

The post, which goes by the extraordinary headline STOP HUMANIZING THE BANGLAS/ INDIAN FTS!, begins with the words:

Ok so at a very technical/ genetic level, they are humans. But I am not talking technically here. My point is they are not the ‘same kind’ of humans we are. They have different cultural and moral bearings and these differences need to be acknowledged so that we can decide how to deal with this group of people.

"The voice of average Singaporeans" Really?

“The voice of average Singaporeans” Really?

It makes for ugly reading, going on to argue – in bewilderingly ignorant fashion – how Indians and Bangladeshis have limited thinking ability, don’t value human life, are corrupt and mistreat women.

If there is an article that is likely to incite racial hatred, at a time when racial tensions between locals and foreigners in Singapore are hardly rosy, just three days after the most violent riots in 40 years, it is this one.

Does this post not breach Singapore’s Sedition Act?

I quote from Wikipedia:

Subsection 3 of the Act describes the types of publication that have seditious tendency and these includes publication that “promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes”.

Singapore takes social cohesion and racial harmony in the country seriously because of its multi-cultural makeup.

About 40 percent of the population are foreigners, the sixth-highest percentage in the world. In 2009, 74.2% of residents were of Chinese, 13.4% of Malay, and 9.2% of Indian descent, while Eurasians and other groups form 3.2%.

Also contributing to the nation’s sensitivity on racial harmony is its history of racial riots in the 1960s. More recent events of racial violence in neighboring Indonesia in the late 1990s and early 2000s also serve as reminders of potential inter-racial conflicts in the region.

In the comment thread beneath the piece, many posters give the author – who by the way does not reveal their real name – short thrift.

But many do not.

The issue here is that Singapore’s media regulator, the Media Development Authority, has recently introduced a tough new licensing regime for websites that report on local issues, but no one is really clear what these rules are for, nor what they mean.

I would humbly suggest, MDA, that if you’re going to get tough on those who write about Singapore online, then in this case, you do something about it for good reason.

Is this article not trampling all over Singapore’s famous OB markers – and at the worse time, possibly in the country’s short history?

The disclaimer at the beginning of the post is a cop out.

It reads:

TheRealSingapore.com is a platform for users to submit content and all content remains the property of the individual contributors. The views and opinions expressed by author(s) within the website are solely that of the contributors and in no way reflects the views of TheRealSingapore.com

It may well have been the property of the contributor when he or she wrote it, The Real Singapore. But it is yours now. Because you have published it on your website.

A follow-up post by the same author, which has since been added to the original, is equally vile and misguided.

This week the licensing regime claimed its first victim – the Breakfast Network – which closed on Tuesday because it did not get a licence after it was asked to by the MDA. The MDA has also banned the Breakfast Network from posting any of its content on Facebook or Twitter.

The Independent, which launched in August, was also leant on by the regulator immediately after launching. The MDA claimed that the publisher had foreign backing – which The Independent has denied. But site got a licence anyway, and continues to operate.

MDA, perhaps, in this case, you should be leaning on The Real Singapore too?

Robin Hicks

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