Bloggers prosecuted for sedition

A British colonial law which helped fight a communist insurgency is now being used to prosecute three ethnic Chinese accused of writing racist remarks about ethnic Malays on the Internet, as authorities attempt to crack down on racial intolerance and regulate online expression. 

Animal shelter worker Benjamin Koh Song Huat, 27, and Nicholas Lim Yew, an unemployed 25-year-old, will plead guilty on Friday to sedition for racist remarks against the minority Malay community, their lawyers said. 

They face up to three years in prison and a maximum fine of S$5,000 (RM11,170). 

Experts said the Sedition Act had not been used in Singapore since it broke off from Malaysia and became independent in 1965. But analysts say the government may be using the Act to raise the case's profile in an effort to stamp out racial intolerance in a country where social cohesion has been a chief concern since Chinese-Malay riots in the 1960s left scores dead. 

Singapore is 80% ethnic Chinese, while Malays make up 15% of the country's 4.2 million population.  

Lim posted disparaging comments about Malays and Islam on an Internet forum for dog lovers in a discussion about whether taxis should refuse to carry uncaged pets out of consideration for Muslims.  

Lim and Koh are accused of committing acts “with a seditious tendency to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different classes of the population of Singapore,” according to court documents. 

Koh's lawyer Irving Choh said it was the first time that modern Singapore, which places tight control on expression, has used the Sedition Act. 

A spokesman from the Attorney-General's Chambers said it could not immediately verify when the Act was last used. 

In a separate case, a 17-year-old student is due in court on Friday to face sedition charges for allegedly making racist comments about Malays on the Internet. 

The Sedition Act was first introduced in Malaya, which later became known as Malaysia, by British colonialists for use against communist insurgents there in 1948, and incorporated into Singaporean law just ahead of independence, said Michael Hor, a law professor at the National University of Singapore. 

Analysts say Singapore's Sedition Act is broad in that it includes provisions against inciting hostility among races and classes. 

Hor said the government might not have used the Sedition Act in the past because it did not want trials to be used as platforms for promoting racist views. 

“There is also the risk of an acquittal which would have adverse repercussions in a matter as sensitive as this,” Hor said. 

Singapore, which had been plagued by communist strikes in the 1940s, kept the law after independence because it was concerned with left-wing activists, Hor said. 

“Now, the Sedition Act is being used for something completely different,” he said. – AP