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30/10/2007
Singapore - Police question poet over e-mail to NMP
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The Singapore police getting called in over an email and then the writer of the email being called in for questioning, then making an apology. What has Mr Alfian been charged with?
Oct 30, 2007
Police question poet over e-mail to NMP
By Chong Chee Kin
POET and playwright Alfian Sa'at has emerged as the writer of the strongly worded e-mail which Nominated MP Thio Li-Ann referred to in her impassioned speech against repealing Section 377A of the Penal Code.
Yesterday, Mr Alfian, 29, confirmed that he was called up for police investigations last Friday, following Professor Thio's police report about the e-mail, and said he was sorry for giving vent to his anger over her views.
The National University of Singapore law professor had described the e-mail as being 'full of obscene and vile invective' when she spoke in Parliament last Monday on why the Penal Code should retain the section that makes sex between men a crime.
The Government has decided to retain 377A, but has removed Section 377, which outlawed oral and anal sex between men and women.
Prof Thio said that she had had a 'personal unpleasant experience', when telling the House that some people who disagreed with her views had resorted to name-calling to intimidate and silence the opposing camp.
In particular, she referred to the e-mail she received from 'someone I never met, full of vile and obscene invective which I shall not repeat, accusing me of hate-mongering'.
this was the email in question:
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2007 05:03 +0800 (CST)
Subject: a valentine
Dear Dr Thio,
This is a personal note to you.
I think you are absolutely fucked up.
As long as you exist, with your hatemongering and your vicious crusades against sexual minorities, I will never leave Singapore. I hope I outlive you long enough to see the repeal of 377A and on that day I will piss on your grave.
With love,
Alfian.
A police spokesman yesterday said it was 'inappropriate to comment' on a matter under investigation, but Mr Alfian - the winner of the 2001 Young Artist Award - told The Straits Times that the incident 'was not the proudest moment of my life'.
The resident playwright at theatre company Wild Rice added: 'I apologise if she felt that I was trying to stifle her right to free speech. I also recognise that she has been doing very credible work on human rights issues and I sincerely hope the unfortunate tenor of her Parliament speech will not sabotage all the other causes she has been working for.'
The e-mail was 'sent in a flash of anger', he said.
Among other things, it vowed to defile her grave if Section 377A was ever repealed.
'I regret the way that it has been used to taint the pro-repeal camp as being incapable of rational debate,' he said, adding that he hoped others would not follow his 'reckless example'.
He said: 'I was expressing an opinion of her and I believe that opinion was not tantamount to harassment or intimidation.'
When contacted, Prof Thio declined comment.
The incident was under investigation, 'and as far as I am concerned, the matter is closed', she said.
cheekin@sph.com.sg
15:25 Permalink | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this | Tags: Singapore, Gay Rights
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social activists need to remember the legal environment they operate in and keep their temper in control to avoid trouble that would only retard their own cause
Posted by: sgsociety.com | 30/10/2007
I definitly agree with sgsociety. People have to play it cool, calm and collected to support their causes and rise in power. Only after you own the whole country THEN you can vent your anger and threaten people like defiling their graves or if they "take me on in politics, I will use bare knuckles street fighting tactics on you" and call your opponents names like 'liars, cheats and thieves'.
Posted by: darren barker | 31/10/2007
in this legal environment, what Darren Barker said could cause a lawsuit, even though he mentioned no names; allow me to remind you of the following event:
January 18, 1995
Singapore Court Finds a U.S. Scholar and Newspaper Guilty of Contempt
By PHILIP SHENON,
An American academic and an American- owned newspaper were found guilty today of contempt of court in Singapore over an opinion article critical of what it called "intolerant regimes" in Asia that use "a compliant judiciary" to bankrupt opposition politicians.
Putting aside protests from the Clinton Administration, a Singapore judge ordered the academic, Christopher Lingle; the newspaper, The International Herald Tribune, and its publishers and Asia editor to pay fines and court costs that are expected to total tens of thousands of dollars.
While the Oct. 7 article by Mr. Lingle did not mention Singapore by name, Justice Goh Joon Seng said he had "no doubt" that the American was referring to Singapore in his passage about a compliant judiciary and that the reference had "scandalized the Singapore judiciary." ...
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEEDA1330F93BA25752C0A963958260
sgsociety.com
Posted by: sgsociety.com | 31/10/2007
though barker mentioned no name, that by itself is no guarantee of immunity; remember this story?
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEEDA1330F93BA25752C0A963958260
January 18, 1995
Singapore Court Finds a U.S. Scholar and Newspaper Guilty of Contempt
By PHILIP SHENON,
An American academic and an American- owned newspaper were found guilty today of contempt of court in Singapore over an opinion article critical of what it called "intolerant regimes" in Asia that use "a compliant judiciary" to bankrupt opposition politicians.
Putting aside protests from the Clinton Administration, a Singapore judge ordered the academic, Christopher Lingle; the newspaper, The International Herald Tribune, and its publishers and Asia editor to pay fines and court costs that are expected to total tens of thousands of dollars.
While the Oct. 7 article by Mr. Lingle did not mention Singapore by name, Justice Goh Joon Seng said he had "no doubt" that the American was referring to Singapore in his passage about a compliant judiciary and that the reference had "scandalized the Singapore judiciary."
Posted by: sgsociety.com | 31/10/2007
sgsociety are you trying to instill some fear around here?
How about saying this?
Singapore is headed by a despotic dictator, Lee Kuan Yew and build on the nepotism of the Lee family, in particular - Lee Hsien Loong became PM because his father made it so.
Will that get me into trouble?
Posted by: soci | 31/10/2007
>are you trying to instill some fear ?
who me? havnt you hear of "atmosphere of fear" etc? it is so easy to pick on the messenger and forget the real problem
>Will that get me into trouble?
well bloomberg, financial times, etc said things milder than what you said, and had to apologize and pay hundreds of thousands in compensation; I guess an individual with (correct me I am wrong) little money living in England is safe from lawsuits, but dont underestimate the guys you want to mess around with.
obviously, both you and barker think I am a PAP henchman; ah well, I have always said, the reason they are so successful is their enemies keep fighting the wrong battles; Alfian obviously did
Posted by: sgsociety.com | 31/10/2007
Hi sgsociety
I don't think you are a PAP henchman. You are an anonymous commentator on a blog who possibly has a background related to Singapore somehow.
Posted by: soci | 31/10/2007
Let's just hope that the court system then will let me serve my time in jail for my horrible crime of having an opinion. How would life be different?
in jail I have to get up at a set time (alarm to go to work), eat the same kind of inexpensive meals (rice at the coffee shop cause cant afford anything else), either be forced to work doing endless tasks for little gratification (yeah, call that a job) or rehabilitation by reading gov't propaganda trying to instill a sense of happiness and joy in my life (sort of like the Strait Times) and go to sleep feeling dead tired without having the feeling of accomplishing anything. At least in jail that means I definitly have a place to stay whereas out here in the real world with the way that rental and buying flats go might be pretty scarce.
Besides, arent those cases about people writing articles which are governed by laws of liability whereas the internet, as said by the govt of singapore, is a free speech zone where you can have an opinion?
Posted by: darren barker | 31/10/2007
>serve my time in jail for my horrible crime of having an opinion
we all have opinions; the question is content and expression;
strict laws on defamation, misuse of computer & communication network, etc, are out there; opinions expressed by people with some kind of organizational background, e.g., opposition figures, multinational corporations, news outlets, religious groups, and recently the gay activists, are taken more seriously
Posted by: sgsociety.com | 01/11/2007