A 17-year-old Singapore resident has been arrested for criticizing the country’s government, the New York Times reports, and the details of the situation are ridiculous. The teen, who’s been identified as Amos Yee, was apparently taken into custody after posting a YouTube video of his thoughts about the death of longtime authoritarian leader Lee Kuan Yew. If you watch the YouTube video, it becomes clear that Amos Yee is probably not an armed insurrectionist.
“All you have to do is do a Google search, look at our country’s statistics, and you will find out how fucking delusional and ignorant and stupid your parents are!” Argh, parents!
But I’m not trying to be dissmissive: Amos Yee’s ideas, however juvenile a fashion they may have been presented in, certainly count as substantive organic dissent, and as such they were apparently brought to authorities’ attention by 20 of his fellow citizens. Narcs! From the Guardian:
Lawyer Chia Boon Teck, who lodged one of the police reports against Yee, said: “The individual had said many things against Mr Lee and the government that are defamatory under the penal code as well as in violation of the sedition act. His utterances against Christians also amounted to a ‘deliberate intent to wound religious feelings’ under the penal code
“There is a limit to freedom of speech. If the line separating freedom and offence is crossed, the person will have to face the consequences,” he added.
Come on, Singapore.
