After last week's packed issue, this week is going to be a little lighter, partly because I didn't see anything super explosive and partly because there's a massive spring-cleaning and decluttering underway at home so I've been a little preoccupied... It's a good chance to remind everyone to read the Maintenance of Racial Harmony Bill for yourselves!
Earlier this week I wrote a special issue in which I talked about the increasing number of police investigations into petty things. Around lunchtime on Friday I got a call from the police saying they want to talk to me in relation to a new (at least, new to me) investigation: "a potential offence of Intentionally Causing Harassment to a Public Servant under Section 6(1A) of the Protection from Harassment Act 2014". Eh?
(1)
Under the Public Order Act even a solo protest can constitute an illegal assembly, but what about an act where no one was present at all? That's still fair game for a police investigation, apparently, because they're now looking into Students for Palestine Singapore's 13 January action where 124 pairs of shoes—along with a shroud, a graduation cap and a scroll—were placed outside a building in the National University of Singapore campus as "a memorial to mourn and honour the countless Palestinian students who have been unjustly and needlessly murdered by Israel". You can find the students' press statement here.
A public assembly of one person is already a very big stretch of the word. An assembly with zero people? Where's the Speak Good English movement on this?
(2)
Scammers, armed with IC numbers and Singpass details, managed to get around the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority's security measures to misuse their change-of-address system. Seven people have been arrested so far—they're believed to be responsible for at least 30 cases of unauthorised address changes. Three have been charged under the Computer Misuse Act. Investigators say there were 87 problematic attempts to change residential addresses, 69 of them successful.
(3)
Here's a weird one: has there been an attempt to push influence operations at Ngee Ann Poly? Late last year, eyebrows were raised when a LinkedIn account named "Communist Youth League of China" published job ads looking for a branch secretary and a deputy party secretary. This was reported by The Online Citizen just before Christmas; after they reached out to the Ministry of Home Affairs about the matter, the account and posts vanished off LinkedIn. It's not clear whether the account was real, a spoof or part of some weird disinformation campaign. When Leong Mun Wai asked a question in Parliament about this last week, the response from K Shanmugam, the Minister for Home Affairs and Law, was curt: "The Ministry of Home Affairs is looking into the case."
Read the special issue (Milo Peng Funders get full access):
Kirsten Han
Around the region
🇮🇩 Prabowo has launched a free meal programme that's meant to combat malnutrition in Indonesia, but it's not clear how the state is supposed to afford it and there have been reports of substandard meals in some parts.
🇹🇼 Taiwan carried out its first execution in four years on Thursday evening. New Bloom has analysis on the political strategy behind this state killing.
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