I'm writing this after having spent all day in admin hell... so much so that I almost wish I was affected by the global outage because then I could just have given up. I think it's all fixed now, but as a result I'm writing this newsletter with a scrambled brain and eyes that have been squinting at line items for HOURS...
In happier news, an essay that I wrote, titled 'Singapore Will Always Be At War', won first prize at the 2024 Portside Review Human Rights Essay Prize! You can read it here.
(1)
A 14-year-old boy was issued restriction orders under the Internal Security Act. The Ministry of Home Affairs says that the kid had become radicalised online and wanted to to fight for a Muslim army believed to engage in a final battle against non-believers in the end times. He'd started a chat group and tried to recruit people to his cause, wanting to carry out attacks in Singapore.
Under these restrictions, the boy won't be allowed to use the Internet or social media, change his place of residence, travel out of Singapore, issue public statements and more, unless the authorities allow him to. Another 33-year-old man, unconnected to this kid but who allegedly supports Hamas and encourages violence against Israelis and Jews, has also been slapped with similar restriction orders.
This boy isn't the first teenager the ISA has been invoked against. As with every other case, there's no way to independently verify what the government is saying in their statements. I can't help but wonder if it's necessary to really use the ISA against kids like this; are there really no other ways to reach them and address whatever issues they have?
Also, things are more likely to fester and escalate when people aren't given space to express themselves, engage in open conversations with others and take action on things that they feel strongly about. The government has been keeping a very tight lid on anything related to Israel and Palestine/Gaza at the moment—even the most simple of collective action, like delivering letters, has attracted police investigation and criminal charges. When witnessing such devastating loss and violence, it's only natural that people feel strongly and want to do something; when there are no outlets or spaces, that's when people are more likely to go underground where emotions can simmer unseen until the anger and frustration boils over. I get that the government is really worried (paranoid?) about riots and whatnot, but they should really recognise that clamping down brings it own risks and might turn out to be neither effective nor practical.
(2)
Social media platforms have been ordered by the government to block almost a hundred accounts under the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter have been directed to block a network of 95 accounts from users in Singapore. These accounts, they say, have been publishing coordinated posts about how Singapore is being controlled by China, even suggesting that the Chinese Communist Party influenced the selection of Lawrence Wong to be Singapore's prime minister.
These accounts are apparently linked to Guo Wengui, a Chinese billionaire now in exile in the US, who has history teaming up with former Donald Trump advisor and right-wing schemer Steve Bannon to try to take down the CCP. The government says this network could potentially be used for hostile information campaigns in Singapore.
Accounts that engage in inauthentic behaviour—although I haven't been able to tell from the reporting so far if there's confirmation that these accounts are behaving in inauthentic ways that would violate social media platforms' standards and policies, or doing something else—need to be addressed somehow, but if our main strategy is blocks and bans, then we'll forever be playing a game of whack-a-mole. There also needs to be media literacy education, open spaces for learning and discussion, nurturing public trust in institutions and the media (which does not happen by making it an offence to criticise or protest against institutions, by the way), and also things like strong civil society capacity to provide independent checks and scrutiny of the powerful! Otherwise we're just kind of putting all our eggs in one basket hoping that the government will be able to win the catch-and-block game... which is unwinnable.
(3)
Some good news on the death penalty front this past week! Mohamed Mubin Abdul Rahman, who was sentenced to death in 2020, is now free and (I assume) at home with his loved ones. He was acquitted of the capital charges, and plead guilty to two amended charges of possessing methamphetamine, to which he was sentenced to time already served.
Last month, the Court of Appeal had set aside his conviction after finding that the prosecution had run an inconsistent case. The judges pointed out that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt when two packages of heroin at the centre of his capital case had been delivered to him. The court then asked the prosecution to file written submissions about whether it should be an acquittal or a retrial, and this month the prosecution said there should be an acquittal, but suggested two charges of possession of methamphetamine, which Mubin had previously admitted to.
It's surreal... A few months ago Mubin was on death row, and now, after a hearing on Tuesday that was so short I missed the entire thing just because I missed my bus to the MRT station, he's home. Life and death. We shouldn't have such power.
I'll be speaking on a panel at the Singapore Independent Media Fair later today! If you haven't got your tickets yet—the booths are free access but you have to chope seats for the panels—this is your last chance.
On my radar...
🧑🏻⚖️ Iswaran has failed again to get the court to make the prosecution hand over all its witness statements. CNA reports: "Justice Vincent Hoong said there was nothing in the wording of the Criminal Procedure Code to support the defence's argument that the prosecution is required to disclose all conditioned statements of its witnesses or draft statements of witnesses who do not want to sign off on conditioned statements."
😐 For a country supposedly so worried about racial strife we sure love to racialise all sorts of stuff. This week in the news:
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, who was at the carnival, said every community in Singapore faces its own health challenges and urged participants to live a healthier lifestyle.
Mr Ong noted that the Chinese exercised the least but ate the most fats and sodium; the Malay community has the highest obesity and smoking rates; while diabetes and sugar consumption is a concern for the Indian community.
Why liddat. What about analysis by class, income, working hours, ability to afford nutritious fare?
Stray Kids, my favourite K-pop group, released a new album yesterday. Questions would be asked (by my friends) if I didn't drop something about that in my newsletter. So here you go. Yes, that is Ryan Reynolds (and Hugh Jackman).