SINGAPORE: Two jailed for anti-Muslim remarks

First instance of bloggers being punished under anti-sedition legislation

Dawn
Saturday, October 8 2005

Singapore --- Two ethnic Chinese men on Friday became the first bloggers in multi-racial Singapore to be punished under the city-state’s tough anti-sedition legislation for posting anti-Muslim remarks on the Internet.

Benjamin Koh, 28, was given two concurrent one-month jail terms while Nicholas Lim, 25, was jailed for one day and fined 2,960 dollars after they pleaded guilty to the June offences.

"The doing of an act which has a seditious tendency to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between races or classes of the population in Singapore is serious," judge Richard Magnus said in handing down his ruling.

"Racial and religious hostility feeds on itself," he said.

Singapore has worked hard to promote racial and religious harmony after suffering from bloody Chinese-Malay racial riots in the 1960s.

Ethnic Chinese make up 76 per cent of Singapore’s resident population of 3.4 Million. Malay Muslims account for 13.7 per cent, followed by ethnic Indians.

Koh and Lim’s case was triggered by a letter to the Straits Times newspaper from a Malay Muslim Singaporean woman, Zuraimah Mohammed, who in a query to taxi firms said uncaged dogs may drool on taxi seats or dirty them with their paws.

Under the Syafie school of thought to which most Singaporean Muslims belong, contact with dog saliva is prohibited.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told a foreign media forum that Singapore wants to ensure that no disaffection takes root among people who might feel excluded in society.

Date Posted: 10/8/2005