Sedition Vs Racism Vs Idiocy in Singapore

Two Singaporeans (a blogger and someone on a forum) have just been charged with sedition in Singapore over racist comments they made online.

It's apparently been ten years since *anyone* was charged with sedition in BradyBunchLand, so this is extremely serious. But near as I can tell, they're being charged over racially-derived derogatory comments. Is racist name-calling on quite the same level as inciting race hate and threatening the overthrow of the government?

Admittedly, this is in a region where racial tensions and prejudices are high, and Singapore's success as a nation has depended on maintaining a firm grip on public order. The Singaporean government practically falls over itself to ensure that no one ethnic or religious group is advantaged or disadvantaged in any area, whether it's public housing, schooling, the location of their businesses, military service... and because the same rules apply to everyone, most Singaporeans are content to go along with it.

Privately, they may hold other views. My Malaysian-born mother, for example, long advocated me never to marry into a certain ethnic group because of the way the men allegedly treated their wives. So prejudices are there. Most people just aren't stupid enough to voice them in public.

Should this be viewed as a form of government repression or as self-censorship? Is the public good more important than the individual's rights? Or Is the occasinal idiot's making a total dick of themselves something that will inevitably lead to widespread chaos and breakdown of law and order?

Here, in Australia, I have no doubts whatsoever. But I find myself thinking differently about the same issues when they pertain to Singapore. It shouldn't be a different matter, but it is. No Australian court would have dreamt of charging a couple of name-callers with anything so extreme as sedition, not even in these terror-heightened days, and for that I am grateful to live here.

But if I were still living in Singapore, I think I would be leaning the other way. Sedition *is* a bit steep, but racism, in whatever form or degree, must not be tolerated.

The fallout from the actions of these two idiots, however, is that all Singaporean bloggers have suddenly become very self-conscious of what they have been writing, and that is not a good thing for a country that is just learing to find its own voice. Good grief, Skribe and I call one another by worse names everyday as a matter of course. If we were emailing one another in Singapore, we'd be charged with a smiliar offence, no doubt.