JAKARTA, Indonesia — They’ve called it a David versus Goliath fight and, for once, the cliche is appropriate. On one side, a 33-year-old public hospital employee; on the other, Singapore’s prime minister. Until last month, Roy Ngerng was just a normal guy blogging about social issues in Singapore. He’s now being sued by the city-state’s prime minister, has been fired from his job, and has gained national fame. “Unfortunately Singapore is not a normal democratic country,” he adds. “There’s been a demonstrated pattern of using legal proceedings to silence critics.” Local and international media have paid damages and issued apologies in the past, and online critics have been threatened with lawsuits. Last year, political cartoonist Leslie Chew, who created the Facebook page “Demon-cratic Singapore” (“a 100 percent fictional comic series about a country that doesn’t exist”) was arrested for “scandalizing the judiciary.” That’s a common law offense in Singapore, according to HRW. The cartoonist faced charges until he agreed to apologize. globalpost/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/140624/singapore-blogger-lost-everything-criticizing-prime-minister
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 17:11:38 +0000
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