Today's blog will just be about Amos, Amos, Amos!
"Teenage blogger Amos Yee to be remanded for 2 weeks at the Institute of Mental Health - The Straits Times p.m.
SINGAPORE - Teenage blogger Amos Yee will be remanded for two weeks at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) to undergo a psychiatric assessment."
AND
"UN agency calls for Amos Yee's immediate release - The Straits Times 23 June 2015 a.m.
THE United Nations Human Rights Office for South-east Asia yesterday called for the immediate release of teenage blogger Amos Yee, who has been remanded at Changi Prison since June 2.
In a statement, the Bangkok-based Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) urged the Government to review the 16-year-old's conviction and asked that prosecutors also drop their demand that Yee be sentenced to a stint at the Reformative Training Centre (RTC)."
The OHCHR said yesterday it was aware that Yee was being assessed for reformative training. But it expressed concern that the RTC is "akin to detention and usually applied to juvenile offenders involved in serious crimes".
The UN agency said it recognised Singapore's concerns about issues of public morality and social harmony. However, it did not think that reformative training was an appropriate sentence for Yee.
The OHCHR also appealed to the authorities to "give special consideration to his juvenile status"."
A 16-year old kid managed to get OHCHR to appeal on his behalf. Not bad one must says!
Lessons for me are:
1. Amos is young. He ranted. He posted offensive comments that can potentially stir emotions and create disharmony from the offended religious people and those who object to indecent exposure TOWARDS him. NOT to any other person since Amos is the one making those offensive comments. Yes? If so, the damage is probably pretty limited unless everyone else in cyberspace is ALSO echoing his lines of reasoning and thought. The fact is, to the contrary, MOST online commentators SLAMMED him for his insensitive comments. So, you decide on the actual IMPACT of Amos' postings. Of course, this 'limited negative ripple effect' could also be due to the very strict enforcement of 'no discussion of out-of-bound topics'. ;
2. Amidst all these noises, if we threw in the fact that Amos is considered 'mentally disturbed', normal people can reasonably said that the AUTHORITIES probably HAD over-reacted!! In fact, the whispered reason WHY Amos was charged at all is due to his 'insensitive comments about the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew' that attracted many 'decent Singaporeans and admirers of Mr Lee' to file police reports against him. Interesting, the laws supposedly said that 'a dead person' cannot charge a living one, this subject was dropped after the initial court hearing found Amos to be guilty of 'insensitive remarks on certain religion and posting of indecent image'!
A certain pro-establishment person who made online threat to 'hurt or kill or cut-off certain anatomy of Amos' was given a 'warning' only.
This unfortunately will trigger some soul searching;
3. OHCHR wading into this controversy is a surprising development. It surely knows the stand of Singapore government against 'interference of internal issues' by foreign entities, UN- and UN-related or not! The question for us to ponder really is: should WE be thinking along the line of the OHCHR or to stick to the 'no one should ever talk about out-of-bound issues REGARDLESS of any circumstances' stance?
As I had stated in my earlier comments when Amos's case came up, it is an interesting case that hopefully will help us to THINK a bit more about HOW to deal with 'youngsters who are NOT normal but not insane or psychotic'!
"Teenage blogger Amos Yee to be remanded for 2 weeks at the Institute of Mental Health - The Straits Times p.m.
SINGAPORE - Teenage blogger Amos Yee will be remanded for two weeks at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) to undergo a psychiatric assessment."
AND
"UN agency calls for Amos Yee's immediate release - The Straits Times 23 June 2015 a.m.
THE United Nations Human Rights Office for South-east Asia yesterday called for the immediate release of teenage blogger Amos Yee, who has been remanded at Changi Prison since June 2.
In a statement, the Bangkok-based Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) urged the Government to review the 16-year-old's conviction and asked that prosecutors also drop their demand that Yee be sentenced to a stint at the Reformative Training Centre (RTC)."
The OHCHR said yesterday it was aware that Yee was being assessed for reformative training. But it expressed concern that the RTC is "akin to detention and usually applied to juvenile offenders involved in serious crimes".
The UN agency said it recognised Singapore's concerns about issues of public morality and social harmony. However, it did not think that reformative training was an appropriate sentence for Yee.
The OHCHR also appealed to the authorities to "give special consideration to his juvenile status"."
A 16-year old kid managed to get OHCHR to appeal on his behalf. Not bad one must says!
Lessons for me are:
1. Amos is young. He ranted. He posted offensive comments that can potentially stir emotions and create disharmony from the offended religious people and those who object to indecent exposure TOWARDS him. NOT to any other person since Amos is the one making those offensive comments. Yes? If so, the damage is probably pretty limited unless everyone else in cyberspace is ALSO echoing his lines of reasoning and thought. The fact is, to the contrary, MOST online commentators SLAMMED him for his insensitive comments. So, you decide on the actual IMPACT of Amos' postings. Of course, this 'limited negative ripple effect' could also be due to the very strict enforcement of 'no discussion of out-of-bound topics'. ;
2. Amidst all these noises, if we threw in the fact that Amos is considered 'mentally disturbed', normal people can reasonably said that the AUTHORITIES probably HAD over-reacted!! In fact, the whispered reason WHY Amos was charged at all is due to his 'insensitive comments about the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew' that attracted many 'decent Singaporeans and admirers of Mr Lee' to file police reports against him. Interesting, the laws supposedly said that 'a dead person' cannot charge a living one, this subject was dropped after the initial court hearing found Amos to be guilty of 'insensitive remarks on certain religion and posting of indecent image'!
A certain pro-establishment person who made online threat to 'hurt or kill or cut-off certain anatomy of Amos' was given a 'warning' only.
This unfortunately will trigger some soul searching;
3. OHCHR wading into this controversy is a surprising development. It surely knows the stand of Singapore government against 'interference of internal issues' by foreign entities, UN- and UN-related or not! The question for us to ponder really is: should WE be thinking along the line of the OHCHR or to stick to the 'no one should ever talk about out-of-bound issues REGARDLESS of any circumstances' stance?
As I had stated in my earlier comments when Amos's case came up, it is an interesting case that hopefully will help us to THINK a bit more about HOW to deal with 'youngsters who are NOT normal but not insane or psychotic'!
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