Singapore cartoonist arrested

Someone was "invited" to "tea and 2 nights free accommodations" at Cantonment Complex.

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[Extracted from Yahoo!Singapore news on Tuesday 23-Apr-2013. Note: Some words are enlarged, italicized and bolded etc by me for emphasis.]

S’pore cartoonist arrested for alleged sedition

By Andrew Loh | SingaporeScene – 5 hours ago

Singapore police arrested Mr Leslie Chew, 37, the person behind the cartoon strip, Demon-cratic Singapore, on Friday morning, for alleged sedition.

He was held in custody and questioned over the weekend, and was released at 8.45pm on Sunday after posting bail of S$10,000.

The police confiscated his handphone, computer and hard disk. He was also asked to surrender his passport to the police at the Cantonment Police complex.

The charges relate to two of the comic strips on his Demon-cratic Facebook page. Mr Chew has produced more than 600 cartoons thus far, including those on the page. The two in question are this one and this one.

The first cartoon, published on his Facebook page on 14 December last year, and titled “Demon-cratic Singapore Episode #438, Eliminating the thorn first...”, had also been the subject of a letter of demand from the Attorney General Chambers (AGC) last year.

The AGC, in a letter to Mr Chew on 17 December, said the cartoon “scandalises our Courts through allegations and imputations that are scurrilous and false."

However, it said it would not commence further legal proceedings against Chew if he posted an apology on the page, removed the cartoon and “all accompanying comments” related to the post, which has gathered over 600 likes, shares and comments since December.

Chew, however, decided not to comply because he said his work is fictional, and not related to any real events or persons, as stated on his Facebook page. On its page, which has 19,000 likes, Demon-cratic Singapore describes itself as a "100% fictional comic series about a country that does not exist".

In the second cartoon, Chew said the police questioned him about the population statistics in the cartoon, and its words – “Malay population… Deliberately suppressed by a racist government.”

Under Singapore's Sedition Act, among other things, it is an offence to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the Government; and to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore.

Anyone found guilty of the offence can be fined up to S$5,000 or jailed up to three years, or both.

Chew, however, denies any such intentions, again pointing to the disclaimer in each of his cartoons which says that the portrayals in them “are purely fictional”.

“I also explicitly stated that 
Demon-cratic Singapore 
is an entirely imaginary country and 
is not the Republic of Singapore,”
Mr Chew says, referring to this page.

The latest arrest follows a spate of legal action by members of the Government against online commentators and sites.

In January, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong demanded writer and activist, Alex Au removed his blog posts about Action Information Management, the PAP-owned company embroiled in the controversy over the PAP-run town councils’ computer system.

And on 18 April, the AGC demanded an apology and the removal of posts from several websites which it alleged cast doubt on the judiciary's integrity.

Chew, who says that the police was “very professional” in the way they treated him, has been asked to report to the police on 30 April.

“Most fans know that Demon-cratic Singapore is fictional and are just for laughs,” said Chew.

“Even when there are new readers who thought otherwise, they are usually quickly reminded by other readers that everything on my Facebook page is fictional."

Andrew helms publichouse.sg as Editor-in-Chief. His writings have been reproduced in other publications, including the Australian Housing Journal in 2010. He was nominated by Yahoo! Singapore as one of Singapore's most influential media persons in 2011.

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[From the horse's mouth on Facebook Tuesday 23-Apr-2013]

Demon-cratic Singapore: Hi everyone, the following comic more or less explained why there was no new comics on Demon-cratic Singapore for the past 4 days. It is a little larger than usual, so you might like to download it and zoom in to read.

[Source: Demon-cratic Singapore Facebook]

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Now you know why the "Talking Cock" website has such a long and lengthy disclaimer on its homepage. Consider also how the numerous invisible O-B markers (out-of-bound) curtail creativity in Singapore. And why so few in Singapore would risk being open about their political views.

As the saying goes, "Laughter is the best medicine." Keep laughing!

Aug-2006 Talking Cock in Parliament - Hossan Leong

Dec-2004 Check out "Count on him, Singapore!" below - Dick Lee

Creative side of Singapore

Came across the following music video created in Singapore. It is a hilarious spoof of many iconic Asian and/or pop culture. How many can you spot?

"Dead Girl Seeks Meaningful Relationships"

I remember Singapore in the early/mid 1990's when the policies were geared towards turning Singapore into a "Knowledge-based Economy" or a "Knowledge Hub" of sorts. There were lots of government funding to encourage people to upgrade to post-graduate paper qualification, e.g. in Information Technology. There were also funds poured in hope of creating a vibrant arts/cultural scene. E.g. That was when "the durians" were designed.

Given that much funding, one would think that Singapore would have a flourishing and world-reknown arts scene by now, almost 2 decades later. What happened? The curious case of Sticker Lady shed some light on some of the things that money cannot buy. As apparent in the video above and numerous other podcasts, videos, etc, from Singapore, the creative talent is there. However, the official tolerance for deviation from the norm has not quite caught up with the current social trend yet. [See related online commentaries here and here.]

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What has Singapore become instead? To paraphrase The Wall Street Journal article dated 07-Mar-2013, Singapore is now a playground for the world's richest people looking for a safe haven to enjoy life's luxuries while avoiding tax.

Unfortunately, in this playground unlike the other world-reknown one, its poorer citizens have lost out even despite the supposed "trickle down economic" effects. In fact, coupled with open floodgate approach to foreign labour and immigration (see also appendix A here, for statistics on Singapore's foreign temporary labour), even the middle class suffered -- so much so that the once-docile Singaporean sheep took to the only space earmarked for public protest to speak against the government's plan to further jack the population up to 6.9 million on an already crowded Singapore with public services breaking down. [Click here, here and here for examples.] What did the government do? Business as usual, steamroll policies through. [Note: IMHO, it was strategic of opposition politician Workers Party Low Thia Kiang to ask for a division in the motion.] 

Lucky first attempts!

My sister emailed me the following today.

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[Extracted from my sister's email]

[Edited URL]

Chanced upon this.  Looks like you have a high quality of life over at Vancouver... Good!

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I have forgotten about my poetry submissions. I submitted 2 entries -- one is amongst those that earned an "Honourable Mention". What a nice surprise, given that this is my first attempt at that genre of poetry.

As luck would have it, the theatrical play that was my first attempt at co-creating and acting in Canada (back in 2011) was nominated for a theatrical award this summer -- albeit the award category was not related to my direct efforts. [Note: I attended the award ceremony back in June this year.]

I think I am getting the beginner's luck once again here in Metro Vancouver. I'm so happy just thinking about my lucky first attempts!

My new slow cooker

I had been thinking about buying a slow cooker for a long time.

Sometime last year, PN asked me why I did not cook more frequently. I told her that I was too lazy and the time spent on cooking seems unjustifiable given that I was just cooking for one (i.e. feeding myself). So she suggested that I buy a slow cooker, set the timer-up so that I get freshly cooked meals each time I return home.

Then earlier this year, when my cousin's wife visited, she made the same suggestion as PN. At the same time, she also shared verbally with me her Traditional Chinese Medicinal recipe for turning white hair to black. [Yes, my cousin's wife does not have any white hair despite being in her late-40's!] The beauty secret tempted me, but still I felt that since I am on a "student budget" I should not buy anything that is "non-essential".

Early in August, I mentioned to a friend in Singapore about my cousin's wife's recipe for regaining black hair. My friend was interested to try it, so I obtained the recipe again form my cousin's wife. Thus I am tempted once again to buy a slow cooker to boil that "magic potion".

So I asked the universe for a "sign" that I should spend that money on my health. Yeah, I am kind of thrifty on the non-essential purchases at the moment given that I had already spent my part of my annual fun budget on the trip to Banff, Alberta.

Last week, the temporary house-mate monk nagged at me about the state of my health. He told me to make 四神汤 ["4 gods soup"] and listed the ingredients for me.

I acted as if I knew nuts about herbal soups and did not quite understand the monk's instructions mainly because I have learnt from previous interactions earlier that week that he wanted to feel wiser* than me. [*Note: More about that, perhaps in a future post.] In any case, his recipe for 四神汤 ["4 gods soup"] is slightly different from my mother's, so I was somewhat confused and had to check the internet. [Apparently my mother has a modified recipe.] The monk did not know that, being Cantonese, I have grown up drinking herbal/medicinal soups; and for a period during my mid-teens and early 20's, my sister and I had to cook for our entire family of 7 -- soup, 2 to 3 dishes and rice daily.

Coincidentally, there was a sale on slow cookers in a shop, so I did some price comparison and online research. Finally I bought a slow cooker last Wednesday.

My new slow cooker

Have you watched the classic Spider Man where Peter Parker designed his own mechanical web-shooters and suddenly he is up for the challenge? Yeah, it feels a bit similar for me with my new slow cooker. Suddenly, so many of the food that I grew up with seems within reasonable reach. E.g. I no longer have to sit next to the stove for 2 hours just to get that nicely creamed Cantonese congee.

My first experiment

Cantonese congee with medicinal ingredients

The next day, I woke up to Cantonese congee with medicinal ingredients. For the following few days, my neighbouring house-mate thought that the monk was cooking mushrooms when he smelled the fragrance of mushrooms in the air. [It was me braising shitake mushrooms with the cooker in my room.] As it is, I have pre-cooked and froze/refrigerated most of my meals for this week. It is really nice to be able to cook specifically to my own taste and also to share good food with friends.

Singapore National Day Haiku

I read online that some people wrote poetry and/or haiku for the Singapore National Day. It's a bit late, nevertheless here is my belated contribution. It is a haiku, since 新加坡 ("Singapore" in Mandarin Chinese) being 3-worded lends itself to Haiku lines.

新旧齐共鸣

加民福荣进公平

坡斜齐步行

Since Chinese poems have a tendency to switch meaning depending on the punctuations, I shall re-write the above with punctuations to illustrate my actual intent.

新旧齐共鸣：

“加民福荣，进公平。

坡斜齐步行。”

English translation:

The new and old sing in unison,

"Increase the people's happiness and prosperity, progress in justice and equality.

Through ups-and-downs, we march united."

Since there are so many new citizens and residents of Singapore, I truly hope that the haiku will come true for Singapore. That the newcomers and those born-and-bred Singaporeans will sing in unison. That they will ask for the country's wealth to be shared widely amongst the people (not just concentrated amongst the "elites") to increase the happiness and prosperity of its citizens; and to improve the justice and equality -- it must be seen to be done. [Click here, here and here for some examples.] When happiness, prosperity, progress, justice and equality are present, the people will march united through good and bad times.

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If you read my comment on Gintai's blog entry dated 16/08/2012 at 08:58, you would realize that it is a feat that I can (still) read and write in Mandarin, what more to write haiku in Mandarin, given my pathetic Chinese standard during JC (junior college).

My first "professional" attempt at Mandarin poetry was back in 2002. I wrote a poem for a Chinese New Year (CNY) greeting using our bank's name and allusions to Singapore, and then I roped in my PRC colleague to edit it. Thereafter, we added an English translation of the CNY poem. We showed it to our bank's Asia-Pacific marketing department. They were so impressed with our work that they sponsored the creation of an animated e-card of the poem for the bank's email publicity (i.e. outsource work managed by my department). Not bad for teamwork between local Singaporeans and foreign talents, eh?