A Singapore court has recently convicted Subhas Govin Prabhakar Nair, a Singaporean rapper of Indian origin, for attempting to promote ill will among racial and religious groups in the multi-national city-state. The court will hear the sentencing arguments at a later date, as reported by Channel News Asia.
Nair's lawyer successfully requested permission for him to leave the country in August to attend a friend's wedding and for leisure in Bali. The penalties for attempting to promote negative feelings between racial or religious groups in Singapore include a potential prison term of up to three years, a fine, or both.
The initial offense occurred when Nair uploaded a YouTube video featuring himself and his sister, Preeti Nair, performing a song containing offensive lyrics about the Chinese community. Following this, he received a two-year conditional warning from the police. However, he later re-offended by making inflammatory comments on social media.
One of the incidents involved Nair commenting on a viral video by two Christians, who linked the gay pride movement to Satan. Nair wrote, "If two Malay Muslims made a video promoting Islam and saying the kinds of hateful things these Chinese Christians said, ISD (Internal Security Department) would have been at the door before they even hit 'upload'."
In another instance, Nair made an Instagram post referring to a media interview with Chan Jia Xing, who received a conditional warning for a reduced charge of consorting with a person who possessed a weapon. Chan was one of seven individuals originally charged with the murder of a man at Orchard Towers.
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Nair's post highlighted the discrepancy in treatment, stating that "calling out racism and Chinese privilege" resulted in a two-year conditional warning and a smear campaign in the media, while "actually conspiring to murder an Indian man" resulted in a reduced sentence and irrelevant questions from the media regarding personal matters.
Nair contested the four charges and took the stand during his trial to explain his intentions behind each online post. He claimed that his video aimed to end "brownface" in Singapore, referring to the practice of lighter-skinned individuals applying makeup to imitate darker-skinned ethnicities. Nair argued that the phrase "f***ing it up" meant making a mistake and did not intend to portray Chinese people negatively.
Regarding the comments on the Chan Jia Xing case, Nair asserted that his aim was to critique the state of journalism in Singapore, highlighting media bias and disparities in how certain people and cases were reported.
However, District Judge Shaiffuddin Saruwan dismissed Nair's explanations regarding his actual intentions and knowledge behind the posts. The judge found inconsistencies between Nair's statements and the words used in his posts, even contradicting his own police statement. Judge Saruwan emphasized that Nair's words should be interpreted in their natural and ordinary meaning.
The judge also found Nair's testimony to be lacking coherence and did not consider him a credible witness. It was evident to the court that Nair's words implied unfair targeting of specific communities and preferential treatment for others.
In conclusion, the Singaporean rapper Subhas Govin Prabhakar Nair has been found guilty of attempting to promote ill will among racial and religious groups in Singapore. The court deemed his actions as offensive and targeting specific communities, leading to his conviction on four charges.
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