Teen blogger Amos Yee wrote in his Facebook on 17 Nov that he is out of prison. The 17-year-old was given six weeks’ jail and fined $2,000 in total for eight charges on 29 Sep. Six of these charges were for intending to wound the feelings of Muslims and/or Christians. Almost as soon as he got released from prison on home detention, he started speaking out against the Singapore government, which he described as ‘totalitarian’.
Amos had especially harsh comments about Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. He accused Mr Lee of lying about his political opponents – that they were violent communists – before imprisoning them.
He said that it takes more than a few prison sentences to silence him.
Just i case you are not able to see his post, this is what he said.
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So as you guys can tell from immediately criticising the Singapore Government upon my jail release, I am fine. Occasionally I might have felt shaken and depressed by this, but like all previous instances I managed to overcome. Despite the fear I simply cannot resist condemning my totalitarian government, as you might have heard they were just responsible for killing a man who possessed lots of Marijuana. When you know that hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans are suffering from poverty, millions are in a state of economic enslavement, and you have a man who because of power, managed to lie that his political opponents were violent communists and imprisoned them for up to 32 years, yet is hailed as a benevolent founding father, you kind of need more than a few prison sentences to silence me.
I think my arrest for ‘intending to wound religious feelings’ was most likely a political stunt by the Singapore Government to try to discredit me and silence dissent, they might have thought putting me in jail twice could be an effective deterrent, not effective enough apparently, so the fight continues! I’ve actually quite significantly reassessed my style and manner in terms of my activism, and I think it’ll be far more effective than before. I’m very excited to try it out, hopefully it works better this time.
Thank all of you for your kind words and support while I was in jail, I really appreciate it. See you soon!