Teen blogger Amos Yee’s mother, Mary Toh, has taken to Facebook to say that she encouraged him to leave Singapore and that she is glad that he is highlighting Singapore’s anti-free speech laws and the flawed immigration policies in the USA.
Yee landed in Chicago O-Hare Airport on 16 Dec with a tourist visa and was detained by the US authorities when they discovered text messages between him and a US-based Singaporean activist, Melissa Chen, about his bid for political asylum in America.
Ms Toh expressed that Yee should not be sent to jail for criticising religion and that he will start criticising religion and government as soon as he is out of prison.
Just in in case you can’t read her post, this is what she said.
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Many reporters have tried to contact me for an interview ever since Amos was sent to the American jail (which I think is a detention centre for people seeking asylum). I didn’t want to because I’ve always been nervous about interviews but decided that it’d be good if I did them to hopefully help Amos get released sooner. However, I saw how reporters kept on misrepresenting and misquoting Amos so I decided to post my responses on social media too.
After seeing Amos being in and out of jail 5 times now, I have been used to news of him being in a cell and have not been as worried as I was before. Amos already mentioned before that every time he said he was suicidal or depressed in prison, he was actually trying to bait the media or to find ways to get released from jail earlier. And that time he looked traumatized out of court in Singapore was an act.
It’s true I think because once he got into the taxi with me and no media was looking, he started smiling and seemed totally fine. So Amos has always been alright in jail as the tone of his recent posts shows. Every time he gets out of jail, he immediately starts posting and criticizing the government and religion again. I am the one who truly gets panic attacks and traumas all this while.
However, like all the previous times he was sent to jail, I think he shouldn’t be in there. I’m glad that this case is highlighting Singapore’s anti-free speech laws and the flawed immigration policies in the USA. I knew Amos was going to escape Singapore to seek asylum in the USA and I respect his decision and encouraged his decision to leave. He should not be sent to jail for criticizing religion again. If any reporter has any other questions to ask, private message Melissa Chen on Facebook and I might answer them in another post.
I’d like to thank all the people that have shown concern and support for Amos once again. Amos should be out of jail immediately and be able to freely exercise his free speech.