="mathew"]robertteh - I think you mentioned that blogs are
private and accessible to the public - I think if the blogs were
private and only read by the writer and his friends or only kept in
his personal diary - he would not have been taken to town. The fact
is his was a public documentation of his personal agenda - it is a
public document and thus he became liable for his words !!!
Something cannot be public and private - maybe if he used a
password and locked his comments - it might have been considered
private. If someone had hacked into it then it is the hacker's
problem.
In this case, I think he put it into public domain knowing that his
comments are racially sad comments - with the express purpose of
attracting more people to develop such thoughts - he was taken to
town for that.
I think they should have been locked up for at least two years and
banished to some far away island where they can vent their thoughts
to the wind and the waves - but not to public!!!
Haven't we locked up a lot of people for the slightest fault.
Aren't we becoming a society noted for criminalising the slightest
as offence from chewing gums to letting of flats to illegal workers
to presumed negligence in not building stainless steel window
stayers of HDB windows.
Over-control of people has resulted in a society where citizens
have been fearing left and right for all kinds of negligence or
acts on presumptions of offences in many cases. So much so we need
to start a yellow ribbon campaign but in the next breath we are
condemning more and more people for slightest unintentioned
immaturity and sending more people to collect yellow ribbons.
Whch problem is worse ? Over control of populations for the
slightest window faults on imagined fear or immature posting of
some 17 year old in some blogs? Are citizens aware of what the
society is getting into with this kind of control.
It is not a simple case of racism and punishment. Racism is serious
but the media or expression and intention need to be taken into
account. If racism is published in national press or television,
punishment should be severe but for something immature posted in
private blog, we should be more moderate in meting out
punishment.
Like the NKF case, those in authority may not be perfect or right.
So do not make every action seem so perfect by extension of past
arguments about threats. Situation today may be different. This
should be considered too.
But what is certain irrespective of racism is that the Latest
attempt to control blogs seem to be an extension of that past
control-freak mentality which has already set us back as a society.
Do consider this point please.
