By Andrew
Loh | SingaporeScene – 16
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 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."
