Effigies of PM Lee, Mr Lee set alight in HK protests

HONG KONG — In a show of support outside Singapore for remanded teenage blogger Amos Yee, some 50 Hong Kong activists protested outside the Singapore Consulate in the Chinese-ruled city yesterday demanding his immediate release.

Controversially, the protestors also burned effigies and pictures of Singapore’s founding prime minister, the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, and current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Pending Amos’ expected sentencing today, they brandished placards and banners saying: “Dissident is not Demented” and “Freedom of Speech should not be infringed”, according to images posted online by local media.

Amos, 16, was found guilty of two charges on May 12, the first for posting an obscene image featuring Mr Lee Kuan Yew and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and the second for having hurt religious feelings in an expletive-laden video with Christian references.

Singaporean Goh Meng Seng, a former member of the National Solidarity Party (NSP) and the Workers’ Party (WP), criticised the government’s actions towards Amos as “horrible”. “I don’t like Amos because he’s rude in the Singapore context. But I have to defend his rights,” Mr Goh, who is spearheading the establishment of a new opposition party in Singapore known as the People’s Power Party, told South China Morning Post yesterday.

Amos is currently under remand at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) to assess his suitability for a mandatory treatment order, after it was found that he may have autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD can be characterised by deficits in social interaction.

“Amos Yee is probably the youngest prisoner of conscience; that is much more outstanding than Singapore’s performance in economy development,” Ms Mabel Au Mei-po from Amnesty International was quoted as saying yesterday by South China Morning Post.

Last week, about 50 university students in Hong Kong had staged a similar demonstration near the Singapore Consulate in Admiralty. Singaporean blogger Han Hui Hui, who was charged last year for causing a public nuisance at the Speakers’ Corner and for allegedly staging a demonstration without approval, was also spotted at the protest.

Student activist group Scholarism published on its website a post titled “In Defence of Children’s Rights Release Amos Yee NOW!” prior to taking part in last week’s protest.

The post dated June 29, condemned the Singapore government for “violating” Amos’ rights and demanded his immediate release, claiming that the freedom of speech of young people should be protected from government infractions under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

On June 26, representatives from more than 10 activist groups had also gathered outside the Singapore Trade Office in Taipei to protest for Amos’ release, local media said. Taiwanese media reported that demonstrators had gathered on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, urging the Singaporean government to abide by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and release Amos. AGENCIES