Man behind racially offensive tweets from ‘sharonliew86’ account gets 3 weeks’ jail

• Zainal Abidin Shaiful Bahari was charged over four tweets he posted between October 2019 and April last year
• He used a racial slur against Indians in two separate tweets, in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic
• His lawyers said he thought his followers understood the intended satirical and humourous nature of his tweets 
• But a judge said his comments were clearly calculated to provoke racial sentiments

SINGAPORE — A 35-year-old Singaporean man who posted multiple racially insensitive tweets under the pseudonym “Sharon Liew” was sentenced to three weeks’ jail on Tuesday (June 8).

Zainal Abidin Shaiful Bahari, who used the Twitter handle @sharonliew86, posted offensive content against Indian migrant workers during the circuit breaker period last year, when the number of Covid-19 cases in dormitories was on the rise.

He started the Twitter account with two friends in 2018 and they conceptualised it as an account to satirise racially insensitive Singaporeans.

Zainal was solely in charge of the account when his friends stopped posting in early 2019.

On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to two charges of committing acts promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion or race and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony, under Section 298A(b) of the Penal Code.

Deputy Presiding Judge Jennifer S Marie considered another two such charges in sentencing him. He began serving his sentence immediately.

The court heard that he was a senior director at a computer software company at the time of his offences.

The fictitious name “Sharon Liew” was conceived by Zainal’s friends, who also chose a photograph of an unknown Chinese Singaporean woman online to use as the profile picture.

The Twitter account had attracted more than 5,000 followers by the time his friends had stopped posting in early 2019.

THE OFFENSIVE TWEETS

On Oct 11, 2019, Zainal published a tweet stating that Malay students in the different academic streams were not on the same level as their Chinese counterparts.

The same tweet also mentioned Singapore's late founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew's book, Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going as the basis of the tweet.

Three days later, three people filed a police report over racially offensive tweets by “Sharon Liew”.

In a tweet on March 25 last year, Zainal used a racial slur against Indians about safe distancing in MRT trains. 

He repeated this racial slur against Indians on April 17. 

This was specifically in reference to a news article on the rising number of Covid-19 cases among foreign workers living in dormitories, a substantial number of whom were Indian and Bangladeshi, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Senthilkumaran Sabapathy told the court.

Zainal took down the tweet about 30 minutes later after realising it was going viral online and getting negative attention from the public.

Then, the following day, he posted a tweet referring to Indians as shooting targets, using a derogatory reference to the bindis that Hindus wear on their foreheads

Zainal posted this in response to a question from an unknown Twitter user on why “Sharon Liew” had recently targeted Indian users.

A member of the public then called the police on the same day and reported the tweet.

‘CLEARLY CALCULATED’: JUDGE

DPP Sabapathy, who sought four weeks’ jail, cited the element of public interest in this case due to the current climate, where “tensions in the community have been heightened and strained by the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic”.

The prosecutor added that Zainal had sent the tweets under an assumed identity which meant he could only be found after considerable efforts by the police.

In mitigation, Zainal’s lawyers — Mr Sunil Sudheesan and Ms Diana Ngiam — told the court that Zainal thought his followers understood the intended satirical and humourous nature of the tweets.

Mr Sunil added: “Ultimately, the person before you is sincerely contrite… Unfortunately, in trying to be funny, he overstepped the mark on these few occasions and he accepts responsibility for that.” 

His lawyers added in their written mitigation that Zainal values cultural diversity and is married to a Chinese woman and has racially diverse friends.

In response, DPP Sabapathy said: “It was not parody or satirical behaviour, simply the actions of an online troll provoking others on racial issues for his own amusement.”

DPP Sabapathy also argued that the behaviour of online trolls could be seen as more culpable than those who make bigoted comments in moments of anger, as their comments are “calculated and crafted to provoke”.

In sentencing Zainal, District Judge Marie, who agreed with his lawyer’s argument for three weeks’ jail, cautioned that such remarks have a ubiquitous reach and “amplify irreversible harm to peace and harmony in Singapore”.

“If you had indeed valued racial and cultural diversity, you should have appreciated all the more the need to observe racial sensitivity, given the multiracial fabric of Singapore.

“Your conduct on the Twitter account, regardless of whether it was a troll account made for the amusement of others, was clearly calculated to provoke racial sentiments,” the judge added.

For each charge, Zainal could have been jailed for up to three years or fined, or punished with both.

In a statement, the AGC said it “takes a serious view of words or conduct which wound the racial feelings of any person or prejudices our racial harmony and community relations”.

It added: “Offenders who commit such acts will be dealt with firmly.”