Writing Out CyberCaust
I am XenoBoy. I am the Political Savant.
The news is out again. The third blogger to be charged for Sedition = Racism is unveiled. This blogger is the so-called Holocaust owner who was featured in Tomorrow. Again, I reiterate, there are no grounds for arguing about content specifics, this latest accused was racist and perhaps, more so than the first two. Racism is racism. Free speech is free speech. No conflation of the two as it will only muddy the view in front of us. The case is over. All three will be charged and found guilty because they have indeed transgressed.
This is brutally beautiful politics. A sure-winner case but yet in its intangibles it offers so much more for the regime. In one decisive stroke, Government has won over the argument that cyberspace is a badlands. Simultaneously, it assures all to have no fear, the Law of the White will still prevail. As a bonus, it recruits an army of cyber-vigilantes. All the while still managing to preserve its sacrosanct pillar of racial and religious harmony. Brutally beautiful.
What is the simple but stark view for those remaining in cyberspace?
Three persons charged for Sedition in cyberspace where sedition means inciting ill-will against another group of people, in this case, through racist discourse. A case in which the Government will win. Racial and religious harmony, the mantra of the Pledge, a foundation of Singapore, indeed the raison d'etre for separation from Malaya and the forced birth of Singapore. Images of racial riots in 64 and 69 constantly evoked outside of Time, outside of History.
Cyber-vigilante groups proposed to patrol Singapore cyberspace to ferret out the seditious ones. Whisperers and whistlers, potentially worse than the Stasi or the Gestapo. Inquisitor fanatics disguised as the vanguard of the Pure. Lurkers with a purpose now, armed with the Sedition Act, patrolling cyberspace, hunting down the racists. The morality essentialists telling you : No, you are wrong. And so, you shall burn.
Media onslaught on political blogging, responsible blogging and the Catch-22 OB markers which remain undefined, two empty letters O and B, means nothing but yet hint of darker meanings still : a vague terror to complement the lurking whisperers. The traditional media has its revenge. New media? Hah! The law is here too. Be responsible as we are responsible. Be controlled as we are controlled. Strait Jacketed as we are Strait Jacketed.
Like the Terrorist who has tainted all Arabs in the medium of political struggle. So too, this three fuckers will taint all Singapore essayists in the medium of politics in cyberspace.
The choices left. Die and resurrect yourselves as like AcidFlask, Gilbert and most recently, Molly Meek, for discursive renewal. Write, write and write.
Until the Government is responsible.
The news is out again. The third blogger to be charged for Sedition = Racism is unveiled. This blogger is the so-called Holocaust owner who was featured in Tomorrow. Again, I reiterate, there are no grounds for arguing about content specifics, this latest accused was racist and perhaps, more so than the first two. Racism is racism. Free speech is free speech. No conflation of the two as it will only muddy the view in front of us. The case is over. All three will be charged and found guilty because they have indeed transgressed.
This is brutally beautiful politics. A sure-winner case but yet in its intangibles it offers so much more for the regime. In one decisive stroke, Government has won over the argument that cyberspace is a badlands. Simultaneously, it assures all to have no fear, the Law of the White will still prevail. As a bonus, it recruits an army of cyber-vigilantes. All the while still managing to preserve its sacrosanct pillar of racial and religious harmony. Brutally beautiful.
What is the simple but stark view for those remaining in cyberspace?
Three persons charged for Sedition in cyberspace where sedition means inciting ill-will against another group of people, in this case, through racist discourse. A case in which the Government will win. Racial and religious harmony, the mantra of the Pledge, a foundation of Singapore, indeed the raison d'etre for separation from Malaya and the forced birth of Singapore. Images of racial riots in 64 and 69 constantly evoked outside of Time, outside of History.
Cyber-vigilante groups proposed to patrol Singapore cyberspace to ferret out the seditious ones. Whisperers and whistlers, potentially worse than the Stasi or the Gestapo. Inquisitor fanatics disguised as the vanguard of the Pure. Lurkers with a purpose now, armed with the Sedition Act, patrolling cyberspace, hunting down the racists. The morality essentialists telling you : No, you are wrong. And so, you shall burn.
Media onslaught on political blogging, responsible blogging and the Catch-22 OB markers which remain undefined, two empty letters O and B, means nothing but yet hint of darker meanings still : a vague terror to complement the lurking whisperers. The traditional media has its revenge. New media? Hah! The law is here too. Be responsible as we are responsible. Be controlled as we are controlled. Strait Jacketed as we are Strait Jacketed.
Like the Terrorist who has tainted all Arabs in the medium of political struggle. So too, this three fuckers will taint all Singapore essayists in the medium of politics in cyberspace.
The choices left. Die and resurrect yourselves as like AcidFlask, Gilbert and most recently, Molly Meek, for discursive renewal. Write, write and write.
Until the Government is responsible.
Until the media is responsible.
Write.
I am XenoBoy. I am the Political Savant.
Quotes of the Day :
I am XenoBoy. I am the Political Savant.
Quotes of the Day :
"It would be crazy to think that a chameleon has turned into a tree. But the chameleon would love you to think that things are changing a lot, things are opening up etc. A symptom of the schizophrenic oscillation between openness and conservatism." -- Was There a Sedition Case? Molly Meek www.livejournal.com/users/mollymeek
"Your Lordship will have a better understanding than his servant of the disastrous gravity of the thesis put forth by Luther: he wants to strip the Holy See of its greatest bulwark, the weapon of excommunication ... so I have thought it opportune to do so myself, so that Your Lordship may have time to take all the precautions he considers necessary to stop this diabolical friar" Q, Luther Blissett
posted by xenoboysg at 10:45 AM
11 Comments:
Write. Write. Write.
Write. Write. Write.
Write. Write. Write.
And you think the Pen is mighter than the sword?
They should arrest you for making me have to suffer reading this shit
Are you for or against the arrests ?
Dear Anonymous,
Yes, if it turns you on ... arrest me then
For or against? Yes for the arrests but not for sedition.
That's why they are reviewing the Act.
I personally have no sympathies for the 3 racists. I think they have yet to complete their evolution as human being.
locky2ky
But Molly is still dead XenoBoy. Don't forget that she is the first ghost to blog. She might be resurrected, but not that soon.
Molly
Racism is racism. Free speech is free speech. No conflation of the two as it will only muddy the view in front of us.
Unfortunately, it is quite the case. I have read of people advocating free speech but trying to suppress hateful and vulgar comments on their websites. As the website owner of course, it is in your every right to hit that 'Delete Comment' button anytime you want. But you have to generally accept the fact that liberties often bring the bad with the good.
The great thing about cyberspace is this. You often have the CHOICE with what you view on it. There are plenty of idiots out there to get angry about. Whether it's a racist, or Justin Timberlake deciding to take on the blogosphere. But here's the real magic of the internet; if EVERYBODY just ignored them, they'd eventually go away. Like the saying 'if a tree falls and nobody's there, does the tree make a sound?'
Are 3 racist bloggers really that big of a deal? Mind you these are bloggers. Not the mass media. Not the Ku Klux Klan. Not British-born islamic extremists promoting terrorism from the heart of England. Hence I ask, how far is too far? You can now be persecuted in Britain just for promoting terrorism on the internet. How justifiable is the persecution of the 3 bloggers compared with these advocates? It is for THIS reason that free speech, and its associations with all sorts of hate crimes becomes "muddy".
Perhaps there is something tattooed on the long arm of the sg law somewhere that says one cannot hate people based on colour and then blog about it. But to persecute someone based solely on speech and without physical criminal action is to accuse someone of a thought-crime.
Hi Clyde,
Spot on with the notion of choice in cyberspace.
The essential problem for the Sg political system is this : there is a morally righteous middle ground mass who will choose to persecute the three. Be it in the form of complaint, or in the form of tacit support. This mass is the product of the system. Wonderfully pliant, systematic and righteous. Where the perspective is only black or white.
which is why I urged all to forget about the argument between free and hate speech. An understanding of ethics coupled with an understanding of Net culture ( both of which are very lacking in the Sg education system)solves this hate - free conundrum easily.
Molly -- Apologies as I cannot come to terms with your death, narrative or otherwise. The mysterious flames of Molly still touches my writing.
Puck -- Yes expedient. But in what sense? For expediency sake, the three could have been let off with warnings from SBA or MDA, without any fanfare. Quietly done. They could have been charged under the Penal Code with lesser penalties. Sedition is expedient indeed, but for what? I repeat : In Sg, if the State arrays charges of racial or religious extremism, you are dead. You cannot win such a case. So if sure-winner for Govt, they can than select which legal weapon to use. Of course, lets pick one that silences many birds with one stone.
The Government is not stupid.
Don't be too sad over Molly's death, XenoBoy. Molly heard that some peasants out there prefer to die, actually.
Molly only wonders if she's still contributing to the CPF after her death...
wow, good stuff here.
Is questioning the loyalty of our Malay compatriots considered seditious?
Interesting perspective you have here.
I am against Racism by all means but it seems that we have forgotten one very important factor: Why are these "EDUCATED" chaps think in such a racist way after DECADES of "racial harmony" in Singapore?
I would rather approach the problem from a wider perspective; what's wrong with our Education system? And our Nation? We have always been PROUD of having this tiny country that could house so many different races living harmoniously for decades or is it just a superficial display of harmony when the undercurrent of racism is totally neglected, waiting to explode like a dead volcano?
Suing these buggers will not solve the whole problem altogether; it just push the expression of racism underground. Eradicating the racist mindset in the population is the only effective way of dealing with racism. We have been SURPRESSING RACISM all these while instead of eradicating it from its roots... the minds.
This is just like laws that fine those littering; it could only surpress the tendency for the moment, once out in other countries, the "evil" side of us rule our mind.
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