When TIME's Zoher Adoolcarim and Hannah Beech interviewed Lee Hsien Loong for the "Singapore's Next Story" article (3 August 2015 issue), they did not shy off from asking about the conviction of a 16-year old and the litigation against a blogger. While the Straits Times write-up produced edited extracts, and quoted from the online transcript and hard copy, one important line was missed out:
"In this case, he's a 16-year old, so you have to deal with it appropriately because of a young age."
It would appear to all and sundry that the hue and cry from local and foreign human rights activists, in particular the United Nations Human Rights Office for South-east Asia (OHCHR), have come to nought. Specifically, OHCHR had expressed concern that the criminal sanctions considered in this case "seem disproportionate and inappropriate in terms of the international protections for freedom of expression and opinion". And it matters not to the prime minister that Singapore had signed off on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
To understand the kind of horrible person that approves of the traumatic detention of a child and cruel treatment in a mental institute, one has to appreciate his ideas of bad behavior. When asked if he were ever a rebellious teenager, he gave this notion of unpardonable sin: "I never had long hair or wore bell-bottoms."
One veteran human rights activist was dripping with sarcasm when she put the status quo in context: "We are overly respectful of our politicians. Our laws demand that of us." Read and weep.
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"In this case, he's a 16-year old, so you have to deal with it appropriately because of a young age."
It would appear to all and sundry that the hue and cry from local and foreign human rights activists, in particular the United Nations Human Rights Office for South-east Asia (OHCHR), have come to nought. Specifically, OHCHR had expressed concern that the criminal sanctions considered in this case "seem disproportionate and inappropriate in terms of the international protections for freedom of expression and opinion". And it matters not to the prime minister that Singapore had signed off on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
To understand the kind of horrible person that approves of the traumatic detention of a child and cruel treatment in a mental institute, one has to appreciate his ideas of bad behavior. When asked if he were ever a rebellious teenager, he gave this notion of unpardonable sin: "I never had long hair or wore bell-bottoms."
One veteran human rights activist was dripping with sarcasm when she put the status quo in context: "We are overly respectful of our politicians. Our laws demand that of us." Read and weep.
