A few weeks back, racially discriminatory tweets by a now infamous Sharon Liew made its rounds on Twitter.
In her tweets, the presumably 34-year-old ah lian expressed anti-Indian sentiments, saying that smart Chinese women do not want to sit beside “smelly apuneneh” on trains.
She also referred to Covid-19 as the “apuneneh coronavirus”.
The series of tweets sparked so much outrage that a police report was made on 18 Apr.
On 2 May, Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam took to Facebook to call out such behaviour, vowing that “action will be taken”.
And investigations have yielded a surprise.
According to Minister Shanmugam, authorities found that “Sharon Liew” is actually a non-Chinese man.
A police statement further revealed that the 34-year-old man was under investigation for 2 other cases of offensive tweets.
The offending Twitter account has since been suspended.
Being a multi-racial, multi-religious, and multi-cultural society, Singapore cracks down hard on such offensive sentiments.
As such, the man faces up to 3 years imprisonment, a fine, or both, if convicted for promoting enmity between different racial groups.
The police said,
At a time when we need the nation stand as one, acts that sow racial discord cannot be condoned.
This view applies not just to racial issues, but religious ones as well.
Earlier this year in March, the police also investigated an offensive Facebook post that showed a picture of the bible and Quran, with the caption “For use during toilet paper shortages”
Minister Shanmugam had also called the post out, saying such offensive remarks have “no place in multi-racial and multi-religious Singapore”.
Although most citizens in Singapore are gracious and accepting, we unfortunately still have a few bad eggs that need to be taken care of.
If we’re to continue being a peaceful society, we need to be sensitive and considerate to the habits and beliefs of others.
Let’s be more mindful of what we say so we can continue to coexist in harmony.
Featured image adapted from The Independent and Facebook.
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