Ladies and Gentlemen,
Amos Yee Pang Sang, the Singaporean religious hate speech advocate has been granted asylum in the US. See BBC report http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39388810.
Although I am no fan of Singapore, I think the decision to grant asylum was wrong. In the judge's decision he equates Singapore to the United States and connects Yee's charges of religious hurt to his political opinion although there seems to be no direct nexus for this fact. You can read the judge's decision here http://www.grossmanlawllc.com/files/ij-decision_media.pdf
I can fully understand if they granted Chee Soon Juan or Roy Ngerng asylum. They are real cases who have been persecuted for political opinion. But not Yee who pisses on the Holy Bible and the Koran and desecrates religion.
But the ramifications of granting this one case to Yee have serious far reaching and damaging effects for the present Singapore administration. By granting this case what the American court is telling us that all one has to do for US asylum is to insult Christianity, Islam, Jesus Christ or Buddha sufficiently, get arrested which Singapore will most certainly do, spend a few months in the prisons in Singapore Changi and when released take the next flight to Immigration Attorney Sandra Grossman's office to claim asylum in the US.
What will happen is not so much anyone who really dislikes Singapore to go through this procedure for asylum but it will be a great opportunity for young men who do not want to do national service in Singapore to pretend to be political opponents and religion haters to breeze their way to the United States. One of the major problems for already tiny Singapore with an even tinier population is the almost universal dislike of performing national service. Remember the United States like England follows the doctrine of "stare decisis" which means prior decisions have a persuasive effect on future cases. Therefore any future judge hearing a similar case from Singapore would be hard pressed to deny asylum when Yee's was granted.
Yee has managed to drive a huge gap for young Singaporeans wanting to move to the USA. Perhaps you could call it "the Amos Gap".
I remember a similar kind of case in England from my law studies. Before the 1960s any Commonwealth citizen could come to live in England without visas. Suddenly in the 1960s they passed the Commonwealth Immigrants Act which required such citizens to acquire entry permits. The law specifically read that anyone "arriving at a port of entry in the UK is subject to immigration and customs control". Bhagwan was an Indian illegal immigrant who came in a small boat and landed on a lonely beach in England (Reg. v. Bhagwan [1972] A.C. 60; [1970] 3 W.L.R. 501; [1970] 3 All E.R. 97, H.L.(E.). He was arrested and placed under removal proceedings. But the judge dismissed the charges since only those who "arrived at a port of entry" are subject to inspection. Since Bhargwan arrived at a lonely beach he committed no offence. When news of this judgement had broken out hundreds if not thousands of illegal immigrants landed on lonely beaches in England in what became known as the "Bhagwan Gap". Almost within 24 hours the House of Commons went into emergency session to plug the loophole!
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont San Francisco California
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
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8 comments:
This is a great victory for Singaporeans who have been persecuted, and I wholeheartedly agree with the US Judge Samuel Cole's decision to grant Amos Yee asylum.
This is not a great victory for Singaporeans who have been persecuted. This is a great victory for hate speech religion haters all over the world. This is a great victory for those who desecrate the Koran and the Bible. This is a great victory for base ill-mannered scum using profanities and F.....ck at every sentence. This victory trivializes the asylum law which is intended to help those who are really persecuted.
US Asylum judges have always known that Singapore persecutes those who oppose them. That is why I got asylum in the United States and it was not because I said "F..........ck" in every sentence.
And this is why men like Chee Soon Juan, Chia Thye Poh, the late JB Jeyaretnam, Tang Liang Hong, Teo Soh Lung, Roy Ngerng, Han Hui Hui would all have got asylum hands down without any help from Amos Yee Sang Pang. Unfortunately none of them want to come to USA except scum such as this.
if u read the judges opinion it states that the imprisonment for wounding religious feelings was actually a pretext. so his video against lee kuan yew is the real reason in the judges opinion. this means that if a singaporean is punished for criticizing the government they can then claim anything else they do in the future will be punished as pretext to their original offense. this is one gaping loophole.
Yee should be able to F-- this or F-- that and criticize the barbaric tyrant LKY or criticize F-- religion which has caused so much war and bloodshed throughout history. This is a victory for FREEDOM OF SPEECH for scum like Yee and respected individuals such as you.
I did not like Amos Yee's excessive use of profanity as well. If he wanted to criticize the PAP, he should have done so professionally like how Chee Soon Juan, Roy Ngerng, Gopalan Nair, and all the other dissidents have done so.
Perhaps he thought that the only way for him to bring enough notice to his videos and writings is if he caused enough inflammation through his use of profanity?
He will soon find out that this world is a two-way street. What Singapore might lack in freedom, it also gave him something far more valuable, and that is he was a majority Chinese in Singapore. In America, he will be a minority with no education, no skills, no money. Yeah, he's free to say whatever he wants. No reputable employer will ever hire him with those videos forever on the internet. He will soon find that the hate that he was spewing will now be reversed back at him.
To bill Lee,
I agree with your comment except the Chinese majority Singapore and the USA minority nonsense. For your information the most successful people in the USA in relation to their numbers are Indians, a minority race. And who do you think I am in the USA. I am an Indian. I can assure you that despite my being Indian I can be far more successful in the USA than in Singapore, India, England or any European country. In America your success depends on who you are, not the color of your skin. It does not matter even if you were Mongoloid Chinese like you are Lee.
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