A grassroots leader who filed a police report against former NTUC employee Amy Cheong on Monday said he did so in order to “send a signal” that racist remarks should not be tolerated.
Mr Lionel de Souza, the secretary of the Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circle in Hougang, told Singapolitics that he made the report in his personal capacity after receiving complaints from Malay friends.
“A lot of my Malay friends were very upset. So many of them contacted me since yesterday,” said Mr de Souza, who is 69.
He felt that of late, too many netizens had been making racist remarks online under the cloak of anonymity.
The fact that Ms Cheong made the insensitive posting on her Facebook wall with her full name and picture “was like a challenge”, he said.
“I thought someone should send a signal that these kind of insensitive remarks are a no-no,” he said.
Mr de Souza, who is a retired policeman, added that he did not think his police report was an over-reaction.
He pointed to the Penal Code’s section 298A, which states that it is illegal for anyone to knowingly promote hatred among religious or racial groups, through spoken or written words.
“She can’t not know what she wrote was racist. She must know that Singapore is a multi-racial and multi-religious society,” he said.
Anyone who feels that making a police report was an overreaction “does not know what it was like in the 1960s,” said Mr de Souza, who as a young policeman witnessed the July 1964 race riots.
He said: “There cannot be any leniency... You cannot set fire to someone’s house and then run away.”
See: NTUC assistant director apologises for racist comment
Ms Cheong, a former assistant director (Partnership and Alliances) at NTUC’s Membership Department, got into hot water after remarks she made on Facebook about Malays went viral on Monday.
NTUC sacked her that same day, saying it had zero tolerance towards staff using racially offensive words.
Mr Lionel de Souza, the secretary of the Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circle in Hougang, told Singapolitics that he made the report in his personal capacity after receiving complaints from Malay friends.
“A lot of my Malay friends were very upset. So many of them contacted me since yesterday,” said Mr de Souza, who is 69.
He felt that of late, too many netizens had been making racist remarks online under the cloak of anonymity.
The fact that Ms Cheong made the insensitive posting on her Facebook wall with her full name and picture “was like a challenge”, he said.
“I thought someone should send a signal that these kind of insensitive remarks are a no-no,” he said.
Mr de Souza, who is a retired policeman, added that he did not think his police report was an over-reaction.
He pointed to the Penal Code’s section 298A, which states that it is illegal for anyone to knowingly promote hatred among religious or racial groups, through spoken or written words.
“She can’t not know what she wrote was racist. She must know that Singapore is a multi-racial and multi-religious society,” he said.
Anyone who feels that making a police report was an overreaction “does not know what it was like in the 1960s,” said Mr de Souza, who as a young policeman witnessed the July 1964 race riots.
He said: “There cannot be any leniency... You cannot set fire to someone’s house and then run away.”
See: NTUC assistant director apologises for racist comment
Ms Cheong, a former assistant director (Partnership and Alliances) at NTUC’s Membership Department, got into hot water after remarks she made on Facebook about Malays went viral on Monday.
NTUC sacked her that same day, saying it had zero tolerance towards staff using racially offensive words.
