Chitchat Faggot Wham Gets Charged For Stirring Civil Unrest In Toa Payoh! Jail And Cane Him Please!

[JohnTan]

SINGAPORE - Civil rights activist Jolovan Wham Kwok Han was charged in a district court on Monday (Nov 23) with two offences under the Public Order Act.

The 40-year-old Singaporean, who is the former executive director of migrant worker advocacy group Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home), had allegedly taken part in an assembly at the steps of the main entrance of the former State Courts building in Havelock Square at around 9am on Dec 13, 2018.

He is said to have demonstrated support for the action of the editor of sociopolitical website The Online Citizen (TOC) Xu Yuanchen, better known as Terry Xu, 38, and its contributor Daniel De Costa Augustin, 37, by holding up a piece of paper with the words - "Drop the charges against Terry Xu and Daniel De Costa".

According to court documents, Wham had a photograph taken of himself demonstrating at around the same time the pair were to be charged in court that day.

Xu and De Costa were both charged on Dec 13, 2018 with criminal defamation for allegedly defaming members of the Singapore Cabinet in a letter published on the TOC website. Their cases are still pending.

In the other charge, Wham is accused of taking part in a public assembly without a permit in the vicinity of Toa Payoh Central Community Club and Toa Payoh Neighbourhood Police Centre.


At around 1pm on March 28 this year, he is said to have held up a piece of cardboard with a smiley face drawn on it.

Court documents state it was to demonstrate his support for the action of one Nguyen Nhat Minh, who is said to have been captured in a similar snapshot at the same location on March 22.

In the photo, Minh allegedly held up a piece of cardboard with the words - "SG is better than oil@Fridays4futuresg".

There was no mention of Minh's case in court documents seen by The Straits Times.

With the two cases, Wham is facing seven charges in all.

He was charged in 2017 with organising a public assembly without a permit on MRT trains along the North-South Line on June 3 that year.

He allegedly did so to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Operation Spectrum - an internal security operation that saw 22 activists arrested in 1987 in what the Government called a Marxist plot aimed at overthrowing it.

Wham was also said to have committed vandalism while riding on a train that day.

He allegedly pasted two sheets of A4-sized paper on a panel.

The papers were said to have had these messages written on them - "Marxist conspiracy? #notodetentionwithouttrial" and "Justice for Operation Spectrum survivors #notodetentionwithouttrial".

He was at the Police Cantonment Complex 16 days later, where he allegedly refused to sign a statement that he had made.

Wham was also said to have organised another public assembly without a permit on July 13, 2017.

He allegedly did this at a bus stop outside Changi Prison Complex ahead of the judicial execution of drug offender Prabagaran Srivijayan, 29.

The Malaysian, earlier convicted of importing 22.24g of heroin into Singapore, was hanged the next day.

Wham's bail was set at $15,000 on Monday and his pre-trial conference will be held on Nov 27.

For taking part in a public assembly without a permit, an offender can be fined up to $5,000.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...ing-2-more-charges-under-the-public-order-act

 

[A Singaporean]

The only government who can be intimidated by a picture of a smiling face.

 

[Annunaki]

God bless Sir Jolovan for standing up to pinky and PAP!

 

[Cottonmouth]

He allegedly did this at a bus stop outside Changi Prison Complex ahead of the judicial execution of drug offender Prabagaran Srivijayan, 29.

Is the shitskin his boyfriend? Why did he give a fuck to this filthy shitskin motherfucker?

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Why don't just execute him for treason? N since he is a faggot.. additional charge of 37A etc

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Singapore: Jolovan Wham charged for holding up a smiley face sign

• 27 November 2020
• Asia

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Image caption Jolovan Wham has been charged for illegal public assembly after he held up this smiley face sign
To the casual observer, it is just a photo of a man holding up a smiley face - an image used hundreds of millions of times a day in messages across the world to say "happy".
But this smiley face on a Singaporean street is different. This smiley face has landed the man holding it in court, potentially costing him thousands of dollars in fines.
And despite the risks, this smiley face has also inspired a wave of smiley faces in support.
So what exactly about this particular smiley face has upset authorities in one of the world's wealthiest and most advanced nations?
Why is this smiley face offensive?
Well, it has less to do with the smiley face, and more to do with the man holding it.
Jolovan Wham is a civil rights activist who has made a name for himself in recent years drawing attention to the issue of freedom of speech - or rather, as he would argue, the lack of it - in Singapore.
The photo was the latest in a long line of incidents involving Mr Wham which have upset the government.
Last year, it was for inviting the prominent Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong to join in a conference via Skype.
On another occasion, he held a candlelit vigil for a Malaysian man executed for drug trafficking, while a silent protest on a train also placed him in the authorities' sights.
Image captionMr Wham leaving the High Court in March 2019 for an earlier case
To an outsider, aware of the protests convulsing the streets of Thailand and Hong Kong, it all seems rather tame.
But Singapore has exceedingly strict rules on public assembly and imposes tight restrictions on freedom of speech and the media.
It requires a police permit for any assembly in a public place linked to a cause or in demonstration of a view. The government defends its public assembly laws as necessary to maintain order and safety.
But Mr Wham rarely gets a permit. As a result, he was already in trouble for the Skype session, the vigil and the train protest when he took the photo in March.
So, why post a photo which would get him in more trouble?
For a start, Mr Wham argues it was not a protest. In court on Monday, he pleaded not-guilty to illegal public assembly.
He was, he says, just showing support for two young climate activists who had been summoned by police for questioning.
One had carried a placard saying "SG (Singapore) is better than oil" in the same spot Mr Wham's photo was taken in. The other - an 18-year-old school student - had posted photos of herself holding signs urging climate action outside the office of US oil giant ExxonMobil.
Their actions were similar to those of Greta Thunberg, the climate activist who has been praised around the world for her quiet, determined stand against climate change.
Image copyright Getty ImagesImage captionSwedish activist Greta Thunberg has inspired climate activism in young people around the world including in Singapore
Both ended up being questioned by police and having their phones seized - a reaction Mr Wham denounced as a violation of Singapore's commitment to free speech.
But his photo, he says, is not a protest.
Officials have taken a different view.
"The Speakers' Corner is the proper avenue for Singaporeans to express their views on issues that concern them, and to allow Singaporeans to conduct assemblies without the need for a permit, subject to certain conditions being met," police said in a statement about Mr Wham's charges.
If found guilty, he could be fined up to S$5,000 (US$3,700; £2,800). He has also been charged in relation to another alleged protest in 2018.
The Speakers' Corner - established in 2000 and loosely modelled on the one in London's Hyde Park - is currently closed under Covid-19 restrictions as part of Singapore's tight and largely successful measures to control the pandemic.
Has Jolovan Wham done anything else?
Yes: in fact, he has already served two brief sentences this year.
The first one-week stint in March came when he chose jail instead of paying a fine after he was convicted of "scandalising the judiciary" on social media. Mr Wham had shared a post on Facebook comparing the judiciary in Malaysia to Singapore.
A few months later he spent another 10 days in jail after he was convicted of violating the Public Order Act with the Joshua Wong conference.
It was, he says, worth it.
"Singapore is not this open and international and cosmopolitan city that it likes to present itself as," he told the BBC. "It's only modern in terms of its appearance, but highly intolerant when it comes to people just expressing themselves."
And despite the highly-controlled island state being largely successful in stamping out public dissent, two years ago Singaporean artist Seelan Palay spent a fortnight in jail after a performance he staged was deemed a one-man protest that violated the Public Order Act.
Video captionSingapore's gay rights rally has come under increased restrictions
He had walked solo to Singapore's parliament, holding a mirror, to commemorate the detention of the country's once longest-held political prisoner.
What's more, others have started to show Mr Wham their support. He has had 200 people send him smiley faces.
Some have even been brave enough to post their own smiley face selfies, using the hashtag #smileinsolidarity.
Fearing the law, some have shared images without revealing their identity. Others have written directly to Mr Wham. "I've received many messages of support," he says. "But people are afraid of expressing themselves. They write to me privately."
There have been detractors too, he adds, but the activist thinks "it isn't true that Singaporeans are happy with the status quo".
"There are people who are dissatisfied with these laws."
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said the case against Mr Wham was an "absurd prosecution".
"Singapore's government should grow up and recognise it needs to have a national conversation about what its people want in the 21st Century, and that requires respecting people's civil and political rights," he said.
Reporting by Preeti Jha.