Advertisement

Police arrest Amos Yee over anti-Lee Kuan Yew video

YouTuber Amos Yee posted an "insensitive" video questioning Lee Kuan Yew.

[Updated 30 March 2015 7.15AM: Police arrested Amos Yee on Sunday. At least 20 police reports were lodged against him, said The Straits Times.]

A police report has been filed against a video that a 17-year-old Amos Yee has put up on YouTube, Yahoo Singapore has learned. The report was filed by student Yuen Wei Ping.

In his statement, he stated that Amos' video "made insensitive comments against the late Mr Lee (Kuan Yew) as well as against the Christian faith".

Yuen said the video's content could be an offence under Section 298 of the Penal Code. Under this section, anyone found uttering words "with the deliberate intention of wounding the religious or racial feelings of any person" could be sentence to 3 years imprisonment, a fine, or both.

In the eight-minute long video titled "Lee Kuan Yew Is Finally Dead!", Amos says that the late "Lee Kuan Yew is a horrible person because everyone is afraid that if they say something like that, they might get into trouble."

Amos compared the late Lee to Jesus Christ, by saying both figures "are both power-hungry and malicious but deceive others into thinking they are both compassionate and kind".

He also said Lee's followers were "completely delusional and ignorant, and have absolutely no sound logic or knowledge about him that is grounded in reality". This was what Amos compared to Christians' knowledge of the bible and the religion's priests.

According to Amos, "(Lee) was a dictator but managed to fool most of the world to think he was democratic... by granting (Singaporeans) the opportunity to vote to make it seem like we have freedom of choice".

Other issues Amos raised in the video include the rise in cost of living in Singapore and the high taxation rates the government imposes with little spending on areas like healthcare. He attributed this to a dearth in knowledge about where government monies are spent on and a "suspicious" trend in suing those who asked openly about this.

Amos issued a challenge to prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, when he asked if the latter wanted to sue him for his opinions on the video.

“If Lee Hsien Loong wishes to sue me, I will oblige to dance with him.”

The late Lee Kuan Yew died Monday. He was 91.