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IMARCH N The activist named Jolovan Wham stood in front of a police station, picked up a piece of cardboard with a smiley face drawn on it, and got someone to take a photo. Passersby, if they noticed, would have wondered what he was doing. Neither reported Wham and his poorly drawn emoji to the police, although in hindsight they should have. In fact, the police themselves remained at the police station, apparently oblivious to the dangerous events taking place outside. But this week the authorities corrected their oversight, accusing Mr Wham of holding an illegal public protest.
In Singapore, smiling faces are not as innocent as they seem, at least not in the hands of a hardened criminal like Wham, who has frequently violated the laws of the city-state. Take freedom of assembly. Potential protesters, even if there are no more than one, must first obtain permission from the police. Mr Wham did not. (The only place where it is possible to meet without the approval of the authorities, Speakers’ Corner, has been closed since March, when many public places were closed due to COVID-19).
Wham says the smiley face stunt was in support of two young activists who were questioned by police in March for posting an image even more subversive than Wham’s online. They were depicted holding placards urging the city-state to do more to combat climate change. Wham is accused of violating the Public Order Act for the smiley face incident and another in 2018 in which he held a sheet of paper calling for the defamation charges against two journalists who accused government officials of being dropped. corruption. Mr Wham says he will not plead guilty. If convicted, you can be fined up to S $ 5,000 ($ 3,725) for each offense.
Mr. Wham has frequently broken Singapore laws in his effort to highlight how “ridiculous and authoritarian” they are, as he told the New York Times. He has spent two brief stints in jail this year, for “shocking” the judiciary by claiming that Malaysian courts are more independent than those in Singapore, and for organizing an online event that authorities called a public assembly. The webinar featured Joshua Wong, a democracy activist who has legal trouble in Hong Kong.
Last year, Kazakhstan police arrested a protester for the equally alarming act of holding up a blank sheet of paper. But the Kazakh authorities do not have the backbone of their Singaporean counterparts: they soon released the man in question without charge. Eugene Tan, a law professor at Singapore Management University, thinks local prosecutors will have it easy. The photos of Wham were taken in public places and were intended to “draw attention to a particular cause,” he notes. “Those actions are trapped under the law of public order.” Unfortunately, the authorities are clearly not cracking down. Hundreds of Wham fans have posted selfies with smiling faces on social media. Call it a crime wave. ■
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the title “A City on Reels.”
