Day in court: Subhas arriving at the state court in Singapore in this filepic. — AFP
Local rapper Subhas Nair was handed a six-week jail sentence over four counts of trying to promote feelings of ill will between different racial and religious groups in Singapore.
The musician, whose full name is Subhas Govin Prabhakar Nair, 31, had earlier claimed trial before District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan convicted him of all four charges in July.
The first charge centred on a video by City Revival Church founder Jaime Wong and social media influencer Joanna Theng.
The two women had made remarks linking the gay pride movement to Satan.
Subhas responded to the video, posting a message on Instagram on July 25, 2020, stating: “If two Malay Muslims made a video promoting Islam and saying the kinds of hateful things these Chinese Christians said, ISD (Internal Security Department) would have been at the door before they even hit ‘upload’.” He removed the post on Nov 2, 2020.
In their submissions, Deputy Public Prosecutors Suhas Malhotra and Jordon Li said the obvious message behind Subhas’ post is that Malay Muslims are “targeted” by the authorities, while Chinese Christians get “preferential treatment”.
On the first day of his trial on March 21, 2023, Subhas admitted he had posted messages which the prosecution described as inflammatory comments on race and religion.
But Subhas denied he had done so in an attempt to promote ill will between different racial and religious groups in Singapore.
The DPPs said his explanations were unbelievable, stressing that Subhas had admitted during the trial that it was his decision to refer to Wong and Theng by their race and religion as identifiers.
Subhas’ second and third charges involved another Instagram post which was his response to a news article linked to a Chan Jia Xing, then 27.
Chan was initially accused of murdering Satheesh Noel Gobidass, 31, in July 2019.
Chan’s murder charge was later reduced to that of consorting with a person carrying an offensive weapon in a public place, and he was given a conditional warning in October 2020.
Among other things, Subhas had stated in his Instagram post: “Calling out racism and Chinese privilege, two-year conditional warning and smear campaign in the media.”
During the trial in March, DPP Malhotra said: “This post creates feelings of ill will between Chinese and Indians in Singapore... the accused’s post implied that the law enforcement authorities treat Indians far more severely than Chinese.”
The fourth charge was linked to a rap video featuring Subhas that was posted on YouTube on July 29, 2019, which contained lyrics that were deemed offensive to Chinese people. — The Straits Times/ANN
