Singaporean rapper of Indian origin, Subhas Nair, on Tuesday, has been found guilty of attempting to promote ill will among racial and religious groups in the multi-national city-state.
The Malyalee rapper was convicted of four such charges over incidents that occurred between July 2019 and March 2021. The sentencing will take place at a later date.
A video posted by him shows him and his sister Preeti Nair performing a song, with the line "Chinese people always out here f***ing it up". For this, he was given a conditional warning by police, which meant that if the offence occurred again within two years, he could be prosecuted for this offence and any that followed.
"If two Malay Muslims made a video promoting Islam and saying the kinds of hateful things these Chinese Christians said, ISD would have been at the door before they even hit 'upload'," Nair wrote on his Instagram, referring to a viral video by two Christians who linked the gay pride movement to Satan.
In another Instagram post, Nair wrote, "calling out racism and Chinese privilege" equalled a two-year conditional warning and "smear campaign in the media", while "actually conspiring to murder an Indian man" equalled half the sentence and a question of "you're having a baby soon right? Boy or girl" from the media.
"Do you actually think a brown person would get asked these type of questions? This place is just not for us," he wrote. He was referring to Chan Jia Xing, who was given a conditional warning for a reduced charge of consorting with a person who had a weapon. Chan was one of the seven who were originally charged with murdering a man.
The rapper, during his trial, did not dispute using any of the words or terms. He instead went on to justify why each post was written. District Judge Shaiffuddin Saruwan rejected Nair's explanations and said words in his posts should be given their "natural and ordinary meaning". The rapper was convicted on all charges.
– With PTI inputs
