In a recent legal development, a 31-year-old Singaporean, Subhas Nair, has been found guilty of attempting to promote ill will among racial and religious groups, according to Channel NewsAsia.
The rapper, whose full name is Subhas Govin Prabhakar Nair, faced charges related to incidents that occurred between July 2019 and March 2021.
The Youtube Incident
In the first incident, Subhas Nair posted a YouTube video featuring him and his sister Preeti Nair performing a song with lyrics that included a phrase deemed offensive towards the Chinese community, where he sang “Chinese people always out here f-ing it up”. The video sparked controversy, leading to a two-year conditional warning from the police.
Social media posts
Despite the warning, Subhas Nair reoffended by posting comments on social media that further aggravated racial and religious sentiments. One such comment was made in response to a viral video by two Christians linking the gay pride movement to Satan. Nair’s comment suggested a disparity in the treatment of different racial and religious groups, where he said “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 also references a media interview on Instagram of Chan Jia Xing, who was one of 7 people charged with murdering a man at Orchard Towers, writing “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 questions from the media on whether Chan was having a baby soon”.
He also asked: “Do you actually think a brown person would get asked these type of questions? This place is just not for us,”
Nair’s explanation
Subhas Nair defended his actions, stating that his intentions were not to create enmity between groups but rather to address issues he perceived in society.
He clarified that his YouTube video aimed to challenge the practice of “brownface” in Singapore, and the phrase “f***ing it up” was meant to convey making a mistake, not to insult the Chinese community.
Nair also claimed that his comments on social media were a critique of journalism standards in the country and how “certain people and cases were reported”.
The Judge’s Ruling
District Judge Shaiffuddin Saruwan, however, rejected Nair’s explanations, deeming them inconsistent with the actual words used in his posts.
The judge emphasized that Nair’s words should be interpreted based on their natural and ordinary meaning, and that his intentions were not credible.
Judge Saruwan found that Nair’s words implied unfair targeting of certain communities and preferential treatment for others. This led to the conviction of Subhas Nair on all four charges related to attempting to promote ill will among racial and religious groups.
The arguments for Nair’s sentencing will be set at a later date.