Facebook posts show ugly side of Singapores multicultural society

Facebook has been the scene of controversy in Singapore over the past fortnight after threeseparate anti-Muslim comments were posted to the social network by users in the country.

The police in Singapore, a country well known for its multicultural society,are investigating the incidents after media reports brought the existence of the comments to the attention of larger audiences beyond Facebook.

All three messages were comments made against Muslims, who account for up less than 15 percent of Singapores total number of inhabitants, which includes large numbers of immigrant workers in both high-end and low-end labour job markets.

TheWall Street JournalsSoutheast Asia Realtime bloghas details of the incidents:

The first involved Jason Neo, a 30-year-old member of the ruling Peoples Action Partys youth wing, who posted on Facebook a photograph of Malay Muslim schoolchildren captioned: Bus filled with young terrorist trainees?

The second involved a conscript in Singapores military, Christian Eliab Ratnam, who posted on Facebook an image criticizing Islam, including claims that it is an authoritarian, political doctrine.

Blogger Donaldson Tan, 28, became subject to police inquiries last week afterre-posting an image of a pig pork is taboo in Islam superimposed on the Kaaba, a sacred Islamic building in Mecca.

The impact of the incidents prompted Singapores Ministry of Home Affairs to rel ease a statement in response to it, part of which reads:

The right to free speech does not extend to making remarks that incite racial and religious friction and conflict.

Any person who re-posts or contributes offensive comments to the postings that are the subject of on-going investigations, and is also found to have committed an offence, will be dealt with in accordance with the law.

Rather than giving a sinister racist movement in Singapore a voice, however, Facebook may be a platform over which some the countrys increasingly segregated population is expressing cultural ignorance, as Australian academic Michael Barr told the Wall Street Journal:

Through ignorance and lack of interaction, many young people in the Chinese majority actually dont know any non-Chinesethe only way that many of them know anything about Malays and Muslims is through what they read and hear and it isnt a pretty picture.

A recent study commissioned by Facebook revealed that the social network is bringing people closer together, with the average degree of separation now down to 4.74, although in certain countries and close communities it is as low as 3. This tighter bond between online users has seen negative side-affects in addition to benefits which, have included, greater transparency during the recent electionin Singapore.

The government in neighbouring Thailand last week revealed that it had contacted Facebook to request the removal of pages thatcontravene its lese majeste laws which prevent defamation of the countrys royal family. Thailands 12 million plus Facebook users were! also wa rned of the consequences of sharing and endorsing illegal content on the social network.