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This morning I woke to news that Amos Yee has been sentenced to six years’ jail, by a United States court, after pleading guilty to charges of sexual grooming of a 14-year-old girl and being in possession of child pornography.
I feel sorry for Amos as I see him as a victim of the personal agendas of local political activists.
Amos was definitely a misguided child who sought attention. His brush with fame came shortly after the death of the Lee Kuan Yew, when he uploaded a video on YouTube criticizing LKY. In the video, Amos compared LKY to Jesus, and casted both LKY and Jesus in an obscene and disrespectful light.
Pouncing on Amos’ “anti-government video,” activists like Roy Ngerng, Alfian Saat, Terry Xu, and political parties like the SDP and the Reform Party capitalised on the opportunity to make him the poster boy for free speech. This attention provided the platform for Amos to get the attention he sought and, got him hooked, like an addict, on the spotlight.
As attention is fleeting, like an addict’s craving more and more, Amos found himself having to do more and more outrageous things to make the news. This is, in my opinion, what has led him down this path and with him in jail in the US.
Where are all these activists now?
Unsurprisingly, they have sought to distance themselves from their once poster boy. But this is the nature of Singapore’s political scene, where political activists hide in the shadows instigating others to break the law. And, when things go wrong, they slink away laying in wait for the next sucker they can use.
Sadly, while misguided, Amos is intelligent and could have been a productive member of society — if only the anti-government activists did not get their hooks into him to further their own personal agendas.
