In a multi-racial and multi-religious society like Singapore, there are some things that you just don’t do.
So, when the Facebook page NUS Atheist Society posted this image, people were understandably outraged.
Yes, they posted a picture of the Bible and the Qur’an with the caption “For use during toilet paper shortages”.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) received several complaints soon after it was posted, and asked Facebook to disable access to the “religiously offensive post”, emphasizing “the importance of racial and religious harmony in our society”.
Facebook has since disabled access to the post.
Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam also said that the Facebook post was “very offensive” towards Muslims and Christians.
But who would be naive enough to post such a thing in Singapore?
Well, news has emerged about this poster, and believe it or not, he actually belonged to an opposition party.
Admin of NUS Atheist Society FB Page Was an Opposition Party Member
Jan Chan, the admin of the NUS Atheist Society Facebook page, was a Raffles Junior College student and studied Mathematics & Computer Science at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Chan was also once a member of the Progress Singapore Party (PSP), a political party in Singapore founded by former Member of Parliament Tan Cheng Bock and 11 members in 2019.
But after this debacle, PSP announced that it would expel Chan with “immediate effect”, following investigations that confirmed Chan was indeed the one who posted it.
PSP said that it “highly values the multi-racial and multi-religious society that is Singapore, and will not tolerate any of its members showing disrespect to any religion”.
They even shared a post on Facebook, saying they’re not linked to the NUS Atheist Society, and that they will work to ensure that all its members “keep within the boundaries of the law.”
So, you’ve been publicly shamed, expelled from a political party, and are being investigated by the police; what do you do next?
Have an AMA (Ask Me Anything), of course.
AMA on Facebook
On Sunday (22 March), Chan uploaded a post on Facebook inviting people to an AMA.
In case you don’t know, an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) is a type of online post where netizens can ask the original poster questions about any topic.
In his post, Chan says that all his electronics, including his phone, computer, and laptop, have been “seized”.
He then encouraged readers to ask him questions about his “current situation”, adding that “insincere questions will be deleted outright”.
And when one commenter asked why he made such a post despite knowing he’d be punished, Chan said:
“It is a satirical online persona that I had role-played for 5 years. The posts were made from the perspective of Christopher Hitchens.
“First, I had intentionally left the use of the holy books unspecified. Any reasonable person would think that holy books are used for prayers. It is only under Shanmugam’s interpretation that the news publicised it as for use as toilet paper
“Second, the post was meant for people who had liked the page, not for the general public. In the past, all religion related posts made had nearly never circulated in the public sphere”
Now, I’m also a big fan of Christopher Hitchens, but saying he left the books “unspecified” even though he posted pictures of them is a little disingenuous.
Plus, the post did clearly read “For use during toilet paper shortages”. So, while you can try to explain your actions, you simply can’t deny what happened.
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I’m an atheist too, but I’m not naive. We can have our disagreements with religion but if you really want to have an open dialogue with someone who has opposing beliefs, insulting them is just not the right way.
To his credit, Chan told The Straits Times that he “regrets making the post”, adding that his intent was definitely not to insult any religion or cause outrage.
Police investigations are ongoing.
