On International Human Rights Day, local activist Jolovan Wham shared about how the Singapore Police Force (SPF) are being abused for political ends. According to Wham, the police are forced by their “political overlords” to do dirty work. Policemen have to intimidate citizens and discourage activism on the political party’s behalf.
Jolovan Wham: the police demand passwords to our social media accounts
This has happened to various activists according to Wham. Gilbert Goh had to sign a document saying that the police banned him from Instagram for 2 months, and had to give up his login details.
Kirsten Han had the same treatment, only she was able to resist their request.
Jolovan Wham himself told the police that he lost his phone and they didn’t ask more
The government should not be infringing on our freedom of speech!
Asking activists to surrender their social media password is a blatant intrusion into our privacy. The government should not be assaulting our right to express our beliefs.
We don’t want to become a boring society where only the government dictates what we can talk about. Having misinformation online should not matter, because individuals should be able to discern for themselves. We need to avoid the alternative of becoming a stifling echo chamber of sanctioned speech.
We need to look to the likes of Jolovan Wham, Gilbert Goh, and Kirsten Han who are the lifeblood of our democracy. They boldly confront the police’s attempts to silence them, and they are standing on the front lines, defending the essence of our democracy.
