The Singapore government’s Media Literacy Council’s chairman Professor Tan Cheng Han defended his council member, Calvin Cheng, who recently made headlines for his comments suggesting to kill children, as “not a hate speech”. However MLC did say Calvin Cheng’s post is insensitive and inappropriate, and the chairman has since spoken to him.
“Taking everything into consideration, I am unable to conclude that what Mr Cheng said as a whole amounts to hate speech.”
Below is the offending post made by Calvin Cheng, a former Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) appointed by the ruling party PAP government:
“So you kill them (terrorists) before they kill you. And their children too in case they grow up to take revenge.”
Calvin Cheng has since deleted the offending post after he faced a tsunami of comments made in outrage. While the former NMP stopped short of an apology, he came out with a new post to defend himself.