Singapore jails former Chinese speaker for racist remarks about interracial couple

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A Chinese-born former lecturer was sentenced to five weeks in jail and fined SGD6,000 on Thursday for making racist remarks towards a half-Indian man and his girlfriend. half-Chinese friend in June last year.

Tan Boon Lee, 61, pleaded guilty last month to two charges of insulting a person’s racial feelings and possessing obscene films, Channel News Asia reported.

Tan was sentenced to five weeks in prison and fined SGD6,000 (US$4,450), the report added.

Tan made the remarks to an interracial couple – Dave Parkash, a 26-year-old half-Indian and half-Filipino man, and his girlfriend Jacqueline Ho who is half-Singaporean Chinese and half-Thai.

A video of Tan’s remarks against the interracial couple went viral on social media last year.

Tan made humiliating remarks calling their relationship “such a shame, an Indian with a Chinese.”

The ensuing confrontation was recorded by Ho and the video went viral on social media after Dave shared it saying he “felt embarrassed, humiliated and hurt by the way he was treated by a fellow Singaporean”. In the video, Tan is seen addressing Dave saying, “Chinese people don’t like it” when “you go after a Chinese girl,” adding, “If you’re proud of your own race, you marry someone Indian.” Tan admitted to making racist remarks without remorse. He said he felt interracial relationships were “taboo”, “predatory” and something “no Chinese parent would want for their daughters”.

According to him, it was racist for Indian men to pursue lighter-skinned girls and they were deliberately inciting social discord by doing so.

He also felt that it was Parkash who was trying to stir up hatred by posting the incident online.

During investigations, police also found 64 obscene videos on Tan’s phone.

In Singapore, penalties for willfully injuring a person’s religious or racial feelings include imprisonment for up to three years, a fine or both, while those who possess obscene films can be sentenced to a fine of up to SGD40,000 (nearly US$2.97.00) or imprisonment for up to one year, or both.

Two other charges of acts he knew to be detrimental to the maintenance of harmony between different religious groups and likely to disturb the public peace were considered.

District Judge Victor Yeo called Tan’s behavior “outrageous” and “openly hostile,” according to the report.

While Tan’s daughter ran away from home with her Indian boyfriend due to family issues, this cannot be an excuse or justification for Tan’s offensive and hurtful behavior, the judge said.

(This story has not been edited by the Devdiscourse team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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