Death Threats against Singaporeans Embolden

One Month after Edz Ello, Death Threats against PM Lee

By MIKOspace

The curtain of silence over the earlier death threats against Singapore and Singaporeans appears to have emboldened others to do the same. This time, death threats are directed at Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.  It was reported that the Singapore Police have started investigating after Facebook posts showing photographs of bullets were addressed to PM Lee.  No further details were provided by the Police.

It has been just over 1 month after a Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) nurse posted inflammatory threats to “kick out Singaporeans” and “prayed for Singaporean deaths” on his Facebook on 3 Jan 2015. Also discovered was the pattern of derogatory anti-Singapore and anti-Singaporean remarks on the TTSH nurse’s Facebook [ID: Edz Ello] after the expose of his inflammatory death threats against Singaporeans.

After the hospital had wrongly placed the nurse on administrative duties, pending purported police investigations of the death threats instead of the standard HRM practice of suspending the Staff during the police investigations as well as an Internal Inquiry, TTSH changed its mind and decided to dismiss the nurse on 9 Jan 2015. 

The current status of the nurse, who is a foreigner, whether he is remanded in Police custody for his own safety (and Singaporeans’), or still at large in Singapore, is unknown. The Singapore Police has not reported the outcome of its purported investigations into Edz Ello’s death threats against Singaporeans.  

No information is available at this point as to whether the latest death threats against PM Lee are related or associated directly or indirectly with the earlier ones on Singaporeans by Edz Ello, and whether his friends or accomplices or co-conspirators are involved.

No death threats should be trivialized or given cursory dismissal.  Neither should they be “laugh away” as a Singapore politician had suggested. The politician scolded the more than 2,000 Singaporeans who reacted angrily to Edz Ello’s post and chided them as “petty”, “insecure”, “thin-skin”, too sensitive and “easily offended”.   

Would Mr Calvin Cheng, who was a Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) from 2009-2011, now also accuse PM Lee of being “petty”, “insecure”, “thin-skin”, too sensitive and “easily offended” and advise PM Lee to “just laugh it off” the latest death threats instead of wasting Police resources to investigate them?

A month ago, a bartender was indicted on a charge of threatening to kill United States House Speaker John Boehner, possibly by poisoning his drink.  The bartender formerly worked in the same country club as the Speaker.

Investigations into the 2 Tsarneav brothers who set off two bombs that killed 3 and injured 260 more people at the Boston Marathon on 15 April 2013 found notes threatening the deaths of Americans.

Our collective national response to any national death threats to our leaders or any Singaporeans must be resolute, unambiguous, decisive and categorical.  In these times of social media, it may seem stupid that our “enemies” would want to announce its threats so openly and ubiquitously; but it takes a clever and extremely intelligent adversary to proclaim its intention loudly in the hope that we would not take him (them) seriously, especially on a social media as petty and inessential as Facebook.  

Choose wisely, people.  Our earlier silent and dismissive response to Edz Ello may have sent the wrong message of weakness, indifference and indolence.  Our new message in response to fresh death threats against PM Lee must not make the same mistakes. 

 

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More Death Threats against Singaporeans

Defending Singapore