19-7-2023 (SINGAPORE) Singaporean rapper Subhas Nair, whose full name is Subhas Govin Prabhakar Nair, has been found guilty of attempting to promote ill will among racial and religious groups. The 31-year-old was convicted of four charges related to incidents that occurred between July 2019 and March 2021. Nair had posted a YouTube video of him and his sister Preeti Nair performing a song containing the lyrics “Chinese people always out here f*****g it up”. For this, he was given a two-year conditional warning by the police, but he reoffended by posting comments on social media.
In one incident, Nair made an Instagram post referring to a media interview of one Chan Jia Xing, who was given a conditional warning for a reduced charge of consorting with a person who had a weapon. Chan was one of seven people originally charged with murdering a man at Orchard Towers. Nair wrote that “calling out racism and Chinese privilege” equalled a two-year conditional warning and “smear campaign in the media”, while “actually conspiring to murder an Indian man” equalled half the sentence and a question of “you’re having a baby soon right? Boy or girl” from the media.
During his trial, Nair took the stand and explained his intentions behind each online post. He said he intended to end “brownface” in Singapore with his video, referring to the practice of a lighter-skinned person applying make-up to imitate the appearance of a person from an ethnicity with darker skin. Nair also said the term “f*****g it up” referred to a person making a mistake, and did not mean that Chinese people are “f****d up”. He added that art may offend some people – especially when it is trying to improve society – and may also make some people feel “uncomfortable”.
However, District Judge Shaiffuddin Saruwan rejected Nair’s explanations as to his “actual intention and knowledge” behind his posts. The judge said it was clear that Nair’s words suggested that some communities are targeted unfairly while others get preferential treatment. He convicted the rapper of all four charges.
Nair was accompanied by a handful of supporters in court, including his sister. His lawyer successfully applied for him to leave the country for Bali in August, to attend a friend’s wedding and for leisure. The judge granted the application after imposing some bail conditions, and directing that Nair provide his full travel itinerary to the investigating officer as well as surrender his passport within 48 hours of his return. The penalties for attempting to promote feelings of ill will between racial or religious groups are a jail term of up to three years, a fine, or both.
