Jail for man who posed as ‘SharonLiew86’ to send racially offensive tweets
SINGAPORE – A senior director of a computer software firm and two friends came together in July 2018 to set up a parody Twitter account to satirise racially insensitive Singaporeans.
But in an ironic twist, he ended up being the very person he had sought to satirise after his tweets became overtly offensive and racially insensitive.
Zainal Abidin Shaiful Bahari, now 35, who had posed as “SharonLiew86” to send multiple racially offensive tweets was on Tuesday (June 8) sentenced to three weeks’ jail.
The Singaporean pleaded guilty to two charges involving acts against racial harmony. Two other similar charges were considered during sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Senthilkumaran Sabapathy said that the account gained traction online and had more than 5,600 followers by August 2018.
Zainal later took sole control of the account after his two Singaporean friends stopped using it in early 2019. He started sending the racially offensive tweets soon after.
On Oct 11, 2019, he created a post purporting that the academic achievements of Malay students were inferior to those of their Chinese counterparts.
He also used a racial slur when referring to Indians in two posts on March 25 and April 17 last year.
DPP Senthilkumaran told Deputy Presiding Judge S. Jennifer Marie that the latter tweet was specifically made in response to an online news report on the rising number of Covid-19 cases among foreign workers in dormitories.
The court heard that a substantial number were Indians and Bangladeshis.
The DPP added: “The April 17 tweet was widely circulated on the Internet… The accused took down the… tweet about 30 minutes after it was posted after realising that the tweet had gone viral and was getting substantial negative attention online from members of the public.”
The court heard that in a fourth post on April 18 last year, he made fun of the “pottu”, a coloured dot commonly worn on the forehead by those who practise Hinduism.
A member of the public alerted the police later that day and officers from Bedok Police Division established Zainal’s identity five days later.
He later admitted to police that he had published public posts with the Twitter account and was charged in court last July.
On May 2 last year, Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said in a Facebook post that the “nasty posts” were done “deliberately to stoke anger, unhappiness (and) racial tensions”.
He also said that the person behind the post was neither female nor Chinese, as the name “Sharon Liew” had implied.
On Tuesday, DPP Senthilkumaran urged the court to sentence Zainal to at least four weeks’ jail, stressing that his behaviour was “entirely typical of an ‘online troll’, who derives perverse entertainment by intentionally inflaming the emotions of others”.
The prosecutor added: “The accused’s deliberately inflammatory conduct also undermines any claim that he was trying to promote social awareness on racial issues through parody.
“He was simply acting for his own amusement by intentionally provoking the racial feelings and emotions of others.”
Zainal was represented by lawyers Sunil Sudheesan and Diana Ngiam.
In his mitigation plea, Mr Sudheesan told the court that his client is not racist and is “sincerely contrite”.
The lawyer also said that Zainal had “tried to be funny” but “overstepped the mark”.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Attorney-General’s Chambers said that it takes a serious view of “words or conduct which wound the racial feelings of any person or prejudices our racial harmony and community relations”.
“Offenders who commit such acts will be dealt with firmly,” it added.
For each count of committing acts against racial harmony, an offender can be jailed for up to three years and fined.