So what will happen to Amos Yee next?

Hi guys. Let's talk about Amos Yee. There are many people who are discussing what ought to happen to him online without taking a moment to consider something vital - the laws of the two countries involved: USA and Singapore. This is the script of a podcast I have already recorded and so if you would prefer to listen to the podcast, then please click here. 

So here is a brief summary about the situation. Amos Yee is a famous Singaporean dissident who was jailed back in 2015 for criticizing the late prime minister and founding father of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew as well as the government in a series of scathing Youtube videos as well as some videos attacking Christians and Muslims. He was just 17 then. Despite short stints in jail, he was unrepentant and kept putting out provocative content, as if he was taunting the authorities to arrest him again each time and put him right back in jail. He then fled to the US where he successfully claimed asylum - but he couldn't stay out of trouble and ended up in jail again in the US, this time on child pornography charges. So at the time of recording this, he was released on parole but is now in custody at an ICE detention centre, awaiting deportation back to Singapore. And no, we still don't have a date for his arrival in Singapore at this moment. 

Those are the facts in a nutshell, but what irked me so much was how people were making all kinds of ridiculous comments online about what ought to happen to Amos. Now let me be clear: this is not trial by public opinion, the public do not get a say in what will happen to Amos and thus, your opinion doesn't matter. You don't get to decide what will happen to Amos Yee. You don't get a say in this. This is a matter that affects two countries: USA and Singapore and so what will ultimately happen depends on the laws and governments of these countries. I am going to deal with a few untruths and badly misguided opinions have been voiced online by some Singaporeans and I hope to introduce some common sense into the matter. But before I begin, allow me to be clear that I am not here to defend Amos, nor am I here even to voice my own opinion because even my opinion doesn't matter. I'm just here to explain what will happen, okay?

Q: Will Amos Yee be deported? I thought he was granted asylum? 

A: Under Trump's administration, he has set targets to deport criminals and Amos has merely been granted asylum, he hasn't naturalized as a US citizen yet so yes, ICE can and will deport him especially after he has broken the law and has spent time in jail. So it's not if he will be deported but when given the severity of the crimes he has committed in the US. 

Q: What will happen to him the moment he lands in Singapore? 

A: He will be arrested for desertion and not fulfilling his NS duties - that means a stint in military jail, known locally as DB which stands for detention barracks. The Singapore military doesn't care if he was granted asylum in the US, if Amos wanted to emigrate to another country, he still had to fulfill his national service obligations before considering that move. 

Q: How long would Amos spend in DB then?

A: He is now 27 so a lot of that will depend on the judge. Typically it will be 2 to 3 years of jail time but Amos has been on the run since 2016, that's 9 years so I wouldn't be surprised if the sentence is harsher than 3 years. However, there is no simple formula to work out just how harsh that sentence would be as some people have gotten away with no more than a slap on the wrist whilst others were punished a lot more mercilessly by the system. Given the fact that Amos has been a controversial character who has spent time in jail in both Singapore and the US, I would expect that sentence to be a lot harsher. Even after he finishes that long jail sentence, he will have to then serve his national service duties for 2 years. 

Q: What should Amos Yee had done if he didn't want to serve national service? 

A: It's a hypothetical question but I'll try to answer it. I was born in Singapore so I had to serve my national service which lasted for 2 years 4 months back in the day. There are only two viable routes for Amos Yee to do so. Firstly, if his parents had emigrated to another country and managed to obtain another passport before Amos turned 11, then he could renounce his Singaporean nationality but that means it is entirely a decision made by his parents as he would've been a young child prior to turning 11 years old. The other way is this, controversial but it is something a former classmate did. Let's call this guy Christopher - I went to secondary school with him then his family moved to Canada, he went with them but it was by then too late for him to renounce his Singaporean nationality without first having served his NS obligations. The Singapore government wanted Christopher to finish his NS before renouncing his nationality was possible - Christopher thought, nah way, no sir - I'm not prepared to give up that amount of time: he wanted to go to university, get a nice job, start his career. So he just became Canadian and that means he can never ever set foot in Singapore again. But unlike Amos Yee, he is a law-abiding Canadian businessman today and thus the authorities there are not trying to deport him to Singapore. In both cases, note that it is always the parents who have to pave the way for that to happen. 

Q: Would he be charged with anything else apart from desertion? 

A: Highly unlikely. He has served his sentences in full in Singapore for all previous crimes he has been convicted for back in 2016 before fleeing to the US. Even if you think that the crimes he committed in the US are unforgivable, the fact is those crimes were committed in the US, far away from Singapore so it is not down to the Singaporean justice system to deal with Amos. If he does anything stupid between now and his arrival in Singapore, then he could make his own situation a lot worse. Allow me to explain it this way, if Mr Smith commits a crime in Austria, he is then wanted by the Austrian authorities, but if he is arrested in another country like Japan, then he will not be trialed in Japan for the crime committed in Austria - the Austrian authorities can notify the Japanese government and request that Mr Smith is extradited to Austria to stand trial for the crimes committed in Austria. So Japan has two choices, either deport Mr Smith to Austria or to do nothing - the outcome would depend very much on whether or not Austria and Japan have an extradition treaty whereby they agree to hand over each other's wanted criminals in this kind of situation. Indeed, if Mr Smith is wanted for a horrific crime in Austria, then Japan would only be too glad to get rid of someone like that but Mr Smith will never end up in a Japanese jail per se for crimes committed in another country like Austria. Hence Mr Smith might just sit in a deportation facility in Japan long enough for the two countries involved to get all the paperwork sorted. 

Q: If the US deports Amos, wouldn't he become stateless since he has forsaken Singapore? 

A: Oooh this was a comment I came across on social media. Citizenship is not like a gym membership for crying out aloud. Look if you have a gym membership, you need to pay the subscription fee. If you stop paying the fee, your membership would have lapsed and it would expire - you could cease to be a member of that gym. But Amos gained his Singaporean citizenship as his birthright, as he was born in Singapore to Singaporean parents. Singapore doesn't take the step to strip a citizen of their citizenship just because they have committed a crime - the criminals convicted of heinous crimes will face the wrath of the Singaporean legal system known for its harsh punishments including the death sentence for the most serious of crimes, but no - the Singapore government does not "disown" people like Amos just because he has "forsaken" Singapore. That is the law of the land, that is in the Singapore constitution. You can't treat this case as if he had simply failed to keep up with the payments for his gym membership as such - Amos isn't patriotic, he hates Singapore and in fact, he has a lot to say about Singapore and none of that is positive. But even if Amos wanted to renounce his Singaporean citizenship, he needs to be the one who takes the initiative to do so - not the other way around. So Amos would need to go to the nearest Singapore embassy or consulate in the US, fill up a whole bunch of forms to renounce his Singaporean citizenship and then they would ask him an important question, "have you become a citizen of another country? Can you provide proof of another citizenship now?" If he can't, then the paperwork will not be processed as he cannot be left stateless - such are the laws in Singapore. So even if Amos tries this desperate step to renounce his Singaporean citizenship to avoid his imminent deportation to Singapore, it will not and cannot work. If you can provide proof of another citizenship, then it is a fairly painless, mundane process of filling up some forms. But if you can't fulfil that vital step, then no, you just can't do this no matter how much you tell the world how you hate Singapore. 

Q: Can Amos be deported to a third country like Mexico or El Salvador instead of Singapore? 

A: Unlikely. Now clearly America doesn't care where Amos ends up but would Mexico be willing to take on the burden of accepting Amos? Short of literally pushing him over the border with Mexico, no that simply cannot happen as you need the consent of Mexico and as for El Salvador, it is possible if El Salvador agrees but Amos wouldn't survive more than a week in those harsh El Salvadoran prisons full of gang members, he would be dead in a few days. Would Singapore just stand by and see him die like that? It would be incredibly cruel - I know a lot of people hate Amos but deportation to El Salvador would tantamount to a death sentence. Now despite the fact that Amos is a criminal who has spent time in jail, he still has rights as a citizen of Singapore and the government cannot refuse him entry to Singapore as he is still a citizen regardless of everything that has happened; now that's not a matter of opinion, that's just the way the law works.

Q: Why would Amos voluntarily want to return to Singapore only to go to DB there? 

A: He has no choice - the US is not allowing him to pick his next destination, Amos Yee has absolutely no choice in the matter at all at this stage. I refer you to the case of Gary Glitter. The disgraced British rock star whose real name is Paul Gadd was convicted of sex with a minor in Vietnam in 2006 and served a prison sentence in Vietnam. However, upon his release from jail in 2008, he was supposed to have been deported back to the UK as he was expelled from Vietnam. Gadd did everything he did to avoid returning to the UK where he faced further criminal charges, he refused to board a connecting flight in Bangkok which was bound for London. He tried to fly to Hong Kong claiming that he was there for medical treatment but even Hong Kong refused to admit him when it was clear that there was a British fugitive trying to avoid facing justice in London. Gadd desperately tried in those few days to secure visas for a number of countries but every single one of them said no to him - eventually he had no choice but to return to London where he was arrested upon arrival. I'll jump to the punchline, he got convicted of more sex offences and is currently still in jail in England. Gadd would have rather spent all that time as a fugitive elsewhere than to be in jail in England. Thus in Amos' case, if he tried to flee to another country, I doubt he would be able to slip under the radar to cross the border as no country would take him. And even if he could say, escape to a country in Latin America for example, how the hell would he support himself? He has never worked a day in his life and has spent most of his adult life in jail, how's he going to hold down a real job?

Q: Can Singapore unilaterally strip Amos of his citizenship as in the case of Shamima Begum? 

A: Ah yes, I refer you to Shamima Begum. If you haven't heard of her, she was born in the UK to immigrant parents from Bangladesh and she was British at birth. Then at the age of 15 in 2015, she ran away from home to join ISIS in Syria. Whilst she was there, she got married to an ISIS member (who had Dutch nationality) and had three children with him but all three babies died. Then in 2019, she resurfaced in a refugee camp in Syria desperate to return home to the UK but the government then said nope, you're a terrorist, we've stripped you of your citizenship, you can't return to the UK. Begum's case gained a lot of media attention but to no avail, all appeals failed and she is still stuck in a refugee camp in Syria and the UK government really doesn't care if she dies there like her three babies. There is little public support or sympathy for her. The UK government has also argued that she could possibly claim citizenship from Bangladesh given that her parents were born there but the Bangladesh government has flatly refused to have anything to do with her. There is also the possibility that Begum could go with her husband back to the Netherlands, but he is stuck in a jail somewhere in Syria as well for his activities in ISIS so he's not going to be her ticket out of Syria. Begum basically shot herself in the foot by giving a few really disastrous interviews to the media when they tracked her down in the refugee camp where she appeared unrepentant and unaware of why people might have found her actions repugnant. After all, she dropped out of school at the age of 15 to runaway, she was hardly the best person to explain why she ought to have been given a second chance and shown some mercy - she was inarticulate and said a lot of things that hurt her own cause, that made her look like a dangerous terrorist. She didn't have an experienced lawyer next to her telling her, "no Shamima, you really can't say that even if that's what you think - it will make people dislike you." It would cost the British government a lot of money to bring her back to the UK and rehabilitate her, the choice was simply whether the public would be happier to just leave her in a refugee camp in Syria to suffer or to bring her home to her parents in the UK. It was very clear that public opinion was against helping Begum so she is still stuck in that refugee camp in Syria today and she has nowhere to go. 

So Begum's case was a pretty extreme example but it has been done before, albeit by the British government. This case of course has nothing to do with Singapore or Amos Yee so it doesn't set a precedent when it comes to Amos Yee's case. Singapore's government has a choice really, if they hold their criminals responsible for their crimes and punish them for it, it sends a very strong message: you can't commit a crime in Singapore and then just escape to another country - we will hunt you down no matter where you try to hide and you will face Singaporean justice. Ironically, the only crime he has committed is dodging his national service obligations without first seeking proper permission and so if the government were to strip him of his citizenship, it would give Amos exactly what he wants as he never wanted to serve national service in the first place and if he is no longer a citizen of Singapore, he is let off the hook. But that would set a precedent for other young male Singaporeans who really don't want to spend two years of their lives serving national service either, it would be the wrong kind of message for the government to send out and thus the government will have to allow Amos to return to Singapore and hold him accountable - now you may argue that is not a good use of the tax payers' money to keep Amos Yee in a jail in Singapore, but even that act of jailing him is a purpose. We have a phrase in Chinese to describe this situation: 杀一警百 and it means literally "kill one warn a hundred", by subjecting Amos to a long and harsh jail sentence with humiliating punishments, the government is making an example of him and scaring anyone who dares to even try to do any of the many crimes that Amos Yee has committed over the years. I can just hear Singaporean parents nagging at their naughty children, "you don't want to listen to me, you want to end up in jail like Amos Yee? That's what happens when you don't do as you are told - you will get into so much trouble, you want to be the next Amos Yee?"

In any case, Begum chose to go to Syria all those years ago and it's not like Syria is trying to expel her, no the country is still pretty much in a mess and there are thousands of undocumented refugees in the camps just like the one she is inr. The UK has dumped her in Syria and nobody from the Syrian government is bothering to protest - can Singapore effectively dump Amos in a third country like Syria and let him fend for himself? I doubt it, I just don't see it happening. The repercussions of not punishing him with a long and harsh jail sentence would be that others might be tempted to follow suit and that's just not the way the Singaporean system works. Now some of you may say, "that's not a good use of the taxpayers' money!" But guess what? You don't get a say in how the government spends its money and if it decides to spend some of that wealth making life hell for Amos Yee in the next few years, they're going to go ahead and do that. 

Q: So when will Amos Yee arrive in Singapore? 

A: It will be quite soon. There are so many other cases where people have a legitimate case for asylum in the US - Amos Yee has lost his right to remain in America so his imminent deportation at this point and so it is simply a matter of time. 

Q: Amos Yee has uploaded a latest blogpost about trying to find another country that will accept him as a "resident or citizen" to avoid his imminent deportation to Singapore. Is Amos likely to succeed in this quest?

A: Absolutely no chance. He has such a terrible criminal record and has absolutely nothing to offer any country in the world. Given his opinions on sex with minors, no country in the world would take the risk in letting him into their country. 

Okay everyone, so that's it from me on this topic; once again, as always thank you so much for reading and listening.