Remembering Lee Kuan Yew

15 police reports filed over teen's online video allegedly celebrating Mr Lee Kuan Yew's death

At least 15 police reports have been made against a teenager for posting a video online allegedly celebrating Mr Lee Kuan Yew's death and criticising his political career.

Police said they are looking into the matter.

The video, called Lee Kuan Yew Is Finally Dead!, was posted on Friday and has been viewed more than 270,000 times.

It has been slammed by netizens, though some defended him.

In the video, 16-year-old Amos Yee, who once played a minor role in one of local filmmaker Jack Neo's movies, also challenged Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to sue him.

Amos, who wrote in his latest blogpost his intention to pursue a career in film and YouTube, could not be reached for comment.

Yesterday, lawyer Chia Boon Teck - one of those who made a police report - said: "This is not a mindless rant. It is a well-considered campaign backed by graphics and statistics to defame Mr Lee and our government. It cannot go unchallenged. He has to take responsibility for his social media posting that was calculated to provoke the public's response."

His online report included signatures from 11 other complainants. One of them, businessman Timothy Wimala, 34, said: "No Singaporean can deny the benefits we have got from Mr Lee's service to our nation. He has only just left us and yet we have a beneficiary of his legacy barely of adolescence but sparing no insult against the man who put this country on the world map."

Filmmaker Jack Neo told The Sunday Times that Amos had played a minor role in his film We Not Naughty. "When I first met him, he was only 13," he said. " We no longer have contact with each other."

joycel@sph.com.sg

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