Amos Yee is very likely to be coming home. He is currently under the custody of the Immigration & Customs Enforcement after he was released from prison on parole.
It may not be fair to call him a legend, but when Amos Yee first caused a stir in sanitary Singapore, PAP critics saw the potential for him to mature into a powerful voice for their camp. To the devotees, he was a thorn in the side. The division sparked intense online debates.
Amos Yee’s successful application for political asylum in the US set him on the right track, but he would disappoint his supporters. The devotees must be gloating and sniggering now.
While Amos Yee is probably hopeless, let’s not treat every rebellious and annoying teenager as a future paedophile. Talented people have their eccentricities. Like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Michael Jackson etc, they may may even make terrible mistakes in their youth. The people who are going to pull Singapore out of stagnation will never be the conformists.
I don’t think Prof Taylor Kheng Soon is totally wrong. There was no concerted effort on the part of the “village” to set teenage Amos straight. Some of us were too quick to condemn and dismiss.
There’s something I didn’t point out in the video and that’s the fact that is Prof Tay’s pro-China position. He talks about Amos Yee’s “gutsy intelligence” . Of course, Prof Tay is himself a rebel, albeit a very much more civil one. The biggest irony is that neither he nor Amos will ever be tolerated by the system in China that demands conformity and obedience. America, which Prof Tay dislikes, would actually be a lot kinder to people like him and Amos Yee. Sad to say, Amos Yee had an opportunity to make his mark in a freer, more tolerant society, but he just blew it.
If he had gone to China and insulted you know who, the consequences would have been far worse than insulting LKY. Even Tay Kheng Soon would not have been spared.