The world (most of it, anyway) rejoiced when 17-year-old Will Connolly had enough of hearing racist Australian senator Fraser Anning spew anti-Muslim rhetoric and smacked an egg right onto his head. The name Egg Boy was appointed, and he became a meme-worthy hero standing against bigotry — especially when it concerned a politician blaming Muslims and immigration for the heinous killings in New Zealand conducted by a white nationalist.
Over in Singapore, things are not all it’s cracked up to be. The police confirmed to The Straits Times that they’re conducting investigations into a 20-year-old Singaporean who left an edgy, egg-static comment on Facebook about wanting to carry out the same stunt on the Minister of Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam. It’s probably safe to say that the young man’s not a fan of the minister.
The comment that got young Edmund Zhong — a SoundCloud rapper and self-proclaimed cannabis advocate — into trouble was left on the Facebook post of a Channel NewsAsia report about Anning’s comments and Egg Boy’s stunt. “I wanna do that to K Shanmugam. I swear,” Zhong wrote. Someone else then responded to his comment with information on Minister Shanmugam’s upcoming Meet-the-People session.
Comments purportedly made in jest, but comments deemed threatening enough for someone to lodge a police report. In a post on the Complaint Singapore Facebook group, Zhong said that he was visited by two police officers from the Ang Mo Kio Division Headquarters at home sometime last week. They were looking to question him about his comments about the minister and left a note at his door.
“Felt a mix of emotions as I didn’t expect a harmless but straightforward comment can gain so much reaction,” he wrote.
No yolking matter
The police informed The Straits Times yesterday that investigations are being carried out against two individuals — Zhong and the 47-year-old man who provided information about Minister Shanmugam’s meeting — for their comments on Facebook.
According to ST, both of them could be charged for the offense of communicating an electronic record to incite violence, which could land them up to five years in jail and/or a fine each.
“The police take such threats seriously, and will carry out investigations accordingly,” affirmed the police.
The Egg Boy
On his part, the teen who smashed the egg on the senator is a little embarrassed about the stunt he carried out on March 16.
“It’s blown up completely out of proportion to the point where it’s kind of embarrassing because too much of the attention is actually brought away from the real victims suffering,” Connolly said in an eggsclusive interview on Australia’s Channel 10.
“We should be focusing on them.”
The interview also revealed that he had actually listened to Anning speak for about an hour in an attempt to understand his logic. The senator failed to sway the teen.
“In my mind, I wanted to forgive him but then he started saying some more things… which empowered me to egg him,” Connolly said.
A crowdfunding campaign was even launched to raise money for Connolly’s legal fees and to buy more eggs, which the lad is instead donating to the victims of the terrorist attack in Christchurch. As of writing, the campaign has garnered over $79,000.
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