The Economist - USA (2020-11-28)

The EconomistNovember 28th 2020 Asia 33

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thefutureofthe“liberationstruggle”looks

grim,MrRaguramworries.

MrSumanthiran,however,ismoreop-

timistic.HesuspectsthatMrRajapaksa’s

governmentwillembraceSinhalesechau-

vinism soopenly,and pursuesuchdis-

criminatorypoliciestowardsTamils,that

itwillinadvertentlyspurTamilunity.The

newparliamenthasalreadyadoptedsever-

alconstitutionalamendments,andMrRa-

japaksawantsa wholenewconstitution—

butthetopicofTamilautonomyhasbarely

come up. Despitetheir wildlydivergent

politics,all 13 Tamilmps signeda letterear-

lierthismonthtothepresidentandanoth-

erofhisbrothers,Chamal,whoisminister

forirrigation.It complainedabout“coloni-

sation”intheformofgovernmentefforts

topromoteSinhalesemigrationtoTamil

areas.It willnotbetheirlastcomplaint. 7

I

n march an activist named Jolovan

Wham stood outside a police station,

held up a piece of cardboard with a smiley

face drawn on it and got somebody to take a

picture. Passers-by, if they noticed at all,

might have wondered what he was doing.

None reported Mr Wham and his badly

drawn emoji to the police—although in ret-

rospect they should have. Indeed, the po-

lice themselves remained in the station,

apparently oblivious to the dangerous

events unfolding outside. But this week the

authorities corrected their oversight,

charging Mr Wham with holding an illegal

public protest. 

In Singapore, smiley faces are not as in-

nocent as they seem—at least not in the

hands of a hardened criminal like Mr

Wham, who has frequently violated the

city-state’s laws. Take freedom of assem-

bly. Would-be protesters, even if they num-

ber no more than one, must first secure

permission from the police. Mr Wham did

not. (The one spot where it is possible to

gather without approval from the authori-

ties, Speakers’ Corner, has been closed

since March, when many public places

were shuttered owing to covid-19.) 

Mr Wham says the smiley-face stunt

was in support of two young activists who

were questioned by police in March for

posting online a picture even more subver-

sive than Mr Wham’s. They were depicted

holding placards which urged the city-

state to do more to combat climate change.

Mr Wham stands accused of breaching the

PublicOrderActforthesmiley-faceinci-

dentandanotherin 2018 inwhichheheld

upa sheetofpapercallingfordefamation

chargestobedroppedagainsttwojournal-

istswhoaccusedgovernmentofficialsof

corruption. Mr Wham says he will not

pleadguilty.Ifconvicted,hemaybefined

uptoS$5,000($3,725)foreachoffence.

MrWhamhasfrequentlyfallenfoulof

Singapore’slawsinhisefforttohighlight

how“ridiculousandoverbearing”theyare,

ashetoldtheNewYorkTimes. Hehasspent

twoshortstintsinjailthisyear,for“scan-

dalising”thejudiciarybyallegingthatMa-

laysia’scourtsaremoreindependentthan

Singapore’s, and for hosting an online

eventwhichtheauthoritiesdeemeda pub-

licassembly.ThewebinarfeaturedJoshua

Wong,a democracyactivistwhoisinlegal

troubleinHongKong.

LastyearpoliceinKazakhstanarrested

a protesterfortheequallyalarmingactof

holdingupa blankpieceofpaper.Butthe

Kazakhauthoritiesdonothavetheback-

boneof their Singaporean counterparts:

theysoonreleasedtheman inquestion

withoutcharge.EugeneTan,a lawprofes-

soratSingaporeManagementUniversity,

thinkslocalprosecutorswillhaveaneasy

timeofit.MrWham’sphotoswereshotin

publicplacesandwereintended“todraw

attentiontoa particularcause”,henotes.

“Thoseactionsgetcaughtunderthepub-

lic-order law.” Alas, the authorities are

clearlynotcracking downhardenough.

HundredsofMrWham’ssupportershave

postedselfieswithsmileyfacesonsocial

media.Callit a crimewave. 7

Public order is shaken by a

hand-drawn smiley face

Crime in Singapore

A city reels

T

he “line of control”(loc) that wends

across the rugged valleys of the former

princely state of Jammu & Kashmir is

something of a bellwether. It marks the

spot Indian and Pakistani forces had

reached when they agreed on a ceasefire in

their war over Kashmir in 1948. If the two

countries are getting on relatively well, the

mountains are quiet. Soldiers have even

been known to meet on the line to ex-

change sweets and pleasantries on holi-

days such as Diwali or Eid. When the two

countries met on the cricket field, Ajai

Shukla, a retired Indian colonel, remi-

nisced in 2013, “each wicket taken or

boundary hit would see intense celebra-

tory gunfire—directed at a nearby, or espe-

cially vulnerable, enemy post”. But these

daysthesweetshave gone and the shells

are flying in anger.

On November 13th India said that four

civilians and five members of the security

forces had been killed, and 19 injured, in

“unprovoked” Pakistani firing across sev-

eral parts of the loc. Pakistan in turn said

that five of its civilians and one soldier

were killed in an “unprovoked and indis-

criminate” Indian attack. Both sides said

they had given the other a “befitting reply”.

It followed an earlier flare-up in April,

when drone footage released by India’s

army showed alleged Pakistani ammuni-

tion dumps and artillery positions erupt-

ing like volcanoes, throwing flaming de-

bris into the cool Himalayan sky.

Though India and Pakistan agreed on an

informal ceasefire in 2003, it fell apart a de-

cade later. Since 2018 the number of cease-

fire violations recorded by the Indian Army

has almost doubled, while Pakistan has

documented a 10% jump (the figures differ

because violations are defined loosely, in-

cluding everything from a stray bullet to an

artillery barrage). Things have been getting

steadily worse: in 2019 the Indian army re-

corded 3,479 violations; the figure for this

year so far is over 3,800.

In many respects, the shelling follows a

familiar pattern. Former Indian and Paki-

stani officials acknowledge privately that

both sides deliberately target not only army

posts, but also villages. That grim contest

puts Pakistan at a disadvantage: it has more

villages and farmland close to the loc, and

its soldiers are averse to pummelling their

co-religionists in the Kashmir valley (they

have less compunction about Hindu areas

to the south). Pakistan says that 170 civil-

ians have been “martyred” and 918 injured

since 2017. But the ritual of strike and

counterstrike is also evolving. Last year In-

dia began pounding targets north of the Pir

Panjal mountain range, where villages are

closer together and denser, for the first

The exchange of fire across the line of

control in Kashmir has become fiercer

India and Pakistan

Shell game

Sweetless knight