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SINGAPORE: A Singaporean man who attacked on Facebook the ruling party and urged people to "burn" a cabinet minister has been arrested on charges of inciting violence, police said Wednesday.
In a statement, police said they had arrested a "man in his late 20s" on Tuesday "in connection with investigations into offences related to incitement of violence".
The statement did not name the man or give details of the offence, but said he was released on bail pending further investigation.
Local media identified him as Abdul Malik Ghazali, 27, who posted a series of comments on the social networking site critical of how Singapore is hosting the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG).
Abdul Malik, who works for a company specialising in wood and flooring, said on his Facebook page that he was arrested "due to my involvement in anti-YOG and anti-PAP (People's Action Party) Facebook pages".
One of his postings highlighted recent floods in Singapore, the escape of detained terror suspect Mas Selamat Kastari, the amount of money spent to host the games and reports of the poor standard of food served for games volunteers.
He said it was time to "burn" the sports minister and the PAP.
Abdul Malik said in comments published Wednesday by "The New Paper" that "the comment is a metaphor".
"I did not intend for it to be taken literally. I did not mean for someone to actually burn," he said.
Some in cyberspace rallied to Abdul Malik's defence.
One Facebook poster calling himself "Kok Meng" wrote "seems like even metaphors are forbidden these days".
"Police should get a grip and let loose. We are a democracy."
-AFP/wk
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