SINGAPORE: After convicted sex offender Amos Yee allegedly told the Government in an open letter that he should not be allowed to return to Singapore, many Singaporeans expressed that they do not want him back in the city-state either.
The letter was published on February 4 (Wednesday) in a blog that carries Yee’s name. In it, Yee, 27, wrote that he would be given more jail time for having defaulted on the National Service requirement, which appears to be the biggest reason why he doesn’t want to return to Singapore.
However, he also took aim at the opposition and then added the threat that he could “topple” the government, which has left a lot of people shaking their heads.
“I recommend you don’t issue those travel documents, not just for me, but mostly for you… politically, you have nothing to gain, but everything to lose,” he wrote in his letter to Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
Because of his convictions in the United States, where he was given asylum in 2017, Yee has faced the possibility of deportation since late last year. Yee was jailed in the US in 2021 and again in 2023. On November 20, 2025, he was released on parole from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Though Yee wants to avoid coming home, countries are obliged under international law to accept the repatriation of their citizens. If Yee loses his naturalisation in the US, Singapore will need to accept his entry, and he will have to face the law. For defaulting on his NS obligations, he faces a fine of up to S$10,000, a three-year jail term, or both.
What Singaporeans are saying
After Yee’s alleged open letter was published, many Singaporeans said that, as much as he doesn’t want to return to Singapore, they also don’t want him to return.
“The feeling from SG is mutual,” wrote one, and another wrote, “Just keep him there for good.”
“I agree! We shouldn’t let him back,” chimed in a Facebook user.
Others pointed out how scared Yee sounds in his letter, despite the brave face he put up in threatening the government.
“Despite his composure, he’s actually panicking inside,” one observed.
Another wrote, “He’s afraid of many things now. Even his own shadow.”
Some appeared to feel that Yee has lost touch with reality, with one noting that his “level of delusion is off the charts.”
Others pointed out that no matter how much Yee wants to escape the law in Singapore, he can’t. “You can ‘run’, but you can’t hide,” a netizen wrote.
Amos Yee’s backstory
In 2015, when Yee was only 16, he gained notoriety in Singapore when he criticised the government as well as a number of religious figures. He also criticised the late Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding Prime Minister.
Yee ended up being jailed twice for his actions and moved to the US in December 2016, just before he was required to begin National Service. He was granted political asylum the following year after a judge ruled that he faced persecution in Singapore for his political opinions.
In October 2020, he was charged with solicitation and possession of child pornography. After his arrest, he pleaded not guilty in a Chicago court to all charges related to his arrest.
Yee was then accused of having exchanged nude photos and “thousands” of messages with a teenage girl from Texas while he was living in Chicago, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Prosecutors said they obtained messages Yee and the girl exchanged between April and July 2019 that included nude photos he requested and received from the girl and nude photos of himself that he sent to her.
The prosecutors added that the girl repeatedly mentioned her age in the messages, but Yee instructed her to remove her age from her profile on WhatsApp.
When their relationship eventually soured, she reached out to a group interested in exposing pedophiles, and that led to his arrest. /TISG
