For the sake of Singapore’s entrepreneurial future, don’t put ‘Sticker Lady’ in jail

Traditionally, Singapore hasn’t been kind to vandals.

In 1994, it landed four strokes of the cane on Michael Fay’s naked bum, provoking then US President Bill Clinton to denounce the punishment. In 2010, Swiss expat Oliver Fricker was given three strokes for infiltrating the train depot and spraying graffiti onto the trains.

And just today, Facebook feeds were flooded with news that the authorities have arrested a 25-year-old woman, dubbed ‘Sticker Lady’, for allegedly painting the tongue-in-cheek words “My Grandfather Road” on some roads in Singapore.

(Check out her blog at: skl0.tumblr.com)

The Singlish phrase is a reference to how the country is over-regulated by the ruling People’s Action Party and its founding patriarch Lee Kuan Yew.

Besides the graffiti on the roads, the woman is also suspected for pasting a series of humorous stickers (hence the moniker) around the island. Photos of those stickers have gone viral on social networks.

If she’s convicted of vandalism, she could be fined up to S$2,000 (US$1,550), jailed up to three years, or both. Fortunately, as a woman, she won’t be caned, unlike what some reports have claimed.

But as much as this Sticker Lady is breaking the law, she’s different from Michael Fay and Oliver Fricker. Read more