20 September 2008
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Abstracts of essays; news; announcements; short takes.
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- Yawning Bread Sampler
- This blog carries summary abstracts of Yawning Bread essays, with space for comments.
Here too are other tidbits that are too short for the main Yawning Bread site.
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Blog Archive
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2008
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September
(17)
- J B Jeyaretnam passes on
- More people on this island, but poorer
- Viewer advisories and the laugh test
- Is engaging the mainstream media pointless? Part 1
- River light-up may not wear well
- Burmese patriots "undesirable", says Singapore gov...
- Facing down a grave security threat: politics
- Occluded by the Merrill Lynch headlines, an Indone...
- At Malaysia's Freedom Film Fest 2008
- The Mr & Mrs Tan gambit
- 150,000 Singaporeans live abroad
- Between cowardice and the rule of law
- The panic of the anointed
- In Jurong GRC, more wanted a by-election than not
- My brilliant solution for Singapore's demographic ...
- Mitcham's edited Gold
- AIMS' proposals progressive but can be improved
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September
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Posts
9 comments:
"different" is not automatically "wrong"; canadians and americans find us driving on the "wrong" side of the street, while british and australians do not; some countries feel street demonstrations are a valuable part of a society's dynamism, while the singapore government (and I would guess its silent majority) find them distractions from its economic focus - as LHL said, just having 2-3 additional opposition MPs would be distracting; over the years, singapore government's policies have led to a general decline of interest in political activities, both pro and anti government - just to get new parliamentary candidates requires the PAP to do elaborate head hunting on a regular basis
whereas a street asembly of 10 demonstrators is nothing in the west, it is a big deal here; it is thus contextually fitting that such a "major" event requires a police permit, to certify its lack of threat to public peace - a law for a society accustomed to political placidity and tranquility
yuen: whereas a street asembly of 10 demonstrators is nothing in the west, it is a big deal here
Why is it a big deal here? Plse explain your above premise before going further.
We should also ask ourselves, if the Burmese dissidents were indeed breaking Singapore laws at the time of their protest, why did the Singapore police not charge them and prosecute them for breaking our laws at the time? If laws were broken, why were they not charged and given a fair trial? Without being convicted in a court of law, how can any Minister claim that they are lawbreakers? Are people in Singapore not presumed innocent until proven guilty? It looks like punishment is being meted out without proper judicial oversight. That is disturbing.
>Why is it a big deal here?
your question can be taken in two ways:
1. why is it taken so seriously: it is extremely rare, like that MRT gathering of 30-40 expatriates wearing brown shirts a couple of years ago, and requires a level of daring and organization that is unusual here
2. how this "big deal" situation came about: the success of the government's policy to encourage people to be eocnomically minded - if you have daring and organizational potential, you use it to make money
To yuen :
You are so typical singaporean! Poor thing! Try to open your mind and eyes too.Step out from the daily propaganda.Life is not only about economics, men!
1. why is it taken so seriously: it is extremely rare, like that MRT gathering of 30-40 expatriates wearing brown shirts a couple of years ago, and requires a level of daring and organization that is unusual here
'Extremely rare' in no way makes it a 'big deal' hence justifying need for police permit. Further more your cited example shows not a lot of daring do or organisation is required for the gathering.
2. how this "big deal" situation came about: the success of the government's policy to encourage people to be eocnomically minded - if you have daring and organizational potential, you use it to make money
Again this does not help advance your premise to reach your conclusion justifying requirement of police permits.
yuen:
I think YB's point was not so much that you need a police permit, but more about the seemingly biased way in which the permits are handed out.
>You are so typical singaporean
first, I am not singaporean; as for whether singaporeans should look beyond economics, they need to decide for themselves - it is not an easy decision however, and those who give advice should first look at themselves and see to what extent they follow their own words - the government's success in focusing on ecnomics is obviously dependent on general acquiesence
on the issue of police permit, you can find some discussion in another thread
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=28396254&postID=3488756660734133239
My first concern was where these individuals were deported to. It sent shivers to my spine thinking they might be sent back to Burma.
If we did that, it would be totally unforgivable.
Thankfully, that's not what happened. Yet, as the following blog entry pointed out, these people ended up being deprived of their job opportunities and livelihoods:
http://paraussies.blogspot.com/2008/08/singapore-shows-burmese-dissidents-door.html
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