“The Lady” made her presence felt at Hong Lim Park on when Singaporeans and Burmese nationals held a vigil calling for the release of Asia's most renowned democracy and human rights leader.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's picture was held up by participants who showed up in the hundreds dressed in yellow in the event organised by Maruah.
Although the event took place a few weeks ago, there are important lessons that we can learn from the proceedings.
The event was part of a regional effort involving NGOs in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines calling for the release of Ms Suu Kyi. There was only one problem. It was made clear to one and all that the Burmese were not welcome to participate in the proceedings as they were reminded to remain at the fringe of the park.
Non-Singaporeans are prohibited from taking part in political events in public, even at Speakers' Corner. The rationale for such a restriction is because Singapore's politics is for Singaporeans only.
But how is calling on the Burmese regime to release Ms Suu Kyi be considered engaging in Singapore's politics? Why couldn't Burmese residing in Singapore join in the call for Daw Suu's release? The organisers were not even calling for the Singapore government to change its Burma policy.
It's not even a Burmese issue as Singaporeans were the organisers. I'm sure there were many other people of other nationalities who wanted to express their concern for her release.
Many Singaporeans have, I am sure participated in political events in countries whose governments are not as paranoid as the one we have. It would be unacceptable for democratic countries to ban Burmese and other nationals from protesting against the Burmese junta and call for Ms Suu Kyi's release.
The recent international protests against the election results in Iran is another case in point. Iranians living and studying in countries across the world were out demonstrating against the Ahmadinejad regime. There were even protests in the Gulf States and Malaysia. These governments recognised their rights to free expression as long as the protesters remained peaceful.
In stark contrast, there is only silence in Singapore. Either we are a superior society or we are really out of sync with the rest of the world.
What happened at the Aung San Suu Kyi event at Speakers' Corner is yet another example of how authoritarian regimes make its people comply with policies that not only make no sense, but also make us look silly.
Just because they are not Singaporeans, people cannot express their support for what is right? Is that what we are teaching our children? In an internationalised world where movement of people are much more pronounced is it reasonable to expect other nationals to remain silent about what goes on in their home countries?
Our Burmese friends felt so deeply about the injustice taking place in their homeland, as we all do, that they could not keep quiet nor remain at the fringe of the Maruah event. And so despite the warnings they went ahead to participate in the proceedings, lighting candles and releasing balloons.
And guess what? The 60-minute vigil was held peacefully, respectfully and responsibly.
Are we proud of our silliness?
And get this. While foreigners are not allowed to take part in our internal affairs, they are called upon to run our reserves in Temasek as well as to set wage levels in the National Wages Council.
Fri 19 Jun 2009 5:46 AM|
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seebeng - It's fear, fear and more fear...
The reason for "silence in Singapore" is fear.
The dictatorship that has gone on ruling Singapore for half a century has instilled fear in the people to control and keep them under check.
There is this fear of losing their HDB flats where close to 90 percent of the people are housed.
There is this fear of losing ones job for even mild expression of views other than those approved and propagated by its boot-licking media by the autocratic regime.
There is this fear of being on constant watch by the so-called grassroots organizations.
But the day the people overcome this fear, it would be the day of judgment for the corrupt, nepotistic and crony regime.
Fri 19 Jun 2009 8:20 AM
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Robox
Article 12 of the Constitution states that "[b]All persons[/b] are equal before the law and entitled to the equal protection of the law". That is an internationally accepted norm that recognizes that it is not only Singaporeans/PRs who reside in Singapore, but non-Singaporeans do as well; non-Singaporeans within Singapore's jurisdiction are equally subject to Singapore's laws, when they break them as when they need protection under them.
Yet, Article 15(1)(a) provides "the right to freedom of speech and expression", and Article 15(1)(b)guarantees "the right to assemble peaceably and without arms" [b]only to Singapore Citizens[/b] and stands in stark contradiction to Article 12. But really, have we not come to expect contradictions such as this from the village elders of our isolated mountain tribe who have not imbibed the first principles of professionalism in governance?
[i]Notes:
1. At the recent Pinkdot celebrations also held at Hong Lim Park, [b]Singapore PRs[/b] did in fact get explicit approval for full participation at the event along with [b]Singapore citizens[/b].)
2. I will not deal the restrictions spelt out in Article 14(2) because as Article 14(1) stands, it could not be interpreted to include non-Singaporeans, or even Singapore PRs, the Pinkdot contradiction notwithstanding; it is clearly a non-starter for discussion.[/i]
Singaporeans may wish to compare Article 14 to the clauses relevant to foreigners residing in countries not their own in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and specifically, Articles 2, 6, 7, 13(1), 19, and 20(1):
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
Singaporeans enjoy many of the rights as that are spelled out in the UN Declaration when we are overseas as Singapore citizens/PRs. Yet we bristle when non-Singaporeans within Singapore's jurisdiction have rights equal to ours. I sincerely believe that, beginning with the anti-human rights attitudes originating with the PAP government that has filtered down to the Singapore population, it is [b]the non-practise of human rights[/b] that [b]makes Singaporeans an ungracious people[/b]. A case in point is the recent AWARE controversy in which one group of people - the ultraconservatives - fought tooth and nail to deny any space in the public arena for LGBTs and our issues.
The ultraconservatives - along with other Singaporeans in other issues - have learnt very well from the PAP's own conduct in human rights abuses to feel emboldened to act like the PAP when they commit abuses against the rights of others.
It is the same ungraciousness that many Singaporeans display towards non-Singaporeans when they comment that the SDP "only cares about foreigners" or that they "play to the foreigners' gallery" when they read SDP articles like the above.
Fri 19 Jun 2009 10:38 PM
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tengday
Talking about out of sync with the rest of the world, the Union of Myanmar is an official member of United Nations since 1948. Burma was its British colonial name. Similarly Burmese, Rangoon, Irrawaddy, Pegu etc are all out-dated names.
Sat 20 Jun 2009 8:07 AM
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Seelan Palay - re:
[quote=tengday]Talking about out of sync with the rest of the world, the Union of Myanmar is an official member of United Nations since 1948. Burma was its British colonial name. Similarly Burmese, Rangoon, Irrawaddy, Pegu etc are all out-dated names.[/quote]
Dear friend, the Burmese activists and opposition especially refuse to use the name Myanmar in a way to refute the illegal Junta government that is oppressing the country.
“The democratically elected but never convened Parliament of 1990 does not recognise the name change, and the democratic opposition continues to use the name Burma. Due to consistent support for the democratically elected leaders, the US Government likewise uses Burma,” the State Department website says. - http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22496475-2,00.html
Sun 21 Jun 2009 6:32 AM
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Robox
Re: [color=red]"Non-Singaporeans are prohibited from taking part in political events in public, even at Speakers' Corner. [b][u]The rationale for such a restriction is because Singapore's politics is for Singaporeans only[/u][/b]."[/color]
There are even many classes of [b]Singaporeans[/b] who are barred from having a say in Singapore politics because of the PAP government's pathological need to criminalize political creeds that are different from their own dysfuntional one; the PAP government's "Singapore politics for Singaporeans only" rationale is a patently false one and smacks of the dishonesty that is their hallmark.
Sat 20 Jun 2009 7:02 PM
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quantum
If Malaysian politics is for Malaysians only, what is LKY doing in Malaysia?
Sun 21 Jun 2009 4:35 AM
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V.Benedict - Double Standard
This is a "Double-standard" government.
Sun 21 Jun 2009 4:43 AM
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V.Benedict - Little Emperor Lee
Magna Carta, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, the American Constitution, and the Helsinki Final Act are all expressions of constitutional liberlism. Sadly, Emperor Lee had suppress and total annihilate it.
Sun 21 Jun 2009 9:49 AM
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Paparazzi
Quantum wrote,
If Malaysian politics is for Malaysians only,what is LKY doing in Malaysia?
Propose to his 'sin-cheow' counterpart across the Causeway to introduce GRC in future election to prevent 2008 GE Tsunami.
Sun 21 Jun 2009 5:35 PM
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quantum
To LKY, everybody is 'Sin-Cheow' since he is the oldest ruler on earth. I am not counting the mummies in Egypt.
Sun 21 Jun 2009 6:21 PM
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tengday
With due respect to the country, the official name of Myanmar should be referred to as the name change was recognised by United Nations in 1989 and also it was admitted into ASEAN in 1997 under this name.
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
“The Lady” made her presence felt at Hong Lim Park on when Singaporeans and Burmese nationals held a vigil calling for the release of Asia's most renowned democracy and human rights leader.
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The dictatorship that has gone on ruling Singapore for half a century has instilled fear in the people to control and keep them under check.
There is this fear of losing their HDB flats where close to 90 percent of the people are housed.
There is this fear of losing ones job for even mild expression of views other than those approved and propagated by its boot-licking media by the autocratic regime.
There is this fear of being on constant watch by the so-called grassroots organizations.
But the day the people overcome this fear, it would be the day of judgment for the corrupt, nepotistic and crony regime.