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05-10-2013, 01:30 PM
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A REAL ONE-HOUR SINGAPORE CONVERSATION AT HONG LIM PARK ON 5TH OCTOBER



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Post date:
18 Sep 2013 - 2:54am


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We are planning a new format for our third white paper protest on 5th October. Many have emailed us and they want to see a change on our programme.

We are glad to announce that we will be dedicating one hour of the 3-hour programme for the people to ask questions from our panel of speakers on that day.

Mics will be going round the park and do come prepared to present your views on that day - from the ground up in the surrounding presence of a few thousand Singaporeans.

Each person can only ask one question and limited to a minute only if you want to express an opinion.

It promises to be a real Singapore conversation with no censorship.

Hopefully, the changed format will allow Singaporeans to interact more with the speakers and organisers as many people have feedbacked that its getting boring listening to speeches after speeches from the same speakers.

We will also introduce new speakers and so far we have six already – we will announce their names nearer to the day of the event. We will also bring back one or two veterans so that we have some meat in the speeches.

There will be the usual fiery speeches but it will be capped to 2 hours instead of all the three hours allocated for the protest.

Someone will also provide variety to the event by singing two songs on that day.

The jobfair for jobless Singaporeans will go on as planned and we are trying to get finger food for the many that will attend the protest – free of charge.

So far, five employers have signed up to offer jobs for Singaporeans on that day and we are targetting at least ten employers by 5th October.

If you are an employer and wants to participate in our jobfair, please write to us at [email protected]. You don’t have to take part in the protest event.

On a more sober note, much has happened since we announced our third population white paper protest on 5th October.

Empty discarded ballot boxes were found in a school and it was announced later by the government that the Elections Department was not held responsible for the fiasco.

There was also another eruption on the local scene when the family of the late Indian Singaporean – Dinesh went to court over suspected police brutality while he was held in prison.

During this period, we also saw how Singapore went through one of the worst one-week flooding ever and the AYE was closed down – for the first time in history – because it was deemed impassable.

Many Singaporeans will agree with me that we are seeing a baptism of changes happening in our country – unseen anytime in our short history.

People are getting bolder and maybe we have reach the end of our tolerance level for anything that is unjust and untransparent.

There is only so much tyranny that we can take in and after five decades of autocratic rule people are fighting back.

This year we saw the rapid rise of civil activism – unseen before for the past few decades due mainly to fear and apathy.

Decades of fierce reprisal for anything organised against the state have rendered the population fearful of anything at the park – more known for small gatherings of 100-200 people at the most than massive show of people’s power in the thousands.

Singaporeans rather find ways to emigrate than take the train to hong lim park to protest as many will ask “What’s the use? Better migrate…”

Thus after our 16th Feb and 1st May protests, many people have asked whether our country has suddenly woke up from decades of restless slumber when 5000 people gathered in bold protest against the population white paper – not once but twice?

This is Singapore, not Malaysia or Myarmar…hello?

For one, there are still many Singaporeans out there who are real patriotic people and when pushed to the wall, they will rise up and be counted.

We saw how grown men teared up when they sang the national anthem at our 16th Feb protest at the end of the event.

We knew that there are many Singapore lovers out there – they care enough to come out in the pouring rain and stood in the mud for a cause that they believe in.

The 6.9 million population white paper is not just a policy that many Singaporeans loathe only but its also a matter of preserving our national sovereignty and survival.

Many Singaporeans feel betrayed by a government who is bent on selling out the country through the use of economic jargon and population growth at all cost.

Jobs were lost to incoming foreigners and the HDB resale price index doubled within a short span of 6 years.

Singaporeans continued to live in suppressed conditions as statistics have shown that 300, 000 of our own earns $2000 and below as living cost continues to soar beyond sanity.

We are also seeing a new dawn rising from the decades of abusive human rights and dismayed living conditions of fellow Singaporeans.

Let us not let the successes of our two earlier protests go to waste – it will be disastrous if the third event is poorly attended.

Let us agree to disagree for whatever differences we have with the organisers and come out together as one united front – against the white paper and most importantly tyranny.

If the third protest is poorly attended, the authorities may even think that we are happy with whatever cosmetic changes they have implemented after our two protests and will continue to bring in more foreigners in the near future.

Its only three hours of your time but it may be the most important three hours that you have sacrifice – for yourself, your fellow countrymen and your children.


Written by: Gilbert Goh

Editor’s note: Please go to our Facebook event page (https://www.facebook.com/events/164819347042721/)for more information on the protest.


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