SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Police in strictly controlled Singapore on
Sunday refused to allow a protest march by a veteran opposition
politician who is challenging the government's plans for a one
percentage point hike in its goods and services tax.
J.B. Jeyaretnam, who has been repeatedly sued for libel over the
years by the city-state's ruling party officials, wanted to lead a
march through an inner city residential area on January 5 -- the
day he turns 77.
Protests are rare in Singapore, which maintains stringent laws on
public speaking. A police spokesman said the planned march would
have disturbed law and order.
"Police, having considered the application, have decided not to
grant the applicant a permit for the event as it may pose law and
order problems," police spokesman Stanley Norbert said.
Jeyaratnam had said his planned march would be peaceful, like that
of India's Mahatma Gandhi's against the British government's salt
tax in 1930.
After losing a series of defamation suits brought against him by
ruling party officials, Jeyaretnam was declared bankrupt last year
and gave up his parliamentary seat. As a result, he has been barred
from running in elections.
In 1981, he became the first politician to break the People's
Action Party's parliamentary monopoly, and was famed for his verbal
jousting with the then prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.
The government decided to stagger the rise in its goods and
services tax because of prolonged weakness in the economy. The tax
was to have risen from three percent to five percent on January
1.
Instead, it will go up to four percent from three percent in
January 2003, and then to five percent in 2004.
The police said Jeyaretnam could speak at the city-state's
Speakers' Corner, which is loosely based on its namesake in
London's Hyde Park. Speakers must register with police
beforehand.
But microphones are banned despite traffic noise, all speeches must
cease by 7 p.m. and strict rules prohibit speeches that are
religious in nature or that could foment hostility among the
nation's Chinese, Malay and Indian communities.
Your opinion?? I don't think singapore is very strictly
controlled, but I think Singapore SHOULD allow JBJ to proceed with
this march. . .
NOTE: This thread is about whether you agree or disagree with the
protest march, NOT whether you agree or disagree with the GST
hike.
