|
|
|
Protest or
performance art?
Daniel
Ong
The Nayang
Chronicle
17 Oct
06
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/chronicle/archives/vol13no4.pdf
The
following article was published in Nayang Technology University's
publication.
It had to be a "Uniquely Singapore"
sight. The only place in the world where the media covering a
protest outnumbered the protesters.
Specifically, it was
just a team of six led by Dr Chee Soon Juan, who planned to speak
at The Speakers' Corner before attempting to march down to
Parliament House and the Sun-tec International Convention
Centre.
In fact, it was so overwhelming, a photographer
present even joked that the ratio of media to protesters was
probably 10 to one.
It was a Saturday morning, but I
wanted to see a protest in Singapore first-hand. While on
exchange in Hong Kong, I had observed a pro-democracy march
attended by thousands, but what I saw that morning was more
amusing than inspiring. Plus, like other members of the public
who were around, we were there simply because "Singapore so
boring lah, might as well come and see lor."
The
police were on site questioning the crowd, taking down personal
details, and video-cording the event too. My friend got curious
and asked why they were recording, to which he got a fierce
reply: "I am not obliged to tell you anything."
For
the rest of the day, police simply encircled protesters wherever
they went, with most of the attention focused on Dr Chee and his
sister, Miss Chee Siok Chin.
At times, the authorities and
protesters simply stood still and stared at each other, the
awkward moments broken only by periodic flashes of the
camera. These scenes were played out for the next three days
until Dr Chee ended his protest.
It might have made a good
Singapore Biennale art exhibit, whose theme this year was
"Be-lief". Titled "A Game of Politics", live
and unrehearsed, pitting Dr Chee's faith in civil disobedience
against the police's belief in security.
It was
disappointing, to say the least, that it was a protest that did
not matter and had no matter.
To me, Dr Chee was simply
out to create a ruckus and score political points with the
foreign media. They eventually wrote mainly about his latest act
of civil disobedience and the sup-posed state of repression
here.
He talked about the lack of freedom of speech and
the widening income gap, especially between working Singaporeans
and the ministers. His stirring speech made sense at times, at
least for someone who heard him for the first time. How-ever,
what I failed to hear was anything concrete to remedy the problem
or plans to improve the situation.
Also, I cannot help but
con-sider other factors when it comes to believing the leader of
the Singapore Democratic Party. The party was found liable of
defaming the government in its January newspaper article and got
the least votes in the last General Elections.
Dr Chee
himself was found to have defamed the then Prime Minister Goh
during 2001's General Election while campaigning. He was also
charged with con-tempt of court for questioning the independence
of the judiciary this year.
It was no surprise that he
found himself with so little sup-port, at least from me.
I
simply cannot attach any credibility to a bankrupt opposition
politician, much less want him running the constituency I live
in. I want someone with credibility and action, not some-one who
gets into the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
If
anything, Dr Chee should question himself, after all these long
years of campaigning if Singaporeans support him at all. He may
have grabbed the limelight overseas, but what matters is whether
he can do it here.
As for me, I can now lay claim to
having observed (not participated in) two protests in my
lifetime, something that I am sure most Singaporeans will never
get a chance to do so in their life.
|
|
