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CASE
Executive Director Seah
Seng Choon marching during
World
Consumer Rights Day
CASE
members assembled outside Parliament House on 18 Mar 07
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SDP
applies for protest rally on World Consumer Rights Day
Singapore
Democrats
7 Jan 08
The
Singapore Democrats have applied to hold a rally on 15 Mar 07 to
protest against the alarming escalation in prices of basic goods
and services in Singapore.
The event will take place on
World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) and will be held outside
Parliament House by the Singapore River.
WCRD is an event
commemorated by Consumer International (CI) and is an annual
occasion for "promoting the basic rights of all consumers,
for demanding that those rights are respected and protected, and
for protesting the market abuses and social injustices which
undermine them."
(http://www.consumersinternational.org)
Interestingly
the Consumer Association of Singapore or CASE, headed by PAP MP
Yeo Guat Kwang, is
a member of CI. In 2007 CASE held a rally outside Parliament
House by the Singapore River to celebrate WCRD. (See here
http://www.case.org.sg/central2.htm)
According
to the CI website, thousands of people had taken part in the CASE
event held last year – complete with placards, t-shirts and
speeches.
Seeing that CASE held this public event last
year, the SDP has put in an application to the police for a
permit to hold a similar event this year at the same place for
the same occasion.
The application was made on 28 Dec 07
but the police have yet to reply.
The rally will be an
occasion for Singaporeans to protest against the exploitation of
consumers who have had to endure a rash of price increases over
the last few months while the businesses owned by the Government
continue to register fat profits and greedy ministers line the
pockets with out-of-this-world salaries.
As a result, the
inflation rate has shot past 4 percent and looks set to rise even
further, heaping yet more misery and hardship on the people
especially those in the lower-income group.
The Singapore
Government being landlord, employer, and everything in between
needs to be held accountable by consumer-citizens.
The
protest is part of the SDP's campaign against the PAP's greed and
exploitation of Singaporeans.
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