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Media
Release: A peaceful protest abruptly stopped
Singapore
Democrats
15 Mar 08
Today is the World Consumer Rights
Day. The Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE) is organising a
special event tomorrow
(16 March 2008, Sunday) to "promote the basic rights of all
consumers", and to "raise the profile of the consumer
rights movement in Singapore".
True to the cause
championed by CASE, the SDP also organised a peaceful "Tak
Boleh Tahan!"
protest today, similarly fashioned to last year's CASE
event during
which crowd wearing specially designed T-shirts congregated in
front the Parliament House, holding various placards in their
hands, then walked around the Singapore River, etc.
There
were about 20 odd people participating in today's event, wearing
the red T-shirts with the words "Tak
Boleh Tahan" in
white.
In addition, there was a contingent of children holding red
balloons, walking side by side with the grown-ups or being pushed
along in their baby strollers.
In front of the Parliament
House, the group also highlighted the recent price hikes by
displaying an array of consumer goods which included a loaf of
"no-frilled" bread, a pack of rice, a tin of Milo,
instant noodles, biscuits, condense milk and cooking oil,
etc.
The atmosphere was pleasant and joyful until the
police showed up to gave the protesters their warnings, and asked
them to disperse or risked being arrested.
Apparently
uneasy with those images and messages prominently featured on the
placards, the police tried to seize them from the protesters. As
the group proceeded towards the Funan Centre, plain-clothes
police surrounded the protesters and started making their
arrests.
While the protesters locked their arms together
to safeguard their properties, the police picked the first
protester, forcefully pulled him out from the tightly
inter-locked group, and swiftly dragged him to one of the police
vans parked nearby. Then they went back to work on their 2nd
victim. Making their arrests one by one, it took the police
several rounds of spectacles in front of a big crowd of onlookers
gathered around to finish their most important job of the day.
Finally, about 15 protesters, including Ms Chee Siok Chin
were bundled into the police vans and sent to the Cantonment
Police headquarters. Later on, when some family members of
protesters went to the police HQ and tried to find out more about
the list of people getting arrested and their charges, the police
refused to give any information.
Meanwhile, lawyer M Ravi
is representing the group when the protesters continued to be
held up for holding a peaceful protest until they were abruptly
stopped by the police by force.
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