10 arrested for protesting against rising prices

SINGAPORE police on Saturday arrested 10 people for holding a rally without a permit to protest against rising living costs, witnesses said.

Leading pro-democracy activist Chee Soon Juan was among the group who were bundled into police vans after plainclothes officers stopped them in front of a shopping mall in the business district, an AFP reporter and photographer said.

Chee is the leader of the Singapore Democratic Party, one of a handful of opposition parties in the city-state, which has been ruled by the People's Action Party since 1959.

About 18 protesters, including children, had earlier gathered outside parliament where they symbolically laid groceries on a sidewalk.

The police then stopped them just minutes after setting off for the Orchard Road shopping area, where they had planned another protest.

They wore red t-shirts with the words 'we cannot take it anymore' while others carried placards denouncing rising prices.

The 10 were arrested after ignoring police calls to disperse and lay down their placards, the witnesses said. Chee's activist sister was also apprehended.

Singapore, scarred by racial riots in the 1960s, has strict laws against public assembly, which require a police permit for a gathering of five or more people. -- AFP

http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STIStory_217102.html

Compare and contrast, Singapore vs Penang:

Protest against new government

GEORGE TOWN: A group of people gathered around the Komtar building here yesterday to protest against the DAP-PKR coalition government.

The crowd demanded that the state government leave the New Economic Policy (NEP) alone and also called on Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to ensure that the Malays would not be marginalised under the new state administration.

They said he should not turn Penang into another Singapore.

Police, including light strike force personnel, were on standby as the crowd started to gather in Jalan Magazine after Friday prayers about 2.15pm.

They carried banners decrying attempts to abolish the NEP and calling for support for Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's leadership.

North East district police chief assistant commissioner Azam Abdul Hamid later ordered the crowd to disperse after informing them that police had not issued any permit for the gathering.

Also present were state Umno leaders including former deputy chief minister Datuk Seri Abdul Rashid Abdullah, Umno secretary Datuk Azhar Ibrahim and Bukit Mertajam division chief Datuk Musa Sheikh Fadzir.

The crowd dispersed peacefully after shouting slogans for about 45 minutes. Police did not arrest anyone.

Azhar said that the gathering was organised as the Malays wanted to vent their anger against the state government's stand on the NEP.

Lim said the state government did not have any problems with the gathering.

"It is all part of freedom of speech. However, I am surprised that they did not give me any memorandum.

"This is the first time a demonstration has been held but those who organised it did not have any memorandum to be submitted," he said.

Lim said the newly-formed state government was willing to listen to what the people had to say, including those from Umno.

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Saturday/National/2187381/Article/index_html

WOW ! You actually took an article from the Straits Times (albeit they got it from AFP)!! The Straits Times that you DESPISE, the Straits Times that you commended others for not reading, saying that they are WISE !!

Please don’t change topic.

Breaking News: Protestors arrested for World Consumers Rights Day event

http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/03/15/breaking-news-protestors-arrested-for-world-consumers-rights-day-event/#more-695

CASE:

Join us at Walk with CASE 2008! 

In conjunction with the World Consumer Rights Day, CASE is organising our annual event “Walk with CASE” on 16 March 2008 (Sunday) to promote the basic rights of all consumers, and to raise the profile of the consumer rights movement in Singapore. Mr Khaw Boon Wan, Minister for Health, is the Guest of Honour to grace the event for that day. The theme for this year's World Consumer Rights Day is "Junk Food Generation: Campaigning to stop the marketing of junk food to children".

“Walk with CASE” is a mass event which will bring together over 5,000 consumers over a wide range of ages. Our objective is to publicise these events as part of our overarching initiative to commemorate the World Consumer Rights Day and to raise awareness for the consumer rights movement in Singapore.

http://www.case.org.sg/special_events.php

If more of his supporters joined him to help him get more food vouchers maybe the event wouldn't have ended being a joke...10 ppl as opposed for 10,000 ppl he has always been asking for. After 16yrs, 10 farking people turned up and they brought children with them. Instead his supporters stay at home and stand ready to pounce the moment he gets arrested, all waiting in anticipation...refreshing the website of a local newspaper for the latest news...even though they totally detest the newspaper.."The protest must go on" they say.....

They should enlist the help from the foreign talent at serangoon road.

With that amount of strength, the protest will be a success.

Wah!!!

Chee Soon Juan is the new Mas Selamat Kastari!!!

Police so free, never go hunt for Mas Selamat Kastari the suspected terrorist,

instead go Orchard Rd arrest a family gathering.

Originally posted by maurizio13:

 

Wah!!!

 

Chee Soon Juan is the new Mas Selamat Kastari!!!

 

Police so free, never go hunt for Mas Selamat Kastari the suspected terrorist,

instead go Orchard Rd arrest a family gathering.

 

So if your house kena robbed and gf kena raped, you don't mind police won't come coz too busy searching for Mas Selamat?

The police should concentrate their resources in catching mas selamat rather than catch those harmful protesters. Stupid government, Better employ Abdullah to be our PM, cheaper and cost saving, more democratic.

Disgraceful act by the police.

The protesters will disperse after an hour or less.

It is a peaceful protest.

They should wake up their fucking undemocratic attitude, PAP regime.

Disgraceful.

Shameful.

R U guys willing to pay the price when a peaceful protest becomes a violent riot?

It takes only a little spark to make a riot... remember the 1964 racial rot?

Malaysians brought change with disgruntled people pouring to the streets. If Singaporeans are disgruntled and want change that badly they ought to go to the streets, instead of waiting to pounce once CSJ gets arrested. 10 fucking people wouldn't change a thing.

Things have moved on my friend.

CASE can, SDP cannot

http://singaporedemocrat.org/articleWCRDprotest11.html

Racial riots drivel excuse cannot be used anymore to suppress democracy.

Originally posted by MohamedF:

R U guys willing to pay the price when a peaceful protest becomes a violent riot?

It takes only a little spark to make a riot... remember the 1964 racial rot?

I doubt history will repeat itself. Peaceful assemblies hardly turn violent...provided there is no mad man in the midst.

Originally posted by MohamedF:

So if your house kena robbed and gf kena raped, you don't mind police won't come coz too busy searching for Mas Selamat?

You are talking about loss of property and physical harm, compared to a family gathering outside Istana.

I wonder how many officers were deployed to control Chee Soon Juan and family?

Maybe you can tell me what harm did Chee Soon Juan do by standing there?

Was Chee Soon Juan about to rob or rape someone?

The fact is the P4P despise political oppositions, that's why they restrict such gatherings.

They can't compete against a strong opposition, that's why they curtail the opposition's power.

1. Making use of children to 'fight one's own battle' is indeed disgraceful and a lot to be frowned upon. How desperate can one get.

2. If Penang is so wonderful ..... please move your arse there!

Dr Chee again..haiz...

Originally posted by MohamedF:

R U guys willing to pay the price when a peaceful protest becomes a violent riot?

It takes only a little spark to make a riot... remember the 1964 racial rot?

yea..1964....er huh..1964....yes yes..1964.....its all about 1964.....is singapore police still wearing shorts? nope? y not? 1964 they wearing them wasn;t they?, they should still be wearing it since they just love mentioning 1964 at any oppertunity when arrest is made at a protest.. now u know y your pm says "everyones happy, because no one is protesting outside city hall..".. lol..

Wake up lar please... you know how many civil and internal war america had?  would a protest be deemed illegal for them becuz every sizable protest (4 people and above in s'pore case) would led to a probable chance of a reoccurence of this riots in the past? no of course not.. but then i guess pap disagrees, they just think majority of singaporeans are imature and might resort to violence if they dun keep things keep under control... thats the picture ... whether you like it or not.. xD

It is only in this 'democracy" that the foundations of free speech is viewed as a threat to security. what freedoms have we scarificed at the altar of sercurity of a nation's mere assests? that of speech. that of worship. that of fear. and now with prices soaring, we are in danger of never gaining freedom from want. If these 4 freedoms seem familiar, they were the roots of all democracy, they were what the orginal American constitution were formed on, they were written by citizens for citizens, they were as just as justice could get in this shithole we live in.

The men on top uses fear to keep the population in control and fear as a uniting force. fear to take away your civil rights. "racial riots in the 1960s?" in comes the ISA, internet monitoring, political censorship and ultimately, conscription. "9/11". and the American constitution is ripped apart, the bill of rights burnt down.

hang the drug dealers, beat the thieves and robbers but when you arrest people for reasons as such mentioned above, you believe your own lies. It's all downhill from here folks.

It is highly, highly paradoxical to assume a moral society can be built out of fear, fear of punishment. We're going straight to hell.

I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be!

We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.

It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.

I want you to get mad!

I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.

All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.

You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!"

 

From the movie "NETWORK", one of the few films that addresses what truely matters.

This is truely a disgraceful and shameless act by the police.

I hope PAP regime can wake up their fucking idea.

If they continue this type of behaviour, more and more people will despise them.

Prices will always rise. Its part of life.

yes prices do rise, so does the wages of the common working class and not just that of your ministers and investing class. 3million equates a quarter of a million per month, which equates $100 a day for 2500 people holding white collar jobs.

The Minister's remuneration jumped a hefty 30 percent, while most common working class Singaporean saw only a 4% to 6% increase in wages that hardly cover inflation.

With the different cost of goods and services rising by an average of between 7 to 10 percent and more, are the wage increases approved by the Wage Council sufficient to handle the increases in the Cost of Living.

If it does not cover the increases to our Cost of Living, it will soon affect the very high Standard of Living in Singapore.

I do agree that democracy under Abdullah Badawi has been given some space to grow. They let Anwar speak in the election rallies although the state media did not report on them. I hope he stays on because Najib or Mr M’s son are as autocratic as Mr M himself. In this mind, Abdullah think about the next generation of young Malaysian, many of whom went to western countries to study and brough home the “god given gift of democracy” and how he can win them over in the next election. I have more confident of Malaysia becoming a freer and more democratic country. But for Singapore, I don’t know what its future, can’t read the minds of our leaders…a bit depressed.