With 2 weeks to the second protest at Speakers¡¯ Corner against the population White Paper, the organisers of the event have been asked to apply for a police permit.
The ¡°For A Better Singapore¡± event on 1st May is a follow-up to the one on 16 February which saw some 5,000 people turn up in support.
On 18 April, the National Parks Board, or Nparks, informed Mr Gilbert Goh of transitioning.org, the organisers, that he has to comply with one of the rules of use for Speakers¡¯ Corner for the 1st May event, namely:
¡°A Police Permit must be obtained if permanent residents of Singapore are speaking or organising a demonstration, performance or exhibition, and/or if foreigners are speaking or participating in or organising activities at Speakers¡¯ Corner, Hong Lim Park.¡±Ms Norzehan Ahmad, Section Head at Nparks, had first called Mr Goh on his phone to advise him to apply for a permit, Mr Goh tells publichouse.sg. Later, in an email, she explained that ¡°under the terms and conditions of approval, a Police Permit must be obtained if foreigners are speaking or participating in the activity organised by you at Speakers¡¯ Corner, Hong Lim Park.¡±
The request has puzzled Mr Goh. He says that for all his past events at Speakers¡¯ Corner, he never had to apply for a police permit, including the earlier protest on 16 February. ¡°No one asked me to apply for any police permit regarding foreigners attending or helping to organise the past protest events we held for almost three years,¡± he says. ¡°All our helpers and organisers are locals.¡±
There are no foreigners involved in the organising of the 1st May event either, Mr Goh says, nor would there be any foreigners participating in any of the activities on that day, whether as speakers or otherwise.¡°We won¡¯t purposely ask foreigners to come by the event also,¡± Mr Goh said. Full story
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