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I am offended by Sylvia Lim’s suggestion that Singapore should allow protests, simply for mere opportunity for our police to practice.
A protest is a powerful event – it is the final action if democratic, peaceful and civil efforts fail. It is the pressure release valve for a body of people, a demonstration of real anger, a warning before things get violent (and protests do turn violent).
It is not there as an educational tool for policemen.
Lim has taken the sacredness of a protest and turned it into a casual thing.
And a protest has consequences: Strikes can lead to the loss of jobs and the crippling of national infrastructure. Protests, no matter how peaceful – have the ability to turn very nasty, as you can observe from events in Bangkok.
We may not be free to have protests at whim and fancy here, but I’d rather give up this small freedom than to give up bigger freedoms to have a safe environment for my family, the property I own and the security and peace that is preserved everywhere in Singapore.
At the moment when Lim made her remark, Hong Kong shows how Occupy Central is making dents on their economy.
I shudder to think of the kind of policies Sylvia Lim and the Worker’s Party will enact when they finally get installed as Government of Singapore.
[plinker]
