When Gilbert Goh announced that he will be holding a May Day protest at Hong Lin Park, I questioned the wisdom of that. I said then that the successful protest on 16th February could be a one-time thing as the 10 weeks break between the two protests would be a problem and less people will show up on 1st May.
That might no longer be the case as the May Day protest just got a shot in the arm by, of all people, the Singapore government.
The problem started when two ministers contacted the Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP), a Muslim civil group, and exerted pressure due to Nizam Ismail, a director of the group who was scheduled to speak at the May Day protest. In a post on his blog, Mr. Ismail announced that he decided to quit as a board director of AMP as it had been hinted that government funds "might" be withheld from the group if he spoke at the protest. His resignation was to distance himself from AMP.
Speak about shooting yourself in the foot!
Seriously, who the hell is Nizam Ismail. No offence to the man but I never heard of him and I believe most Singaporeans have no idea who he is. He is a non-factor. So what does it matter if he speaks at the protest? Or to be exact; he was a non-factor. He is now a factor because everyone now knows the Singapore government is trying to stop him from speaking at the protest!
With his resignation and blog post, the Singapore government just gave the May Day protest a free promotion. It made the protest bigger and more important than it was. The protest is now suddenly a problem for the government, and it is a problem that the government created out of thin air.
4 comments:
JUst 4 days left till the end of the month, the supposedly revised deadline for the AIM investigation to make its report. Dare the PAP govment reveal the findings b4 1 May,m thereby giving the final shot in the arm for the May Day protest?
Only if they decide to throw away their brains. Personally, I would just leave the protest alone. Even with this shot in the arm, I still have doubts about the success of it.
Before AMP saga, I expect the crowds at the May day rally to be about 4000 strong, now it seems I may have to up my prediction manifold. I hope the overwhelming respond will exert a resounding pressure on this self-centered govt.
The number yesterday was between 3,000 to 5,000 which is good news for the protest. The 10 weeks day between the 2 protests does not seem to have hurt them.
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