Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Play Nice

Worst case scenario
If the Singapore Police Force (SPF) is still having nightmares about General Custer's last stand at Little Bighorn, it's understandable. The general was also outnumbered by Indians. This time the numbers could be bigger, 10,000 if everything goes according to plan. This time, they are decidedly determined not to be caught flat-footed (again).

Yesterday the police reminded organisers of public events that a permit is generally required in Singapore for any assembly or procession under the Public Orders Act if the gathering intends to:
a) Demonstrate support for or opposition to the views or actions of any person, group of persons or any government;
b) Publicise a cause or campaign; or
c) Mark or commemorate any event.

A former committee member of the Pilipino Independence Day Council of Singapore (PIDCS) said previous applications for a permit, such as for one similar gathering at Hong Lim Park, were submitted 1 1/2 months to 3 weeks in advance. The police guidelines do accept submissions as late as 4 days before the actual event. If partial or full road closure is required, applications must be turned in at least 21 days beforehand.

June 8 is 46 days away. Kind of early to speculate if PIDCS co-chairman Rychie Andres will stand by his earlier statement about going ahead with the big bash at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza. Police said they have heard nothing from the organisers. The Philippines Embassy is awfully quiet too. Former president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada is busy in Hong Kong apologizing for the death of 8 tourists in the August 2010 Manila hostage crisis. The loudest ringing endorsements seem to emanate from Tan Chuan-Jin, Lee Hsien Loong, Warren Fernandez, Kirsten Han - the list is long, and some quarters say, smacks of treachery.

But hey, rules are rules. The PIDCS may be simply taking a leaf from the elections department, giving the shortest notice permissible so that the opposing side has the least time to react.

11 comments:

  1. Doesn't the ngee ann civic plaza falls under the territory of the mall?
    Maybe organizers was just applying through the commercial entity.

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  2. WIth such ringing endorsements from their country's leeders, this application sure to be approved, even if submitted at the very last minute.

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  3. Me recalls the SG day in Australia which drew flak from the host and citizens where aussies kpkb that they were barred from the event at the Royal park.

    Did that lower their international standing huh?
    So will Pinays open the event to singaporeans who wants to participate too, as the australians expected in return.
    Maybe they should cater for more than 10,000 lah..sure got people want to gatecrash , tourist or locals alike..
    Mata better go secure those moveable projectiles from rubbish bins to bottled drinks leh.
    Me popcorns ready.

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    1. at least in australia, the singapore organizer paid a fee to hire out the place. are the philipino group paying a fee to hire the premium downtown place for such event?

      as i understood, even a harmless fun flashmob is banned and disallowed by SPF. how come they can proceed in such a big scale in orchard road? why the double standards?

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    2. Hello. Please do not get confuse with Singapore Day in Sydney. This is a gathering of Singaporeans and PRs of Singapore to come togather for food and show. It was not a National Day celebration. You have been fooled to think they are both the same.

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    3. Why even bother with Spore day? The event is organised by NTPD under GTC who labelled them quitters. It is more of using this excuse to let the leeders and their ball carriers go for fully sponsored tour. And a chance to invite new citizens to make up the 6.9 million and to buy their votes.

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  4. All these wayang is good diversion for hen and pinkie's retirement sinking fund: the F35 buy. Unfortunately, while red dot's chiak liao bee mangoes-loving (and eating) parliament members are blissfully kept in the dark, the US pentagon itself has fired more arrows accusing Lockheed and the whole F35 project development office of poor quality control and oversight. Needless to say, sneaky hen and his minions and generals will also not be telling parliament of the latest F35 technical failures even as last year's brief statement to parliament mentioned their "determination to purchase the F35", there was a fleet-wide grounding of the planes in the US at about the same time only revealed recently, after cracks were discovered in the plane’s turbine blades and elsewhere. Nor did another report, revealed in January this year by Reuters, by the Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation, that described the performance of the plane’s highly complex software as “unacceptable” and noted that Lockheed Martin had delivered less than half of the software capabilities its contract specified. Good luck, at least hen can be sure the Internet today will continue to share the F35's dirty secrets and broadcast it far and wide. There is no longer "tell them only the good news" option, deleting facebook entries cannot stop people from holding all his F35 supporters (and beneficiaries) accountable.

    Pentagon Inspector general report Sep 2013: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/z-pdf-archive/20131001_F35_IG.pdf

    Cracks: http://defensetech.org/2014/01/29/report-f-35-cracks-in-tests-isnt-reliable/

    Software screw ups Jan 2014: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/23/us-usa-lockheed-fighter-idUSBREA0M1L920140123

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    1. Why Spore is so hell bent on buying the F35 even when its becoming well know that its the "flying (sometimes it does fly) lemon" of all times. Is it as many believe because the PAP has quietly committed to Lockheed or someone to be joint developers/funders/ investors to this project? Word is that this this secret commitment was made together with the purchase commitment of x number of planes to make the whole thing financially viable. Sounds a lot like a decision which would have even made made by none other than the Chairman of the GIC. In his infinite wisdom he was probably hoping to make making a killing when the aircraft started selling like hot cakes like the F16. Except now, after God knows how much the PAP has contributed to this project, it's turning out to be a dud. Could it be that the billions making up the defense budget which keeps growing every year for no rhyme or reason is hiding a sizable sum in contribution to the development fund of this F35 which like the YOG , has busted the budget so many times? Is there a black hole somewhere in the USA where all our CPF monies are going into trying to save the damned F35?

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  5. Well, the 4th attempted security breach at the woodlands checkpoint.

    I think many people must be hoping to try their luck now that they know SPF is under staffed by 1000 personnel.

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  6. Singaporeans from all walk of life are wondering why SPF has not issue the permit to PIDCS yet, and we have Tan Chuan Jin calling
    s'poreans of bigotry, repulsive, and have PM Lee
    appalled and calling s'poreans a disgrace to S'pore. After the bus strike, little India riot, maybe PM Lee and his gang need something more unpleasant to happen here to wake them up from their slumber.

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  7. The real test of how Singaporeans are being treated by our PAP Govt will be whether they are going to close one eye for Singaporean citizens & PRs of Pinoy descent to celebrate Phillipines Independence day here in Singapore?

    If they still insist we Singaporeans must be gracious enough, then it can only mean that no matter what, we Singaporeans will have been shortchanged by our PAP Govt : this cannot, that cannot but our pseudo citizens can?????

    If that is the case, we Singaporeans must really be idiots to allow PAP to treat us like shit?

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