Singapore is often criticised for a variety of things, including the death penalty, being a ‘fine’ city, and showing TV shows only 24 hours after they’ve aired in the USA. Yet there’s one thing that bugs most people about Singapore – the lack of freedom of speech. Citizens, the press, and government officials all have a list of rules and regulations to follow, some written down and some not. There are lawsuits against dissidents, public assemblies are illegal, and journalists aren’t allowed to say what they really think of the batik shirts that ASEAN leaders wear. Over the years, there have been efforts to free up the laws. This is the reason why STOMP was created – so that people can freely express their opinions about how awful STOMP is. They started the Speaker’s Corner, and there’s even been talk of allowing dialect back onto local TV screens. But there’s one area that hasn’t been relaxed (in fact security there has actually increased): protesting. Registration is required before people can go up to the Corner to say anything, and you can get placed under house arrest for intending to take part in a demonstration. There are mucho laws in place for people trying to be too macho. (I’m sorry. I don’t know why I say these things.)
And so it should be.
What, exactly, do protests accomplish? Someone will have to enlighten me about this because I don’t have a clue what they’re supposed to achieve. Take, for example, the continuous protesting of the Chinese against Malaysia’s handling of the MH370 situation.A bunch of people camp overnight at the Malaysian Embassy in China, waiting for someone to “come out and tell us why they didn’t come.” First of all, there is something about that sentence that sounds supremely illogical. Second of all, protesting only makes the job so much harder. Not only do they have to deal with the actual search and rescue, they have to deal with publicity, and now they have to deal with crazy people. Besides, last time I checked it was quite impossible to give news that didn’t exist away. I’m sure that the families are grieving for their missing relatives, but must you really grieve in a manner that hinders people from trying to find those missing relatives?
The fact of the matter is that protests do absolutely nothing but cause chaos and make everything worse. Turkey right now is erupting in protests because of the mining disaster, but this is just going to worsen the situation. Instead of handling the rescue the government is going to have to divide its resources between that and handling rowdy protesters. They’re only digging a hole for themselves. Besides, it’s not like the government wanted this to happen. If anything they should have protested before anyone got hurt.
Even if protests were the only way to get the government to listen, what good would they really do? Forgive me if I come across as overly cynical and pessimistic (because I am), but it’s just going to be the same as things have been; someone apologises, vows are made, and the miners go back into the mines. It’s exactly how there are still garment workers in horrible conditions all across the world, despite what happened in Bangladesh. The situation will only change if there is something done about the root cause that forces those miners to go into those mines. And protests aren’t going to do that.
In the end, protests only proliferate a vicious cycle. One of the most common reasons for any given protest is for people to Get More Money. Any Lufthansa passenger could probably tell you a thing or two about that, and add in a few other things that would not feature on this child-friendly blog. The workers might get more money, but in the long run who’s better off? Not the economy, because of the excess supply and limited demand for expensive labour, better illustrated in a graph I have neither the skills nor the patience to draw. Not the company, who’ll be paying more. Not the passengers, who’ll also be paying more. And not the workers, who might see an increase in layoffs. What do they do when they’re upset? Well, their bosses were pressured into raising their wages once, right, so why not do it again?
Tah dah. Vicious cycle.
What can other countries do about it? Not very much, really. That’s the great thing about Singapore: the government decided to make protesting illegal at a time when people thought it was okay for the government to make protesting illegal. Try it now in any given country and there will be – you’ve guessed it – protests against a clamp-down on free speech and human rights and so on. You can go on having your freedom: I’m just going to sit here with my lack of speech and total security. Your loss.
the grumpy bulldog 