Are Singaporeans hopeless ?

[Cheekg98]

If you read this article, will you feel singaporean are hopeless ? didnt even dare to protest ?

 

 

 

Mon, Aug 27, 2007

AP (Associated Press) Protesters keep marching over fuel price hikes

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Dozens of pro-democracy activists kept up a rare show of defiance against Myanmar's military regime Monday, marching to protest the rising cost of basic goods in the impoverished nation following a fuel price hike, witnesses said.

 

They said about 50 people, wearing white, marched in the bustling township of Bago, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the country's commercial center, Yangon.

 

Demonstrators shouted slogans calling for lower consumer prices, as plainclothes police watched from a distance without intervening or making arrests, the witnesses said.

 

The demonstrators dispersed without incident after marching along a busy street in Bago for more than half an hour.

 

News also emerged of a protest in Mogok, about 680 kilometers (420 miles) north of Yangon, in an area famous for gemstone mining.

Mogok residents said more than 200 people, including members of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, marched Saturday to protest the fuel price hike and dispersed peacefully without any arrests.

 

Earlier this month, gas pump prices doubled after Myanmar's military junta slashed state subsidies that had kept domestic oil prices low for years. The hikes resulted in increases in prices of public transport -- some since rolled back -- and also higher prices for some basic commodities due to higher transport costs.

 

The move triggered a number of small, peaceful protests last week, mainly in Yangon. Police subsequently detained at least 65 activists, including several leaders of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement.

Myanmar's ambassador to the Philippines, Thang Tun, told The Associated Press on Sunday that Myanmar could no longer afford to subsidize fuel so heavily due to steep oil price increases worldwide. He said cutting the subsidies was not a political move.

 

Myanmar activists have speculated that the government needed to slash the subsidies to remedy a cash shortage. Some analysts said the measure could be a prelude to privatization, or that it may even reflect conflict within the junta -- and could be a deliberate attempt to provoke unrest, further stalling the approval of a long-awaited constitution and embarrassing military ruler Gen. Than Shwe.

 

Myanmar's ruling junta has been widely criticized for human rights violations, including the extended detention of Suu Kyi and more than 1,200 other political prisoners.

 

Economic dissatisfaction sparked the country's last major upheaval in 1988, when mass demonstrations broke out seeking an end to the military rule that began in 1962.

 

The army violently subdued those protests. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people were killed.

 

The current protests are nowhere near the scale of those in 1988, and the junta appeared to be taking no chances in trying to clamp down on them.

 

The military rulers held a general election in 1990, but refused to honor the results when the National League for Democracy won in a landslide.

Edited August 27, 2007 by Cheekg98

[Scion]

i won't say Singaporeans are hopeless... just that most of us have everything to lose...

however, if one day our economy crashes, and we lose our jobs and money, then we'll have the courage to protest or even topple the gahmen... just like what the Indonesians did to Suharto during the 97/98 riots...

[Gary84]

haiz...how ridiculous can it be when SIngaporeans actually have to apply for a permit if they want to start a protest....

[Robin]

what do u wanna protest about?

[Gate75]

we are peace loving

[Viviobluerex]

How to be Hopeless when we are not even given any hope in the first place?

 

Do we have any chance at all against the Robo?

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://kcarclubsg1975.spaces.live.com/

[Viviobluerex]

Thats because by the the time you get there, the Special task Force in red buses are all waiting for you, together with ambulance, fire engines and counts of police vehicles. The army 5-tonners will be there too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://kcarclubsg1975.spaces.live.com/

[Ghostrider]

Must protest then not hopeless ?

 

Protest shows the country's instability. It will effect investments...which translate to lesser jobs or lower pay jobs.

 

Be glad that we are staying in our tiny island with no resources and yet most of our fellow countrymen have a roof over our heads and 3 meals. We may not be rich...but if you really want to compare...there are much richer people than us and much poorer people than us as well.

 

Hopeless are just that some of our countrymen still have the I, Me and Myself mentality when it comes to showing grace.

[Weichien]

protest for cheaper car and cheapest coe.

fuel price cheaper for hdb flats.

[Comnao]

yup... make love not war

 

NOW.. BEND DOWN !!!

Deer Leeder wants yr ass tonite!!

[Comnao]

sorry ... I need a favor

If you really keen on protesting ... Can you wait 1 more week ?

 

my bt timah house is worth 4M now

let the chao Foreign Trash sign the Option to Purchase next week

 

then you can go and protest all you want

 

Oh yah ... wait 1 more week ... I hvn't sold all my stocks yet.

 

....

errr... sh!t ... cannot find my Australian PR ... TMD ... where did I put it?

Pls help to remind me to ask my secretary to book a 1 way ticket for me also

 

you wait ah ... wait a week more ok ?? Pls hor...

Thank you thank you !!

thanks !!!

[Stary]

I talked to many overseas biz frens and they think that Singaporeans lived in an unreal world. While we think that they are crazy to have protest here and there, they think that peaceful protest is normal and they think we are abnormal.

 

Let's be honest, we are all living in a matrix controlled by a program.

[Stary]

I think you need to differentiate between riots and peaceful protest.

 

Many develop countries have had peaceful demonstrations for decades. It didn't affect their investments at all. In fact it propelled them to faster pace of growth because their people are the drivers and doers, unlike most Sporeans who are just listeners.

 

I am not saying we must have protest, but please do not confuse between rowdy ones and peaceful ones.

[Slowmo]

In the manner of brown:

"You want to protest ar? Ok, go sign up the protest license package here. Takes at least 3 working days to approve ok? No approve, cannot protest."

"Ok? Sign already? Ok, your protest location is in Bintan, here's a free loud hailer, go. Next!"

 

Edited August 28, 2007 by Slowmo

[Kingcopa]

Take a look at HK. Did it affect their economy? Peaceful protest are a gentle reminder to the governing body that the poeple are not ah gong.

[Vidz]

even for "peaceful" protest, it affect the national interest... regardless who is in charge. it show people out there we as a nation are not mature enough to talk, negotiate and compromise.

 

have you seen "peaceful" protest, where "SBS/MRT" goes on strike and you miss school/work or you walk/cycle, "SumSeng construction" workers parked their heavy machinery along Orchard road, Raffles Place along the main road and drink beer by the road side, ignoring the jam of normal traffic and people. fantically, trying to find a plane, any plane out of "Changi Airport" cos ground crew going on "peaceful" protest in 2 hr.....

 

my point is does protest help with anything?

is it a step forward or a step back?

 

 

[Stary]

it show people out there we as a nation are not mature enough to talk, negotiate and compromise.

 

Issue is, do we even have an opportunity to talk, negotiate, compromise?

Edited August 28, 2007 by Starry

[Weichien]

in sg. better to see no evil hear no evil. do our things shut our mouth and keep our mouth shut so tight that ant cannot go in.

anything can also be wrong shiii