Singapore Democrats

Sigh...not all the favourable technology and good camera angles in the world can make this event look successful...crowd looked damn sparse.

Maybe people didn't go down because they were too comfortable behind their screens watching webcast?

Or maybe, just maybe, nobody cares?

Our first world mata kia aka keystone cops did not turn up at all? Were any spotted videoing the SDP gathering? Must be a change of strategy or even policy? Could it be the aftermath of the bambardment WKS got for his incredulous report of the escape of MSK.....still MIA after 2.5 months?
Or is it because it's MAY DAY which is celebrated all over the world with rallies and gatherings? One never knows.

This is not protest, mata bo chap

Congratulations on this pioneering step that the other opposition parties have not taken.

I hope that you have some signatures on the petition to have WKS removed. This should be a primary focus in itself. I would like to suggest that you have an online petition setup on your website.

Do you have any more events planned?

And in the spirit of transparency, is it possible for the SDP to put up the sales figures here?

As to a sparse crowd I believe it is just a concidence as people will take the chance of a holiday to relax.

People are so busy in Singapore to participate in politics; however it must be demonstrated that politics is what fundamentally affects their lives.

Way to go... SDP.

What had I predicted earlier. So many appeals on various websites urging people to support SDP by showing up and buy T-shirts. Maybe Singaporeans are so busy and too poor to even buy the T-shirts! Sad state for the SDP. Hope you dun lose your deposit next time you guys stand for election! Let's see how long your overseas foreign powers will continue funding a losing cause.

Yeah foreign powers like who - China/America/Malaysia/Australia. Please name names and be specific. If you say Singaporeans are too poor and too busy to scrape for survival arent you confirming SDP's message.

SDP can you please respond to these people posting on YOUR website.

Good job SDP. This is what I call real campaigning!

Just like to offer my words of encouragement and express myu delight in seeing this actually happening. Drawing in mega crowd or otherwise is not the point although it helps. The point is there are people who care enough to do this - and people who care enough to part take - buying T-shirts, having a chat with the people in red, etc.

Well done!

I have attended the campaign in the afternoon. I managed to exchange a few thoughtful words with Dr. Chee and his sister, Siok Chin, Gandhi Ambalam, lawyer Chia Ti Lik as well as many others including local bloggers and activists who were in the scene like Rachel Absinthe, Seelan Palay and Rizal. All in all, the event was successful and the campaign went smoothly without incident. I was very glad to show my support to these firm believers of democracy.

More great things are to come. With small steps in the right direction. :cheer:

Thank you for organising such a campaign in the heartlands, and hope to see more of such campaigns reaching out and raising awareness among the people in the civil society in the very near future!

Hi, I am abroad so cannot join you at Toa Payoh. I went into your website at 1.30 pm and again at 3.00 pm, but found no video links. Was it supposed to be a live video-cast? However, broadcasting live messages via twiters is an interesting new development.

A great surprise however is that there was no police harassment. Perhaps they realize by now their silliness and gross waste of resource in treating SDP as their criminals instead of using it on the terrorist that has escaped. All that police harassment only gives me the view that they are bullying their own citizens in the name of maintaining public order.

Uncle Ver SG, dont bother about what WTF has to say. In fact like you have pointed out, even within a short statement he posted, he is also capable of contradicting himself which probably shows his level of intellect. "These" people are one and the same people that just keep changing names. As someone else has pointed out much earlier, they are troll (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll) albeit sadly not a very intelligent one though. Therefore they are really meant to be ignored as "noise".

The biggest surprise for me was it went through without police harassment!

Did SDP apply for a permit to hold the event and actually got it? If so I am surprised because it is easier for me to strike Toto than for SDP to get any license to do anything.

If SDP did not get any license, then I am surprised as well. Not showing up and using these silly laws to stop SDP is ... never heard of.

Omg, the Government is cracking up ...

What had I predicted earlier. So many appeals on various websites urging people to support SDP by showing up and buy T-shirts. Maybe Singaporeans are so busy and too poor to even buy the T-shirts! Sad state for the SDP. Hope you dun lose your deposit next time you guys stand for election! Let's see how long your overseas foreign powers will continue funding a losing cause.

--------------------

Hello WTF,

Hope you stay healthy throughtout life, without mid life crisis losing your job and live till old age without having to be a cleaner or scavenger for alumin tin cans and cardboxes.

One misfortunate of being sick without govt health welfare will let you realise
wtf you have been working so hard and paying ridiculous taxes then you will wake you up and say YES for Opposition. :)

No crowd...

Because people go and pay 10 dollars and see IRON MAN in the cinemas...

Or SDP went to the wrong place to protest.

Dun they know that Toa Payoh are so full of foreign workers living there now?

I think go and watch IRON MAN is much better.

i am there the whole day . althought is not crowded . but i can feel msg tat SDP wan to pass is been passed across , yesterday everyone and everywhere pp r talking abt SDP. t shirt have been sold out and have to take more to sell. i myself buy 4 t shirt for my family . more of this event should come more often :)

Thank you for a very meaningful event. Keep up the momentum. :)

Singaporeans seem to be more receptive to the SDP and although they still fear to be outright associated with any opposition parties due to the acitivities of our wonderful ISD and MSM, they offer discounts or even refuse to take money when we buy food or items. By doing this, these citizens are already practising civil disobedience. Even that, needs courage. I glad to see more and more Singaporeans speaking out and not behaving like sheep.

In Singapore, if you protest like you cannot tahan anymore...

It means that you are a LOSER in society who cannot catch up with the rest..

Or that you are really POOR.

So will kiasu Singaporeans go and show their faces in the protest even if they cannot tahan?

No, they won't because it will throw your face there and tell people that you are so poor and needy until you have to protest in the streets..

Your Friends and Neighbours and Relatives will laugh at you that you cannot tahan already.

Face is very important, you know. Even for the poor and people who cannot tahan.

So the reason for the low turnout.

Second reason. People already getting the Growth Dividends from the government.

Reminder here to sign up for the Growth Dividends.

It's goodwill money really.

Will you protest and not take the money??

Or maybe the T-shirts should have words like -- It's Tough But I can Tahan.

Or I'm A Survivor.

People will wear such t-shirts with these words.

After all, who wants to be a LOSER?

You mean Singaporean will rather die starving than to lose face? Who is more of an idiot? The one who is struggling to make ends meet but would not protest the steep rising cost of necessities or the one who goes out and protest in order to change things? Who is more courageous? Who deserves our respect more?

Well Done SDP at Toa Payoh !!!

Like what Mr Jufrie said, it is better to do something than sitting at the parliament.

Building a common groundswell is the only way to beat the dogs.

Well, some may think it is too late to save singapore from rotting but at least SDP has tried to salvage.It will take years to clean up singapore even if the current estblishment is deposed. Is never too late to inform the people what pain is coming next if they continue to believe the local papers and TV now and then.

You guys are great ! God bless. Heaven got eyes. The liberation will come!!!

Thank you DR Chee and friends !
cheers

[i][/i]Kudos taking this initiative and braving the heat! At least we have an opposition party who dares and cares! Let the awareness spread so Singaporeans will step to the government.. be seen n heard on Labour Day and every day of our lives! B)

Ho hum, singaporeans are a strange breed indeed. cry, complain, whine, bitch, and moan but when it is time to step up to the plate, they are nowhere to found. And why...because ironman was playing and the slogan should have been i can take it?

SDP, I love the effort but too bad the people you are trying to make things right in general are blind and numb. Blind to what goes on around them, and numb in that they feel nothing, no emotion, no fire to stand up for themselves. The pap knows this, they probably admire your effort. But they also realise people here do not care.

And as long as you bring in FT's to do a job then go home or bring in communists from china who only know what it means to be subservient, a peasant, singapore will never have the mindset of freedom and free thinkers will always be in the minority as each person sells his soul to get some rice in his bowl.

I have never been in a nation that insists high academic standards, yet wants to muzzle you like a dog. When I return home I will show my children a map, point to singapore, and tell them how people on this little island do not see the rest of the world around them. How they live in fear, how they cannot speak up, how they will complain but not step up or stand up for themselves. And then i will hug my child and be thankful he will not grow up this way. he will grow up a free thinking man fearing no one. He will grow up strong and speak his mind, share his thoughts, lead by right not might and sew into every man he comes across that the man standing next to him is no more or no less valuable as a man, as a person.

How will your son grow up?

I have protested and so has my wife. It was a choice. If I lost my job, so what, there are many others. If I became bankrupt, so what, I am strong enough to believe in myself to be innovative enough to create my own business. If I was thrown in jail, I'd throw 7 rolls of toilet paper out a window to break my fall.

If there is one thing i have learned in singapore, it's that singapore is the only place in the world where gravity is strong enough that you can throw 7 rolls of toilet paper out a window and they will land all right next to each other to break your fall. I might be wrong, but everywhere else in the world, if you did the same thing, I promise you those seven rolls of toilet paper would not land next to each other.

So Singaporean, will you believe this toilet paper nonsense where basically you are being told you are stupid. will you complain and do nothing, or for once make a move and take a stand. Perhaps then my son and your son will one day meet up and your son can tell mine that his father (me) was wrong. Your son will tell mine that (you) his father, his uncles, his neighbours stood up and retook what was rightfully theirs... their lives.

He is one old man, but while you wait for him to die, be wary that all of you, each of you have only one life here and you are letting him take it. One life, that's all you have, and time is ticking... how long can you wait and how much of your life has been wasted because you choose not to stand up?

My son is waiting to meet yours, what story will your son have to tell?

elitocracy should not be surprised. Thinking deeper, our police is very cunning. I bet there were plain-clothes hiding and monitoring. SDP will soon receive summons for the incident. They will no doubt try to bankrupt SDP once and for all.

it u mike u talk co$%

Can we say that Singaporeans are resilient or sheepish in the face of adversity? Everyone has different threshold for pain and people will tolerate up to a point. It looks like we have not reach the tipping point, yet. Let's see how much shit can our citizens take from our government before things go awry. Just like story of the frog being slowly stewed in hot water. Soon, many Singaporeans find that they no longer matter to the government because they can be replaced by new citizens and just like the frog, slowly cooked to death in boiling water, redundant citizens where even your votes no longer count.

I agree with you Sylvester

My words may seem harsh at times but I don't believe in sugar coating things. The other thing I hear all the time is "brain drain." Singapore does not have a brain drain. Make no mistake, it is an exodus. If people are not ready to throw their ricebowl to ground and break the bond that is the pap, then what you have is an exodus of people looking for a better life not a brain drain.

In the Philippines I have seen how politicians will go to poor areas and give them a bucket that has some cleaning things like soap and a package of rice. And I tell myself, wow, such bribery to buy votes. And then I think of your leader's speech where he talks of fixing opposition and buying votes and I begin to see the light. Is the pap any different? In the Philippines they use a bucket, in singapore they use a ricebowl...

Think about this, if newspapers and the evening news in the Philippines did not report on corruption would that then mean that the Philippines is not corrupt?

What the SDP needs to do is break down into at least two areas. One is politics, the other is propaganda. Devote time to solving problems, to create packages and programs to employ. On the other end, build your case on why the pap needs to go. You need to sell you message, you need the people to buy in to your message. You need to market your principles.

And what you need to consider is marketing push pull techniques. Push the people away from the pap with propaganda, and pull them to you with programs and ideas to attract them. If not, this party will continue to look like the biggest whiners and complainers in Singapore. Legitimize yourselves, have solutions and draw in the "hearts and minds" of the people. Everyone in Singapore complains, so understand you are not offering Singaporeans anything new. Give them something new.

I wish every Singaporean wanting basic human rights all the best.