World Wide Wave

12 Feb 2013

Singapore: Surprising conservativism in a Western world

Asia/Pacific

 “It’s hard for them to image what it’s like to come out and make a police report because there’s … a very fear that they might be charged under 377A,” explains Yangfa, author of the eBook, I Will Survive. This week, Singapore surprises the World Wide Wave crew by clinging to an anachronistic Victorian penal code.

LGBT activist Jean Chong agrees, “They try to censor us. If you are putting on a poetry reading event, we have to submit everything that is to be read.  They come to see if you break the law at that event.”

“They use another kind of way to control us, through a bureaucratic process. You need to apply for licenses and show them every thing you are going to talk about. In the past they even banned things like a picnic in the park,” said Chong.

On a bright note, Roy, a health services worker, reminds us that “In Singapore, people are not really aware of the law or of their Constitutional rights.” In other words, Singaporeans, particularly the youth, do not pay attention to the law.

So there is hope. Find out more on W3JOY’s Singapore webpage.

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