Judge acquits SDP five

[comycus]

Ong Dai Lin, Today Online - They have been hauled to court many times for staging protests and other activities in public, with a guilty verdict the regular outcome.

Yesterday, however, a group of Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) leaders and activists were acquitted of holding a procession without a permit.

On Sept 16, 2007, five of them had marched from Speakers' Corner to Queenstown Remand Prison to mark the first anniversary of a protest led by SDP secretary-general Chee Soon Juan at the World Bank-International Monetary Fund meetings in 2006.

The group, comprising SDP chairman Gandhi Ambalam, assistant secretary-general John Tan, central executive committee member Chee Siok Chin, SDP supporter Yap Keng Ho and human rights activist Chong Kai Xiong, also wore white T-shirts with the words "Democracy Now" and "Freedom Now".

In his written judgment, District Judge John Ng noted that the group had walked mainly on pedestrian pathways and did not attract "any significant" attention of the public.

They also did not carry any of the usual equipment associated with a protest, such as placards or banners, and the walk did not disrupt pedestrian flow.

The judge said: "It was a group of people walking purposefully in a public place from one point to another, but on this occasion, it never amounted to a procession."

He added that there has to be a distinction drawn between "walking in a group from one point to another, even if it was to commemorate an event, and being part of a procession".

When contacted, Institute of Policy Studies senior research fellow Gillian Koh told MediaCorp: "The judgment suggests at face value that there are political activities that seem to be acceptable which we never thought would be allowed."

She said that political activists should look at the previous cases and the specifics of the judgment, and "they would want to be cautious in staging political activities in order to avoid running afoul of various laws".

The five SDP leaders and activists had been charged for participating in a procession without a valid permit. Each of them could have been fined up to $1,000 if convicted.

[comycus]

Now we know how to conduct protest... got guidelines to follow

[TayHongSiang]

2 more elections things will change drastically.

Pay-and-Pay bullshiit will not last long...it's a pyramid system that ensures the well-connected elite are at the top with vast majority in the middle given a chance thru "meritocracy" system and the average people left to fend for themselves working like dogs with no safety net to protect them from retrenchments.

[comycus]

triple post. ps

[comycus]

triple post. ps

[comycus]

2 more elections things will change drastically.

woah bro we need a matured opposition for that to happen. I'm still waiting for ours to show us they are capable.

[TayHongSiang]

woah bro we need a matured opposition for that to happen. I'm still waiting for ours to show us they are capable.

there will be...people will come forward once good-old emperor who has done a pretty good job rest in eternal peace.

[comycus]

there will be...people will come forward once good-old emperor who has done a pretty good job rest in eternal peace.

lol

i hope so too bah

[albinosage]

District Judge John Ng noted that the group had walked mainly on pedestrian pathways and did not attract "any significant" attention of the public.

LOL that sums up what happens everytime I see Chee. While I do not agree with Chee and his group's methods to draw attention to a cause, the judgment and acquittal of the group is a welcome sign of change in attitude towards the opposition.

Or is it cos president of the Land of the Free coming next month, the authorities don't want to give Chee a chance to do his martyr act in front of foreign guests?

[comycus]

LOL that sums up what happens everytime I see Chee. While I do not agree with Chee and his group's methods to draw attention to a cause, the judgment and acquittal of the group is a welcome sign of change in attitude towards the opposition.

Or is it cos president of the Land of the Free coming next month, the authorities don't want to give Chee a chance to do his martyr act in front of foreign guests?

hehe v. good binosage! there are always alot of hidden agenda / underlying news that we can pick up if we look hard enough. The opposition needs some breathing space, squeeze them too much, and the potential backlash could be disastrous.

No matter, I welcome this ruling.

[albinosage]

there are always alot of hidden agenda / underlying news that we can pick up if we look hard enough.

One of my useless talents is picking out unrelated news stories and mashing them up into conspiracy theories. I'm afraid that I'll grow to be a paranoid old man like Mel Gibson in that shitty movie Conspiracy Theory and one day get locked up to have my fingernails pulled because the conspiracy is true. :ph34r:

[comycus]

One of my useless talents is picking out unrelated news stories and mashing them up into conspiracy theories. I'm afraid that I'll grow to be a paranoid old man like Mel Gibson in that shitty movie Conspiracy Theory and one day get locked up to have my fingernails pulled because the conspiracy is true. :ph34r:

hehe bro it's not a useless talent la... any chance you work at MFA? I know they do these kinda stuff...

[albinosage]

hehe bro it's not a useless talent la... any chance you work at MFA? I know they do these kinda stuff...

If I work with MFA I don't think I will be logging into a thread of this nature at work