The World Bank has requested that the Singapore govt to kindly allow approved civil society groups stage outdoor protests during the IMF meeting. However the Singapore Police has said no, that it’s against the law in Singapore.

Much as I wanna see a real protest in sg, instead of nus students wearing black tee or mr brown’s fans wearing brown tee to stage a silent protest, (heck! i oso wanna see our riot police in action for once) I think it’s not good to make an exception for this since ppl like chee soon juan will start to complain about double standards. FYI, he made an application to stage a protest but it will be oh so surprising if that’s approved.

Anyway I thought of a few alternatives for the outdoor protestors

1. Protest indoors in a building with a sky roof, pseudo outdoor
2. Put them all at St John’s Island, the former lepers’ colony, then live-webcast the protest scenes to suntec to be broadcast on giant multiple plasma screens
3. Let them protest on TV over a few mths, macam Singapore Idol. Let the viewers decide who stay on. Protest Idol finals to be held @ changi prison.

All in all, i’m quite sure that this is the 1st and last time that IMF/WB will come to sg, but no worries, i’m sure we can find more wayang opportunities next time