When you think of protests, images of hundreds of people chanting the same phrase would’ve come to mind.
Over in Singapore, it’s a tad different: because public protests are illegal, the only way one can protest legally is to speak out at the Speakers’ Corner at Hong Lim Park.
In recent days, protests have broken out in everywhere the former Sri Lanka president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has been, so it’s no surprise that he’s now fled to Singapore, given that protests are illegal.
In fact, the police even released a statement upon his arrival, urging people not to protest.
And since the only avenue to speak out is in Hong Lim Park, someone decided to do just that, and let’s just say that it feels like the moment when you thought that your social media post would garner lots of Likes, but it didn’t even reach your friend.
Opposition Politicians Held Protest About Gotabaya Rajapaks & Only 1 Person Turned Up
Prabu Ramachandran is a former candidate for Peoples Voice (PV) at the 2020 General Election. He, together with another Peoples Voice (PV) candidate, had decided to protest against Rajapaksa’s arrival in Singapore.
If Prabu’s name doesn’t ring a bell, then the other speaker’s name should be familiar: it’s none other than blogger Leong Sze Hian, who just lost a defamation case against PM Lee.
Rajapaksa had arrived in Singapore on Thursday night after making a detour via Maldives.
His arrival was peaceful, and the only mob at Changi Airport was reporters trying to take an image of him.
The next day, Prabu proceeded to announce the protest “Deport Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa” on Facebook, urging people to come down to the Speakers’ Corner in Hong Lim Park on Saturday between 4pm to 6pm.
In other words, the entire event was planned in about a day.
Given the amount of media coverage Rajapaksa’s arrival has garnered, you’d have thought that Hong Lim Park would be as packed as a Workers’ Party rally.
But no; the crowd was in Jurong Point instead, as Singaporeans are more interested in donuts than Rajapaksa.
According to The Straits Times, excluding Prabu and Leong, only one person turned up at the protest.
The duo wanted Singapore to deport Rajapaksa, and I guess you can say that they would know if the audience agree or not.
The protest ended at 4:48pm instead of 6pm because of the low turnout.
This is despite the fact that the protest was also livestreamed on Facebook…with a grand total of 20 people watching it.
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