The Wind of Change
It was good to see a turnout of about 500 – 600 people today at Hong Lim Park despite the police warning last night against the organizer Gilbert Goh.
In addition to SPF’s warning, the speakers faced trouble registering and the permit wasn’t officially issued until late last night. With so much of fear-mongering and the various attempts to label the protest at xenophobic, the protest today was still successful. Unlike the previous PWP protest in Oct, there wasn’t any tents or picnics today.
What we got instead were raw emotions, anger and passion.
The speakers did a great job rallying the crowd and sharing their woes. Besides presenting facts and expressing emotions, one of the speakers also shared her own experience after being unfairly displaced by a foreign worker.
This reminded us that what we’re gathering for isn’t a possibility but its already happening and we got to start protecting the Singaporean workers.
Yes, the government has came up with the Progressive Wage Mode.
It may be true that workers are paid more under a progressive wage model and that Lim Swee Say did encourage its implementation, the progressive wage model has some fundamental flaws.
To begin with, the Progressive Wage Model has been slow in implementation and enforcement.
This means that the vast majority of low income workers are still being exploited.
We need a bottom line minimum wage to protect EVERYONE in the time the progressive wage model is refined and rolled out.
Another flaw with the progressive wage model is:
- There is no provision for employers to actually follow the guidelines
- The employer can simply keep the worker at the bottom of the ladder and get away with paying him/her $1000 a month indefinitely
A minimum wage which was mentioned in some of the Opposition Parties’ Labour Day Messages is something which I definitely support.
With 30% of Singaporeans earning less than $2000 a month, many Singaporeans work but still barely have enough to make ends meet due to their low purchasing power.
A minimum wage is definitely needed.
As expected there was a media blackout on the event by the mainstream media, while they covered the protests overseas extensively, little or almost no mention was made about this evening’s events at Hong Lim Park.
But thanks to the internet, people will still be hearing about the protest, through alternative media sites and citizens like you and me who share photos, videos and articles about it.
To end the protest, we sung our national anthem together.
I used to be a person who always dreaded singing the national anthem every morning in Secondary School as I believe most people just sung it for the sake of singing it but they didn’t mean it.
But for the first time, I had goosebumps all over and a chill ran down my spine as we all sang the national anthem..
Because I was surrounded by people who were not only singing but living the national anthem. Majulah Singapura, indeed. The lions roared with pride at Hong Lim Park.
We had a scrumptious dinner at Conclave together with the Volunteers, Speakers and the Organizers of the protest.
Conclave’s Briyani is amazing! We had a great time, sharing ideas for the future and catching up. I would like to also thank Gilbert and his team of volunteers for tirelessly working around the clock to put this event together for us. You guys are the unsung heros of Hong Lim Park.
I spoke with fellow activists and my idol M Ravi too.
Now, lets keep the momentum going for this Saturday’s Protest at Hong Lim Park where there will be a protest for our rights to fare wages and rightful employment.
With a panel of speakers which include former, Presidential Candidate Tan King Lian Leong Sze Hian, Vincent Wijeysingha, the feisty Han Hui Hui and the crowd-mesmerizer Roy Ng, it surely is gonna be a protest to remember.
I’m already looking forward to it.
ARIFFIN SHA