Singapore leads Asia's silence on corporate greed

Australia and New Zealand started the rolling global protests denouncing corporate greed but capitalist countries elsewhere in Asia were reluctant to demonstrate, with the turnout in wealthy Singapore almost zero. Protesters gathered across the world on Saturday to denounce bankers and politicians over the international economic crisis, with violence rocking Rome where cars were torched and bank windows smashed. In New York, where the Occupy Wall Street movement began in September, organisers said the protest grew to at least 5,000 as they marched to Times Square from their makeshift headquarters. Protesters had earlier gathered in Japan and across Southeast Asia but in the hundreds at most. Singapore could not even manage that number. Singapore is one of the world’s wealthiest nations and a regional base for many banks and fund managers, but its long-ruling People’s Action Party is losing support from an electorate unhappy about the widening income divide and the government’s liberal immigration policy. The pro-government Straits Times appeared to take pride in the non-turnout after a call to gather at Raffles Place in the financial centre did not materialize. “What’s missing in this picture?” it asked on its front page above a picture of three policemen patrolling an almost empty Raffle Place. SPEAKERS’ CORNER An unidentified person had set up a Facebook page and Twitter account calling on Singaporeans to protest against growing income inequality and a lack of accountability in the country’s sovereign wealth funds, prompting the police to issue a warning. Singapore bars demonstrations, gatherings or speeches without a permit except at a tiny “Speakers’ Corner” in a small park at the edge of the central business district. “The organisers hid behind their Facebook and Twitter accounts, posting messages such as ‘we should try this again on Monday’ and ‘where is everyone right now?’” the newspaper said. In Malaysia, the movement drew a modest 200 to Merdeka(Independence) Square in Kuala Lumpur. Organisers blamed the poor turnout on a lack of communication and fears of a police crackdown. “Partly it’s because a lot of people are still not aware we are here, because our publicity has been limited to social media,” said Fahmi Reza, 34, of the Kuala Lumpur People’s Assembly, a social action group which organised the gathering. Some of the protesters held up placards bearing the slogan “Occupy Dataran (Occupy The Square)”, then broke into smaller groups after police instructed them to disperse. “Anti-capitalism is not my cause but anti-authoritarianism is definitely my cause and as citizens … we came here to stand up for our rights,” said university lecturer Wong Chin Huat, 38. Large public protests are rare in Malaysia but more than 10,000 people took to the streets in July in anger over the slow pace of political reforms. Heavy rain prevented protest in South Korea. Hundreds marched in Tokyo, where many had gathered to complain about radiation leaks from the Fukushima nuclear power plant seven months after an earthquake triggered the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years. The English-language Japan Times asked why people weren’t protesting, pointing to 2.04 million Japanese on welfare, the highest number since 1951, and the fact that only 56 percent of new college graduates got any kind of job offer by October last year. “The answer is, they are, a little,” it said. “The anti-nuclear sentiment may well spill over to other issues. Mass movements are not always correct, but those that last have good reasons for lasting.” Reuters