We are all individuals!!!

Yes SGHR has formally disbanded :)... so goodbye SGHR but hello again human rights.

To me it is good riddance cos leaving this "group" is another strategic choice... will explain later.

However I am still proud to be an ex-member of SGHR as it is from there that I discovered and learned activism... I have benefited from each of them and discovered my own strength and weaknesses.

The shotgun birth of SGHR

Just to recap how SGHR started... It never dawned on me that we made a deliberate choice to form SGHR, one situation leads to another... for me it was because of SDP organizing the Burmese candlelight vigil that I got to meet some youthful faces who are concerned about the Burma's saffron revolution and the signing of the ASEAN charter on human rights. I started to know each other and we talked... so pretty much after the candlelight vigil, I felt that their wavelength in approaching human rights are quite similar and we are eager to plan activities together in the near future...

But sometimes without much anticipation, planning and meetings... situations propels us to move together... with the coming of the ASEAN summit, we went through sort of baptism of fire, alot of events were happening and we rush to meet up to discuss what to do and before I can tell myself that I am mentally prepared for it.... I got myself together with three others walking down Orchard Road to hand a petition card "Free Burma, Free Singapore" to the ASEAN secretariat and kanna stop by Police. To tell you I was a bit apprehensive to know that I was going to take part in some form of "public illegal assembly" but I am encouraged by these group of young activist and knowing in my heart, that I am doing it for a just cause.... I ploughed myself into this form of "civil disobedience" and I can say that after the above experience in Orchard Road, the rest of the "civil disobedience" activities we planned were quite a bliss for me.... namely the fear of repercussions naturally subside in me.

Why SGHR and not other "NGOs"

Some people think that SGHR are too "confrontational"... too much like "SDP"... already as we form SGHR, there were members who are known to be "troublemakers". I think the best way to sum up is to relate one incident when a friend ask me to consider other safer NGOs... my reply is this... I dun think in terms of activism there is a one size that fits all, some prefer dialogues with authorities, some wish to only push a certain specific human rights issues like woman's rights, gay's rights etc, some choose to embrace all areas but avoid talking "taboo" or "OB markers" like freedom of expression, political rights etc as they think it is a long term strategic choice not to irk the authorities too much but to slowly convince them to open up step by step...

I guess all roads lead to Rome... but ultimately whoever wants to be in the activism line must answer whether such approach is comfortable to them and he/ she can contribute effectively.

For me I am of no use in joining a large organizations or umbrellas and run by some "top" people where wordings, letters, activities, replies etc must be well discussed and thought off so that the organizations will not get into "unnecessary troubles" with authorities over their articles and events etc... I "kind of" understand their predicament cos if anything goes wrong, the leaders will be haul up and the rest of the group (even for those who might not have directly drafted a letter) will be in trouble.

Basically I am bad in dialogues :(, going to meetings and have to subject myself to some form of party discipline so that I wont babble wrong things in public and that the organizations will not get implicated as well.

And when I join SGHR, I joined because it is a group that can "best" allows me to render my service productively, we are ad-hoc, no leader structure, we are more like like-minded individuals who share the same passion in films etc... and we do things pretty fast and without much "arrowing". For me, I know my strength comes into film-making and I render such service as a labor of love and without much "censorship" too (for SGHR, we are quite open minded in terms of each other opinions)

And when SGHR is deemed "confrontational"... it is just at best "civil disobedience" to break against an unjust law that perhaps are new to Singaporeans (they prefer to dialogue)... but have either results bear fruits.... maybe and maybe not... it is too quick to judge that...

At least for me the best example can be seen in Martyn See's Singapore Rebel incident.... well when Martyn See was in trouble, some people criticize him and said that he deserves it (the Film Act has been in place since 1990s) and Martyn "knowingly" breaks the law by producing the infamous film.... and incurring the wrath from the authorities.

Well my counter argument is this; what other best examples to show an unjust law than to break it... cos only when Martyn See's film got uploaded in youtube and other festivals, then we Singaporeans and the authorities themselves (even MM Lee) can witness the absurdity of such a law in place.

Anyway I am not here to champion about SGHR, in fact SGHR despite being small and highly mobilized, we do have our pitfalls like any organizations.... we have differences in opinions on some approaches and we can argue passionately about the differences... especially so when each of the 9 of us are so energetic and "leaders" or "psychopath" in our own ways. Thus even without banding together, each of us can effectively engage in activism in our own individual ways.

SGHR a poooodle of SDP :P

Some people think we are the opus dei of SDP and people get frightened or dislike of associating too much with SDP. For me, I am non-partisan, not a member of any political party. But for me I embrace alot of Dr Chee's ideals... anyway it is not that he invent the concept of human rights... Human Rights are as old as the trees and both myself and Dr Chee and many others share the same similar vision... vision like freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and naturally when either myself, SGHR, SDP or say Dr Chee have the same vision, more or less we will take part in activities together (Singapore is a little red dot after all)

However I can dare say that Dr Chee at least in the Singapore context has been the forefront of pushing such ideals and lately his actions and courage has caused more people to examine his actions much closely.

As for all the other political parties.... like I believe for the rest of the NGOs, all paths can lead to Rome, for all critics, supporters, kiasi and kiasu Singaporeans who want to do something but are afraid, pappies spies etc, please go DO something instead of criticizing (not that it is not wrong), please go DO something that you are comfortable with... if to you shopping is more important than human rights, I am fine with that too... whatever it makes you and your conscience happy... please do it. If you are uncomfortable with SDP or SGHR or any psychopath... by all means join an organizations that suits you and you can render your best... in fact if you are a Pappiee grassroot internet brigade team (if ever there is such as one more secretive than the Priory of Sion) go ahead and pappy if you think your actions are patriotic to one nation under Lee :P

Now for the rest of the unknown human rights "fanatics" or potentially social disorder personalities... here are the good news:

Join us but not SGHR

I was a christian for 12 years, even if I no longer holds on to the faith... but so many wonderful examples from the bible itself. So here's one for you... Jesus raise up from his grave and ascend to heaven leaving 11 disciples (motley crew of fisherman... and in Singapore context... if you go to Pasir Panjang Fishmarket... you will see alot of Phu Chu Kang there) to go out and preach to all nations.

But then there is Saul who have not seen Jesus or the disciples before and in fact a tormentor of this bizarre new age religion called Christianity until he himself got converted and martyred.

So the message is this SGHR disbands for a strategic choice.... we will like to see more Singaporeans joining the cause as a leader and follower at the same time.... to us having SGHR has a liability tag on us... we cannot expand more than 9 people or else we run foul of the societies act and we never like the idea that once in a group, you somehow have to subscribe a certain sense of "loyalty" to this group so much so that other groups will withhold certain information or people will label a groupie tag on us... whatever nice names people can call themselves... it is just some fanciful names like a salesman calling themselves sales executive or sales director and all the bs. Again what is more important is the belief of human rights that you are pursuing and you only wish that one day more and more people will pursue together as well (but never be afraid that you are in the minority.... a movement has to start from zero anyway)

And in all humbleness, we all 9 of us are your equals, we hope that without any baggage or linkage to SGHR, we do not want to say our views are "better"... we hope that as each of us continue our own individual activism, we will somehow (very often i think) do things together again on ad-hoc basis and in high mobility fashion but most importantly with new faces.... :)

Already I am encouraged that recently myself, Martyn and Seelan thought over who will be the new faces that does video as a form of activism... but looking carefully in youtube there are already new people contributing their works (people whom I have never rub shoulders with) and I guess it is a viral effect... as more people engage in their form of activism, it will influence others to do their own too. Just as I did not join SDP, Dr Chee has by and large play quite a big influence in my involvement with activism.

Even if there are "new blood" who for some reasons choose to engage in their own form of activism and not work with us.... we are definitely more delighted and encouraged to know that all of us are individuals and that despite our differences, we all are at least trying.

So go on, be crucified :)

Lastly some other announcement of alternative news of the Chees Vs the Lees (that has been quite hot while I was in Maldives)... you can ever get to read the actual transcript and hear the audio recordings of what transpired in the court case.

namely go to www.theonlinecitizen.com, http://singaporerebel.blogspot.com/

singaporerebel

Many mainstream people do not understand but do not be disheartened (I am confident that Dr Chee knew he will "lost" this battle and many battles to come but wins the war eventually...)

Put it this way a few years back when I was at the Istana... I only saw Dr Chee and Gandhi got arrested but now I see a small expanding group of Singaporeans with no links to SDP seeing eye to eye on one thing: that is to bring human rights and freedom of expression to Singapore and it will be an exponential curve as more Singaporeans get educated and enlightened about their "stolen rights"

Here is an email that I send to my friend two years back about why my support for Dr Chee and his "antics"

Here's to the crazy ones.

The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.

They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a
work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been
written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on
wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones,
we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world, are the ones who do.

-Apple Computer, Inc. 1998

stop the Press and save $250 a year

That's what I did. I stopped buying Singapore newspapers say about two years back. Actually I did a slient boycott of not using my money to buy papers (except toliet papers and A4 sized papers) because they are inferior goods. After all it is confirm that Singapore press is ranked 141 out of 167 in 2007's World Press Freedom Index (Reporters Without Borders). 142 is Afghanistan. For the same year, Singapore is ranked 157 out of 195 countries in the Freedom of the Press World Ranking (Freedom House). 158 is Iraq.

Actually I still profess to read The Straits TImes (free stories section) and Channelnewsasia and Today of course... but from their websites. And they are free after all and they deserved to be free since I think they are only worth that much :P (even more established news agencies like CNN or BBC do not charge a cent for their online news)

My dismay with the local papers comes mainly in the covering of political and social news. Here is a good recent example of the accuracies of local papers versus other sources:

This simple example highlighted happens on the 27 April where the Burmese flocked to the embassy to vote on the constitution:
The contentious part comes in on this area :"although some have made their views known through their t-shirts, which have the word "NO" on them" as quoted from channelnewsasia. To me it seems to downplay the number of people wearing the t-shirts "NO" especially so since I was there to cover the event as well. (I leave the readers to draw their own conclusions)

Local News from channelnewsasia:

VERSUS

Alternative Local News: onlinecitizen

Foreign News: Reuters

My choice of not buying the state-controlled papers has two objectives:

1.) Just like you do not want to pay for lousy products, i think if more Singaporeans choose not to buy the papers, you are going to hurt them where it hurts most; their readership ratings and ultimately their revenue (that includes companies pulling advertisements out due to poor viewership). So they will buck up.

2.) More importantly It is good not to be over-reliant on just one source of news and internet has provided a platform for alternative news. It gives readers at least a few versions to the same event and lets the readers be more informed.

Here's some suggestions for you to have the best of both worlds (with inflation and high cost, you can saved around $250 a year for not subscribing to a paper, besides you already paid too much taxes to finance institutionalized agencies, why pay more)

- for world news go to: cnn, bbc, al-jazeera (to counter the perceived biased western influence), Reuters, AFP, AP FREE OF CHARGE :)
- for Singapore political news go to: the online citizen, today, singabloodypore, channelnewsasia (FREE OF CHARGE)
- for boliao people who like gossips and local news e.g the Everitt neighbours orgies go to: ST Stomp and Sammyboy (FREE OF CHARGE)
- for aunties and uncles who need lianhe wanbao to check the latest 4D results go to: Singapore Pools and Singapore Turf Club (FREE OF CHARGE)
- for people who need to look for jobs and other classified materials, go to:Singapore Classifieds
- for good laugh just go to: talkingcock, mrbrown (FREE OF CHARGE)
- for blur sotongs :P clueless about other things in Singapore, go to google

For not buying the papers..... YOU ALSO SAVE the Trees and protect the environment :)

Btw I have a number of friends working in the press... I hope not to hurt their livelihood, my main aim is that their higher ups will buck up their mindset and let the reporters not self-censored themselves.

Definitely if the quality of local papers improved, I am sure myself and others will pay for what it is worth.

So to all reporters here, wish you a happy belated World Press Freedom Day :)

to view our thoughts on World Press Freedom Day in Singapore.

to view photos

Lights, Camera... Demonstration!

Happy May Day... also pleasantly surprised that my blog is exactly one year old :)

and also almost exactly one year anniversary that I decided to be a cyber-filmmaker as well (thanks to the "Film Act" and of course the youtube) :P

Yesterday April 30 was a momentous day for me.

Encouraged by Martyn See's film "Speakers Cornered" that got passed by Board of Film Censors (BFC) with a NC-16 rating and as part of the 13 bloggers that submitted a proposal to Minister of Information and the Arts, Dr Lee Boon Yang to ensure internet freedom and to scrap the film act... I have submitted six films to BFC for classification.

Glad that three of my friends (Seelan, Kaixiong and Shafie) and a journalist accompanied me to BFC. The process of submitting the films was pretty non-event. A lady staff in BFC was friendly and helpful. She seemed to be pretty cool even while two of my friends were busy photo-taking and filming the whole process.

In case you are curious, here's an important note about the nature of these six films out of the many films that I have uploaded on youtube (Why submit only these six videos to BFC?):

For the past two years since the IMF protest as documented in the film "Speakers Cornered", We have observed a phenomenon spate of protests and demonstrations in Singapore by ordinary Singaporeans and foreigners, for instance Brown's T-Shirt protest by 30 Singaporeans against the newspaper suspension of columnist Mr Brown, "pink picnic" by the gays community at the botanical gardens, protest against the military junta in Burma by NUS international students and the Burmese in Singapore during the Asean Summit etc etc. Never before since 1969 have we witnessed such frequent demonstrations taking place in Singapore where laws against "illegal assemblies" are harsh.

For myself, I could only recall that prior to the above incidences, the only person who dare to constantly conduct such acts of defiance is none other than Dr Chee Soon Juan (secretary general of the Singapore Democratic Party) where he and some SDP members have been jailed a number of times for gathering without a permit. Previously his methods were considered out of sync and insane as the authorities wanted Singaporeans to believe it can lead to violence and democracy such as freedom of assembly is against the "Asian Values" shared by many Singaporeans. I guess in a way Dr Chee's persistence and courage has paid off. More young people in Singapore are inspired to take on the form of civil disobedience to voice their discontent. Yet curiously enough recently the authorities seems to be "softening" their approach in dealing with protestors or are they doing more covertly or perhaps they are quite clueless what to do with them or maybe they have finally throw up the towel.

consider this few observations I made:

- The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has increasingly use woman police officers to do the dirty work of breaking up the protest and they seem to be pretty courteous even while arresting the protesters (as witnessed in the consumer rights day where 30 Singaporeans protested outside parliament house)... my guess is that SPF always got ridiculed in the eyes of the international community as being heavy handed on peaceful demonstrators that the police decided that women officers have a softer but lethal touch when it comes to arrest (no insult to SPF, but the males officers especially those in plain clothes usually look like Ah Bengs and Ah Sengs)

- A few days ago 27 April must be yet another record breaking news.... more than one THOUSAND Burmese protested outside the Burmese Embassy in Singapore and the police did not disperse them.

- In fact today at the tak boleh tahan protest by SDP members and supporters at Toa Payoh Central (incidentally in Minister of Home Affairs Mr Wong Kan Seng's consitutency)... there were no incidences of Police arresting or videotaping them!

- Lastly on February this year, Mr Wong Kan Seng even talk about maybe allowing demonstration in Speakers Corner.

Has the tide changed? :)

Like Speakers Cornered these six videos I have submitted are straight documentations of demonstrations and protests that took place over the past one year. I think it is timely that if BFC allows them to be screened, I will like more Singaporeans to be aware of such happenings and I look forward to see a healthy discussions among Singaporeans about the possibility of having peaceful assemblies in tiny red-dot.

HAPPY MAY DAY AND SCRAP THE FILM ACT

Links to the six videos:

(Morning May day Montage)

(NUS international students Vigil Walk)

(Burmese staged peaceful demonstration in Singapore)

(Singaporean started 5 days fasting against ISA on Hindraf 5)

(Human rights torch relay by Falungong in Singapore)

(Burmese says NO)

Alternative information: Filmmaker submits six videos featuring political protests by Martyn See




pictures by Kai Xiong

drag queen or crazy fan?

ho ho

Just saw sammyboy forum a few hours back and was actually pretty amused that someone posted as BishanBoy http://forums.delphiforums.com/sammyboymod/messages?msg=173314.1 and some of the people I knew thought it was me.

Remarked to my friends jokingly about it that I didn't know that I got a fan who wants to impersonate me... but some of my friends warned me that recently sammyboy has a "clone war" there where the dark side of the force are sending moles to disrupt and chase people from the forum.

So I better make it clear here that this BishanBoy is not me, in fact I will not like to post articles in Sammyboy talking to anonymous people (I have done so a few years back but I have gone past that). Now I wish that whoever wants to exchange information and hold a conversation with me, hope I can meet the person face to face. Anyway Sammyboy is still one of my favorite bed time forum I like to go to... to sniff out alternative information and also get a good laugh from some post... in fact this BishanBoy is making my day :P

Perhaps BishanBoy will visit my blog again and thus my recommendation to you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T1LIrzsgqA

Incidentally this movie is my favorite movie... enjoy it. it's your last chance. anyhow :)

Dare to Document, Dare to Talk, Dare to Blog etc etc

Hi Friends

I am encouraged by the good turn up by you guys for the political film screening :)

Yes finally my film 鸡蛋碰石头 or How My Favourite Opposition Party Fought the PAP
(and lost their pants, again) has a "world premiere" at a private function recently.

Nice to see 50 over people (academics, filmmakers, arts community, politicians from SDP, WP, human rights activists, TOC, bloggers, ex-ISD detainees, trouble-makers etc etc) coming down to watch my film and Martyn See's Speakers Cornered.

Will share my thots once I am not so busy as I am pre-occupied with the Singapore International Film Festival as Mr Ho-spitality Co-ordinator :P

However my activists friends and I are also going to organized another event soon... this April 10 :)

As you are aware IPS have a closed door forum with Mr Steven Gan, Mr Jeff Ooi, Mr Nathaniel Tan (Malaysian Bloggers who made an impact on the recent Malaysian Election)

However we feel that more people should get a chance to hear it and good news is that Mr Steven Gan and Mr Nathaniel Tan are agreeable to our invite to share their thoughts.

Thus You my dear friends are invited to the forum 'Cyber Activism : The Malaysian Experience' on Thursday, 10 April at 7.30pm in Jalan Besar

Confirmed speakers are Mr Steven Gan, the co-founder and editor of celebrated news portal Malaysiakini, and Mr Nathaniel Tan, an internet activist with the Malaysian opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

Local blogger/activist Mr Alex Au will moderate the discussion.

For details of the venue, please RSVP and state the name(s) of person(s) who wish to attend to: daretodocument@gmail.com

Please note that this event is billed as yet another "private function" :P

The forum is jointly organized and sponsored by Martyn See, Seelan Palay, Isrizal, Ho Choon Hiong and Muhammad Shafi'ie. (Our shining happy faces at the Dare to Document recently as we say screw you Film Act)



photo touch up by Alex Au :P

within a short span of three months

I can't remember much over what I have done during the first half of 2007... mainly work I guess, but wow within the last three months of 2007, alot of meaningful and memorable things happened to me... mainly because I got myself into human rights issues which at least for once, it is something that do not give me a lot of hangups or regrets... I can say I feel good about it as a person..... I feel that I am doing something meaningful, I feel that my time is well spent (beside playing Xbox and with my little niece), I do not really feel lonely without getting into a relationship (though I still wish one day I can get to know a special one :P), basically I just feel spiritual about it (like someone coming out from a church with a halo above his head). Ironically the last time I felt liberated was to abandon Christianity.

In fact I think throughout this post, I can only talk about my activism in human rights... and just to add I am glad that my film-making experience can be put to good use too... say within a short span of three months, I think I have contributed, shot and edit at least around 10 videos to youtube (all on human rights and social issues

Just to add, I just did a video coverage about my friend, Seelan Palay who staged a 5 days hunger strike outside the Malaysian High Commission to protest against the ISA detention of the five Hindraf leaders... and gee I spent my 2008 new year countdown outside the Malaysian High Comm... even if there were no parties or pubbing, it will be one of the most memorable experience; just camping on the sidewalk with Seelan and another human rights activist Kai Xiong.

But in the midst of all this, I wish for a long break soon, I am quite tired of my own work and really yearn to go America this year and I also wish to embark on my own personal documentary about finding my nanny... and to cut down smoking :P

Hopefully this 2008, I can fulfill all these...

Below are the video links of what I have done so far :)


Montage of Seelan's Five Days Fast

Singaporean fasting outside Malaysia High Comm

Singaporean started 5 days fasting against ISA on Hindraf 5

Singapore Democratic Party letter to Malaysian Government

SGHR celebrates Human Rights Day at speakers corner

SG Human Rights petition for Burma to ASEAN

Human Rights Day: Singapore Lawyers petition to Law Society

Charged for speaking in public without a permit

Burmese staged peaceful demonstration in Singapore

NUS International Students Vigil Walk

Free Burma, Free Singapore