SINGAPORE/PHILIPPINES: Filipino activists demand the right to protest in Singapore during the IMF-World Bank meetings

As business leaders prepared to attend this year's International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Singapore, controversy over the country's ban on public demonstrations continued in the region. In the Philippines on Tuesday (September 12), protesters called on the World Bank to step up its pressure on the Singaporean government, which has banned 28 activists from attending the conference. The IMF and world bank issued a joint statement on Friday (September 8) urging Singapore to allow accredited activists to attend the high-profile event, while World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz and non-governmental groups have slammed Singapore's decision. Waving anti-World Bank banners, a small group of demonstrators gathered outside the Shangri La Hotel in Manila as World Bank Managing Director, Juan Jose Daboub, addressed a business lunch inside. The protesters lashed out at the World Bank and the Singaporean government, saying both bodies had trampled over the public's right to demonstrate. "Of course every sovereign state have their own right to make their own judgement, to make their own policies about public assemblies but how about the universal right of the people? The right to assemble, the right to express their own grievances," said Wilson Fortaleza, vice-president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, a non-government group campaigning for third world debt relief. Earlier in the week, Singapore defended its move to prevent 28 activists from attending this month's IMF-World Bank meetings, saying that they pose a threat to its security. On Monday (September 11), Singapore police said the list of banned activists included people who had disrupted World Trade Organisation ministerial conferences in Seattle in 1999 and in Cancun in 2003. In Singapore, a public gathering of more than four people requires a police permit. The last time a public demonstration took place in Singapore was in the late 1980s. Singapore police said that while the World Bank and IMF had the right to accredit civil groups, Singapore had to ensure the safety of some 16,000 delegates who include central bankers such as Europe's Jean-Claude Trichet and the U.S. Federal Reserve's Ben Bernanke. The police said they had objected to only a handful of the 508 activists that the IMF and World Bank had accredited. While Singapore sees the IMF-World Bank meetings as an opportunity to show off its economy and its ability to host world class events, it has insisted it will not change its existing rules to allow demonstrations by foreign protest groups. Now, the dispute over protests has cast an unwelcome spotlight on Singapore's political restrictions and curbs on freedom of expression. Singapore has designated an area for protesters within the convention centre where the meetings will take place. Last month, a network of non-governmental organizations, Jubilee South, announced plans to demonstrate on Indonesia's Batam island, less than an hour by boat from Singapore, because of Singapore's ban on demonstrations. Singapore, which expects more than 16,000 delegates and officials to descend on the city-state for the Sept. 11-20 World Bank-IMF meeting, has said outdoor protests are banned because they could be exploited by terrorist groups to stage attacks. Under a 1998 Indonesian law, organisers need to notify police three days before holding a street protest or an indoor rally. Police then give organisers "a letter of recommendation", secure the venue and provide protection for rally participants. Not providing the letter puts the NGOs in legal limbo. Organisers can hold the rally but will have no police protection in case of a clash with rival groups. In a copy of a letter to the anti-IMF protesters obtained by Reuters, police said they cannot give a letter of recommendation because the protest would hurt Indonesia's political, economic and security position. The police move sparked outrage among NGOs, who accused Indonesian police of violating the country's freedom of speech laws. said Lidy Nacpil, the international co-ordinator for Jubilee South, from her offices in Manila, Philippines on Friday (September 8). "We're very disappointed and angry with the Indonesian government for succumbing to the pressure. We're very angry over the fact that the Singaporean government is even trying to extend its policies outside of Singapore and in fact, we should also castigate the World Bank and the IMF for having chosen Singapore as site in the first place" Nacpil said. Anti-globalisation activists usually gather at similar international summits, but Singapore will make no exceptions to its ban on demonstrations and has said it will arrest lawbreakers and cane vandals. Caning is commonly used as punishment for offences ranging from vandalism to drugs. The city-state has only conceded that it would allow indoor protests within a designated area in the lobby of the conference venue. The lobby area is smaller than a football field. But protest organisers remained defiant, saying demonstrations will be held in other countries despite the ban in Singapore and legal hurdles in Indonesia. "If Batam doesn't happen Singapore should know that the protests will happen, in different countries, in 74 other countries," said Nacpil.

ITN Source | September 12, 2006

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