Open Sesame

Feb 27 Former political detainees, Tan Jing Quee, 66, and Michael Fernandez, 72, speak at forum Detention-Writing-Healing and call for a telling of the stories of Singapore’s former political detainees in the spirit of making Singapore a more open, democratic society. An audience of about 200 mostly young people attends. +200
Mar 4 Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong challenges the opposition to contest all 84 seats in the coming General Election. +200
Mar 7 Law Minister S. Jayakumar says the Singapore Bar will soon recognize postgraduate degrees from four US universities. +200
Apr 14 A straw poll of Singaporeans aged 21 to 73 conducted by Today newspaper finds 60 percent say they are unafraid of voting against the PAP and 60 percent say they do not fear criticizing the PAP. +50
Apr 28 Crime Library Singapore refuses to remove the thousands of “missing person” posters it has put up at bus stops and walkways all over the island, saying it is providing a public service, and that the posters have proven very effective. +200
Jul 7 The National Internet Advisory Committee decides to abandon the idea of registering bloggers. +100
July 22 It is decided that no police action will be taken against the group of protesters who gathered at City Hall MRT station to show their support for blogger Mr. Brown. +50
Sep 7 In a discussion with The Feedback Unit, a group of 12 youths suggested moving away from the unit’s top-down approach and providing support for youths who want to organize their own forums and dialogues. +50
Sep 13 Since awarding Singapore the rights to host its annual meetings, the IMF and World Bank meet with Singaporean youths on around 50 occasions to discuss such topics like elitism in education, the widening income gap and minimizing poverty in third world countries. +50
Sep 29 The EM3 stream in primary schools is criticized for labeling weaker students. In a turnaround by the Ministry of Education, streaming will be dropped by 2008 in favor of subject-based banding. +100
Nov 9 The Government proposes that anal and oral sex between two consenting heterosexual adults in the privacy of the bedroom will be considered legal. +150