Hong Lim Exclusive
were installed at the Speakers’ Corner in 2009 – though it is of course entirely possible that these were installed to catch litterbugs or opportunistic pickpockets.
A political barometer?
Since its liberalisation in 2008, the Speakers’ Corner has been used for a diversity of causes, from gay rights to internet freedom to population issues.
Results-obsessed as we Singaporeans are, the turnouts at the various events have been taken as a quick and easy indicator of the success of the event and the popularity of the cause as a whole. Gay rights activists highlight exponentially increasing attendance numbers in each consecutive Pink Dot as a sign of increasing acceptance of homosexuality in Singapore, while proponents of the Population White Paper gleefully cite the comparatively low attendance at the protest against the White Paper to make the argument that Singaporeans do not seem that interested in population issues.
Attendance numbers are themselves a subject of considerable controversy. Organisers are often accused of inflating numbers while the mainstream media faces the opposite charge of underreporting figures when it comes to protests against Government policies.
All this number-waving might prove to be futile, given that the somewhat tenuous link between crowd strength and the popularity of the cause. Considering the attendance at election rallies vis-à-vis the parties’ eventual electoral fortunes, we realise that, well, size might not matter after all.
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"My crowd's bigger than your crowd!"
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