Speakers Corner? Lame....
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Speakers' Corner or SNEAKERS' CORNER?
Free speech gives way to free pitch. Football players are the only frequent visitors at Hong Lim Park 5 1/2 years later
By Esther Huang
April 18, 2006
IN September, Speakers' Corner at Hong Lim Park will turn six.
IN 2000: Choo Zheng Xi, then 15, enjoying his day in the sun as he grabs the attention of listeners young and old.
But there will be little celebration.
Why?
Because you can hardly hear any fiery speeches these days.
It has become just another park.
More so than speakers, qigong practitioners in the mornings and football players in the evenings and weekends are making better use of the space.
The rest are just passers-by heading for the nearby Clarke Quay MRT station.
Are the people who hang out at Hong Lim Park even aware that it is Speakers' Corner, which is open from 7am to 7pm every day?
The New Paper visited the park four times recently.
Each time, we found fewer than 10 people there on average. (See report on facing page.)
Said Mr Wei Lian Chang, 63, who was in the park: 'I have no idea what this place is for. This is my first time here.
Today, Hong Lim Park's the more popular with footballers and qiqong practitioners. --CHOO CHWEE HUA
'I decided to check it out today because I was waiting for my granddaughter.'
The qigong group of about 10 to 20 people have been practising there every morning for two years.
One of them, retiree Lau Ai Ting, 70, said: 'We live nearby and there's fresh air and a sheltered area.'
FREE PITCH
The youngsters who frequent the place either hang around the new stage, which was completed this year, or play football.
The organiser of one such group, who wanted to be known only as Vincent, said the players consist of his colleagues and friends, many of whom work in the nearby CBD.
They have been playing there on most Tuesdays for more than a year.
The 34-year-old accountant said: 'The pitch is good enough for a small group of five to six to play soccer.'
However, for Mr Chellieh Setharam, 50, going to Speakers' Corner three times a week is part of his job.
The foreman waters the plants, does landscaping and maintains the plants.
He had been servicing the park for NParks for about three weeks when The New Paper spoke to him in February.
He said: 'I've only seen two to three old men sitting on the benches, chatting or just dozing off.'
When Speakers' Corner was first opened in 2000, 400 people signed up to speak.
In 2004, there were 89 speeches by 29 people, a police spokesman said in an e-mail reply.
Last year, there were 106 speeches made by 26 people.
That's about two speeches a week.
Most days, there are no scheduled speakers at all.
In June 2003, The New Paper reported that most of the 140 speech registrations that year were made by only two men: former lawyer S Kunalen and retired stockbroker Tan Kim Chuang.
By September 2004, Mr Tan, who contested in the 2001 General Election as an independent candidate, had chalked up 205 appearances since 2000.
Mr Kunalen, 49, has been going to Speakers' Corner every Friday evening - except on public holidays - to give speeches.
On 7 Apr, he spoke to an audience of about 10 on the coming elections and the methods used by political parties to woo voters.
Dr Cherian George, 40, an assistant professor at NTU's School of Communication and Information, felt that Speakers' Corner should never have been a benchmark of the desire for political expression in Singapore.
He is a founding member of the Roundtable, a non-partisan political discussion group.
He said that there have been successful forums and events to show that people do talk politics in more conducive settings such as in a recent seminar where former political detainees shared their stories.
