Police investigate Mr Brown
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Brown-clad 30 show silent support for Mr Brown
The Straits Times
July 9, 2006, 9.06 pm (Singapore time)
By Aaron Low
THE police are looking into a show of support for blogger Mr Brown by about 30 people who arrived at City Hall MRT station wearing brown.
Those interviewed said they had come in response to an SMS message that had circulated over the weekend.
The cellphone short message had asked people to wear brown and head for City Hall station at 2pm Sunday, to protest against the 'Government-imposed blackout' on the blogger's weekly column in the free newspaper Today.
At about 2pm, about 30 people gathered, talking and laughing in groups just outside the train station.
They were mostly people in their 20s and 30s, and had mostly come alone. Also present was a Canadian family of three, a mother and her two teenage daughters.
Artist Zai Kuning, 43, came in a brown T-shirt which said 'I am fed up with progress' on the back.
That was referring to the headline of Mr Brown's June 30 article, 'Singaporeans are fed, up with progress' that drew criticism from the Government.
'I don't really read Mr Brown's online postings nor his columns but I thought I wanted to show my support for him because what happened was unfair to him,' said Mr Zai.
Mr Brown is the moniker of fulltime writer and blogger Lee Kin Mun, 36. In a letter published in Today on 3 July, the Government criticised his last piece on the high cost of living here.
The newspaper then suspended the column. Mr Lee said through his friend Edmund Tan that he knew about the SMS asking people to go to City Hall, but was not the one who initiated it.
'We are touched by the gesture and we hope that nobody gets into trouble because of us,' said Mr Tan, who helps Mr Lee run his website.
The police officers present at City Hall did not tell the gathering to disperse. By 2.20pm people began wandering off, and by 2.40pm it was over.
It is illegal to conduct a public protest in Singapore without a license, under the Public Entertainments Act.
The police confirmed that nobody was arrested. 'The police is aware of the incident and we are looking into it,' a spokesman said. -
......will mr brown be arrested?
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it will be a sad day if they do him.
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walao, can't they just leave mr brown alone? geesh.
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80 prc hookers outside china embassy and they do nothing.
and they....choose to do this.
whats more to say. theres nothing more to say. quite useless to say anything actually. -
They will say: 'We are leaving Mr Brown alone. It's the protestors we're going after.'Originally posted by Rejected:walao, can't they just leave mr brown alone? geesh.
I fail to see how a group of 30 people clad in brown standing quietly in an MRT station can be considered illegal and a potential threat to peace and harmony.
If someone can explain to me why it would be considered as a menace to society without making me ROFLMAO, I'll leave this thread immediately. For otherwise, I sure as heck don't want to be organising class gatherings with everyone wearing class T-shirts in an MRT station. No point getting investigated. -
At last it shows that Singaporean do care and will stand up to show support. Hope that no one will be prosecuted. After this incident i am sure that lesser ppl will be willing to show their support to Mr Brown outwardly.
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cont discussion here
http://www.sgforums.com/?action=thread_display&thread_id=199428