Final White Paper protest at Hong Lim Park attracts 1,000

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Organisers estimated that Saturday's final protest against the Population White Paper, held at Hong Lim Park on a scorching hot afternoon, had attracted about 1,000 people.

This is the third time that Gilbert Goh of transition.org, a support site for the unemployed, has organised a White Paper protest. He was “slightly disappointed” at the turnout, which was a stark contrast to the first protest held in February, where 4,000 people showed up.

“I think we are a bit disunited. If you organise this in Hong Kong, you will probably get 50,000, in Malaysia maybe 100,000 and in Indonesia, 500,000, and we are not there yet. But I won’t give up,” Goh said, adding that it is difficult to organise such an event in Singapore.

The recent changes made to the foreign manpower policy could also be the reason for the diluted response, he told Yahoo Singapore.

For the final installment, Goh invited a total of seven speakers of various ages, races and backgrounds to present their thoughts at the event which went on for close to four hours. Some of the speakers included The Online Citizen’s blogger Leong Sze Hian, healthcare executive and blogger Roy Yi Ling, architect Fatimah Akhtar and operations executive Alex Tan.

Many of them touched on the issue of foreigners in the country, saying that Singaporeans are actually blaming the government’s foreign worker policy instead of the foreigners themselves.

There was also a job fair at the park, set up by six employers who, according to Goh, have made efforts to prioritise Singaporeans when hiring new employees.

Organisers wrapped up the event with a question and answer session where about eight people from the crowd came up to ask questions and voice their thoughts.