The group taking a photo outside Plaza Singapura before moving on to Orchard Road.

Last Friday (28 May 2010), a few of us from The Workers’ Party conducted a public Survey Outreach, to poll the public on their views on the Voting Age.  This was done in line with the launch of the Vote18 Campaign (http://vote18.wp.sg) organized by the Workers’ Party Youth Wing (WPYW).

An online survey was created at http://vote18.wp.sg/survey, but we also felt that we needed to reach out to people who might not come across our online efforts to publicise the survey.  As such, during the planning phase for the campaign, we decided on conducting public survey outreaches.

We planned to take the results from both the online and offline survey efforts, and perform a review on the next stage of the campaign. Amongst the possible next stages are a number of petition outreach, where we planned to bring petition forms to the public to ask them to sign if they support the idea of lowering the Voting Age to 18.

Of course, before we even started on the first activity, there were numerous internal meetings to discuss various issues, and one of the issues we identified was that we wanted to perform the public outreaches in a proper manner. Our objective was to collect public views on the topic, and we should be doing that with as little problem or disruption as possible for anyone.

With that in mind, I wrote an email to the Police Licensing Division to ask if our planned activities require us to apply for a police permit.  Shortly after, I receive an email reply plus a friendly phone call from Central Police Station, asking for more details on our intended activities.  I gave them the details, and I was advised to apply for a police permit.  I proceeded to apply for the police permit, and waited for the response.

Interestingly, the online form only allowed me to enter 2 dates and 1 location for events I intended to apply for, so I entered the dates for the first and last planned activities, and the location of “along Orchard Road”, one of the many locations planned.

Soon after, I received a called from another police inspector, now from the Tanglin Police Station.  I believe it is probably because I entered the location and the application was routed there.  I was again asked for the details, so I explained that we planned to carry out two kinds of activities – survey and petition, the background for why we are doing that, which dates we were going to conduct the activities, where, etc.  After getting the information from me, I was told that the application was in progress and I could also get back to the same police inspector if I had further questions.

I received confirmation from the police inspector on 21 May 2010 that the application for petition signing activities was rejected, and we were advised to carry these out at the Speakers’ Corner.  However, we could conduct the survey as long as we do no publicise a cause or campaign, mark or commemorate any event, or demonstrate support for opposition to the views or actions of any person, group of persons or any government.

We were also told that we could not wear our party uniform or display our Party logo or the WPYW logo in any way.

Personally, I do not agree with the part of the law that imposed such restrictions, but I understand that it is part of the law in force now and so I do not think that the police was wrong or trying to be difficult in imposing the restrictions.  I was just happy that we could indeed conduct the survey to gather public view of people on the street, which we could not have been able to get easily otherwise.

In the case of the survey, it was just a fact-finding exercise, so it was allowed.

In the few days before 28 May 2010, we had some further clarifications, so there was a number of to-and-fro email and phone correspondences between the police inspector and me on the finer points of the can-dos and cannot-dos.

On the actual day itself, I ensured that every person conducting the survey had a short briefing from me on the points to note before starting, so as to ensure that everyone knows what they can and cannot do.  Of course, everyone was pleased to know that we went through the due diligence to ensure the police allowed that activities, and we could all concentrate on the main objective of doing the survey.

With the help of the fellow members, the survey was conducted smoothly. We were outside Plaza Singapura for half the afternoon, took a short drink break, and proceeded to Orchard Road for the second half of the afternoon.

This is the first time the WPYW performs a public survey outreach, and also my first experience in applying for a police permit.  I must say that the police inspector I corresponded with is cooperative and helpful in making me understand the restrictions, so that I can focus on conducting the activity properly, without worry that I might be crossing the wrong line.

One thing for sure, the WPYW will continue to go through the same process for future activities that we understand might require police permit, so that we can continue our work in a constructive manner.

Remember to watch out for announcements of future activities at http://vote18.wp.sg and http://wpyouth.sg! And of course, we can also be found on twitter (http://www.twitter.com/wpyw) and on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/wpyouth)!

Since the first YouthQuake forum organised by the Workers’ Party Youth Wing (WPYW), the issue of lowering the voting age to 18 has been one that is being discussed frequently amongst the WPYW.  The first YouthQuake forum triggered some discussions online and in the newspaers, and even a Parliamentary question was raised, but as usual, it was easily dismissed with a not-so-convincing argument.

When the electoral reforms like increasing the number of NCMPs, and the addition of the Cooling Off Day were announced a few months ago, the WPYW ExCo were thinking – this will be a good time to bring the issue up again, since the lowering of voting age is also closely related to electoral reforms.  We went about planning for street surveys to gather the thoughts of people on the issue, and also plan to carry out a number of petition signing public outreach to gather support for this.

However, one obstacle we meet along the way is that we realised that what we are planning could possibly require a police permit or some sort of license under the Public Order Act, since a gathering or assembly to demonstrate support for or opposition to the views or actions of any person, group of persons or any government or to publicise a cause or campaign falls under the Act.

Not wanting to take chances, I have gathered our planning documents and just wrote an email to the Police Licensing Division minutes ago to enquire on the matter, as President of WPYW.  Hope that I have a favourable reply soon and clear indications the next steps we can take.

Keeping my fingers crossed….

Had you always wondered what meaningful thing you can do on National Day?  Why not volunteer your time for a few hours to join in with Workers’ Party’s activity to celebrate our National Day?

Send an email to organising@wp.sg for more details.

Hope to see you.