Activist Gilbert Goh is currently being investigated by the police for partaking in a public assembly without a permit after holding up a placard outside the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) building.
The placard read, “Please ban all flights from India we are not racist! Just being cautious”, referencing the astronomical spike in the number of daily cases in the South Asian nation and the discovery of a highly infectious COVID-19 strain with double mutations originating from the country.
Above copied from TOC.
Gilbert now under police investigation for holding a one man public assembly with a placard, without police permit. He would need a police permit to carry that placard or else it would be illegal, a public assembly.
What was he protesting, or what was his message? Ban all flights from India because of the Covid19 crisis there. This event was on 1 May. Think the govt already announced the ban, or is it? Why is Gilbert still protesting if the ban is already in force? Cannot be that the ban is not be in force right?
Still puzzling, did Singapore ban all flights from India?
Anyway, Gilbert is keeping the police busy for this protest.
PS. A commenter posted this.
'However several commenters criticised his decision to only call for a ban against those travelling from India.
“No one was holding up signs asking for travel bans from the US. No one was striking a pose with signs rallying against travel from London,” one commenter said.'
Singapore is a democratic country. Singapore is a rule by law country. Every law must be obeyed to the t.
Below is quoted from TOC
No pre-departure PCR test needed
Presently, not all travellers arriving in Singapore need to take a pre-departure Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test in the country they travelled from (‘ICA officer infects 7 family members with COVID-19; No pre-departure test needed for SC/PR‘).
According to ICA website, no approvals or inbound pre-departure COVID-19 PCR Test is required for entry into Singapore for Singapore citizen and PR.
“There is also no need for returning SC/PRs to take an inbound PCR test within 72 hours before arrival in Singapore,” ICA said.
Indeed, a PR recently arrived from India confirmed this. He said he did not need to take any pre-departure PCR Test for COVID-19, before arriving in Singapore through Air India.
The woman patient at TTSH wouldn't have died if there's no imported COVID-19 cases bringing the virus into Singapore.
ReplyDeleteAn assembly is defined as 'a group of people coming together for a common purpose'.
ReplyDeleteA one man public assembly?
A second 'Circuit Breaker' is coming. The Indian COVID19 variant, now here, is said to be more infectious. Pray and Pray party is in dire straits.
ReplyDeleteWho knows when a drought like in Taiwan will happen here. Then not enough water see how the 6m people going to cope.
ReplyDeleteWhat if a drought happen when we are 10m?
KNNBCCB.
Dude don't frighten people lar. Unless there is energy crisis water in sg is unlimited in the sense that energy is used to convert new water and sea water lar
DeleteMore than a week, and after all the talk bragging about all the aid in medical supplies being flown into India, why is there still a shortage of oxygen in hospitals all over the country? This is the most important life saving item that should be delivered to hospitals. The whole system seems to have collapsed and the Indian Government seems to be letting the pandemic run it's course. The peak of the infection is expected only by the middle of May. What happens then? It does not add up.
ReplyDeleteLawrence Wong, so-called potential PM material, urged Singaporeans to start doing their part with immediate effect on stricter measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 in the wider community.
ReplyDeleteBut it's puzzling that Lawrence Wong has no message for the huge numbers of foreigners living in our midst.
According to a recent comment by an AFR corespondent based in Singapore, there were, as of last year, 262,860 Indian Singaporean citizens, 2,675,521 Chinese Singaporean citizens and 529,954 Malay Singaporean citizens. That's supplementing a huge presence of 2.3 million foreigners for a combined resident population of more than 5.7 million.
Lawrence Wong, on April 9 2020, said: "Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of the benefit of hindsight."
> Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete>An assembly is defined as 'a group of people coming together for a common purpose'.
>A one man public assembly?
>May 05, 2021 9:42 am
Well, they can define anything to whatever they want:
Foreign employee dormitory deemed to be public place
29. Every foreign employee dormitory is deemed to be a public place for the purposes of section 14(1) of the Liquor Control (Supply and Consumption) Act 2015.
[Act 5 of 2015 wef 01/01/2016]
https://sso.agc.gov.sg/Act/FEDA2015?ProvIds=pr29-&ViewType=Advance&Phrase=public+place&WiAl=1
Comments by ST's Salma Khalik today:
ReplyDelete"A country can put the most stringent rules in place, but without the willing cooperation of its citizens, it will find it hard to ward off a second wave of infections.
If Singaporeans act responsibly, they would again be able to enjoy a relatively normal lifestyle, where friends can meet, games can be played, live entertainment can resume - though with safety measures still in place.
If they don't, they only have to look at countries which thought they had defeated the virus - only to pay a terrible price."
Again, no mention about the part played by foreigners. Is it the official stance not to mention foreigners, the elephant in the room?
After months of hinting at his frustrations with the high taxes and strict Covid-19 restrictions of the Big Apple, rapper Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson has joined the ranks of New Yorkers and Californians moving to Texas.
ReplyDeleteThe rapper has apparently followed through after teasing in March that he was “headed to Texas.” 50 Cent made that statement when Governor Greg Abbott announced that he was halting the state's mask mandate and all remaining Covid-19 restrictions, declaring that “all businesses and families in Texas have the freedom to determine their own destiny.”
It will be good that more Americans should exercise their rights to do what they want, like not putting on mask and partying and enjoy their lives to the fullest. Why be restricted by this fake pandemic?
If I take a photo of myself carrying a placard at my own home and post it on social media, will the police investigate me for taking part in a public assembly?
ReplyDeleteYour home would be at stake and may be confiscated. They can't confiscated public building.
DeleteSo far, there are at least 10 COVID-19 community cases in Singapore of the Indian variant, five of which are linked to the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTS) cluster, TOC reported.
ReplyDeleteThe variant detected—B.1.617 and B.1.617.3—are present in a total of 131 cases in Singapore as of Monday (3 May). The increasing number of cases linked to the Indian variant of the virus is unsurprising as Singapore, with its very wide open-door policy, recorded a total of 212 COVID-cases in just on week (6 April to 2 May), of which 71 infections involved those who arrived directly from India, TOC says.
Death of fully vaccinated US expert in India sparks worry over Pfizer's efficacy against COVID-19 double mutant
ReplyDeleteAn infectious disease specialist from the US, who had received two Pfizer shots prior to his arrival in India, passed away after testing positive for coronavirus at the age of 81, local media reported on Wednesday.
Dr Rajendra Kapila, a professor at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey specializing in infectious diseases, arrived in India in late March and was scheduled to fly back to the US in mid-April, but he found he was infected with COVID-19 on April 8 and was later admitted to Delhi's Shanti Mukund Hospital, local media the Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday.
He died at the hospital on April 28, the report said, but no details on the cause of his death have been disclosed, nor has it been specified if Kapila was infected with the double mutated virus.
"For the last one year I have been working at a COVID-19 lab in New Jersey and had ensured a safe environment at home," said Dr Deepti, Kapila's wife who traveled with him to India. "It is ironic that we came to India for two weeks and he contracted it here," she said, Hindustan Times reported.
Mainstream Western media have stayed silent on Kapila's death.