Celebrating 50 Years of PAP Rule : Abolish ISA event, I. It wasn’t Gay enough

Human-rights-singapore

* This article is the first in a short series of 'reflections' on the event.

As I walked toward the ‘Speaker’s Corner’ in Hong Lim Park, I kept looking around wondering where the event was being held.  I did see a small group of people gathered at one spot, but I discounted it and kept looking around.  Not seeing any other group larger than said small gathering, I approached them, curious to know if that indeed was the event.  I was dismayed to discover that it was.  My first thought was, ‘I could probably fit all of them into my 4-room flat’.  My second thought was, ‘Hmmm…if only they were all ‘gay’’. 

Noninclusive dot

Why?  A week or so earlier, Hong Lim park was filled by a thousand or so ‘pink-dotters’ hypocritically promoting the ‘freedom to love’ - my thoughts.  These people give ‘love’ and the ‘freedom’ to love a bad name.  I said to an acquaintance later that what many interest groups don’t realise whilst pursuing their own interests is that there is such a thing as an overarching source of a problem, and of which theirs is usually one of its manifestations.  For instance, What Seelan Palay et al were admirably seeking to dismantle was a perspective and its resulting institution -  the ISA - that was founded on the belief in mass apathy in its most essential form – that you’re not going to bother when someone is detained without trial simply because it is not you.  The right to hump your same-sex neighbour, women’s rights, employment rights, the rights of ethnic minorities, religious rights, and so on are related to group rights, and it is far easier to identify with a group of similar interests than with another, but more difficult to identify with another solely on their individuality.   

The ‘freedom to love’, in its most atomic form, requires the respect of the singular individual – as opposed to a group which is much easier to respect given the human tendency to be intimidated by numbers or value themselves and others by numbers…as opposed to IQ or simply, their being ‘human’.  For group rights to be disrespected, it has to previously be founded on the apathetic and self-interested disrespect, disregard or undervaluation of the singular individual.  The ‘freedom to love’ ought not to be based on, say, the right to ravish your same sex neighbour, but the wisdom to love her/im despite not desiring to hump her/im.  If you get this right, then the movement towards the cessation of all sorts of discrimination would, I dare say, be exponentially accelerated as our empathetic instincts would be so honed that we will be able to appreciate far more relevant variables, their interconnection, and their dynamic and dialectical relationships, in the attempt to detect and resolve any form of discrimination, or even bring about social and perspectival conditions that undermines the basis upon which they might emerge.

I was dismayed by the dismal turnout for the AISA event ('Abolish Internal Security Act') as it indicated that the other interest groups have yet to realise that their interests are tied by the umbilical cord of their humanity, and that this movement seeks to address the core of the issue, and upon which the interests of other groups are founded.  The AISA movement, amongst other core rights (my term) groups, seeks the valuation of the singular individual.  And it is in this valuation, will the appreciation of all other interests emerge.  ‘You may be different, but you are still an individual, so I’ll have to consider your interests simply because I respect you as an individual.’  Now if you feel inclined to retort, 'Hey you homophobic bas#$%d, the gay rights movement is more than just the right to 'hump my same-sex neighbour'.  It's about our core rights as human beings who have the right to the freedom to determine and realise what we want and imagine, so that we can want more than we can currently imagine, or imagine more than we currently can...', you would have perfectly illustrated my point. 

In this, for instance, the 'pinkdot' event was more like a 'pink-period' event ('period', as in 'full-stop' after a sentence).  It seems to say, 'It's us that matters and nobody else'.  This is what i suspected after the event, and, in part, one of my reasons for going to the AISA event was to confirm my supposition.  Isn't that what plagues this society at all levels?"

"It's us (the government) that matters, so we're going to give ourselves pay hikes whilst telling you to make yourself competitive with underpaid 'foreign' workers." "It's us (the corporation) that matters, so thank you for your 20 years of hard work, but the recession is bad and I've got to maintain my Mercedes, bungalow and my villa in the south of France, so bugger off."  "It's me (the individual) who matters; so I'm gonna cut you in your long wait for a taxi; or signal while I'm changing lanes; charge you $8 for plate of green veg at the 'zhi zha' shop; keep quiet about the HDB upgrading costs so that i can get you to fork out 15k cash up front as part of the flat-sale deal (which is what happened to me with the collusion of both mine and the other's housing agents). "It's our race that matters, so forget about not representing or bothering about the 'rest' of the 'minorities'."  "It's us, (the maid-employers) that matter, so i expect you to be on call 24/7 and you're only going to get 1 or 2 off days a month for $200-$300 usd." "It's us (gays) that matter, so who cares about your human rights activism." 

And even the following picture from singaporedaily.net's 'week 21 round-up' gives more prominence to the 'pink dot' event as opposed to the AISA one.  These are freudian slips indicating that empathy is something to be afforded to only one's own perceived group, and that significance come with numbers and not the intrinsic value of an event or idea in itself.

Wk21

It's a paradoxical state of affairs when all perceived 'good' sees only its own good.  These people ought to be ashamed of themselves.    

I do acknowledge that the timing of the event – weekday, 6.30pm – might have inhibited the attendance of other group members, but I dare say that many students and others whom were involved in the ‘pink dot’ event, amongst a host of others, could still have attended.  In this, you have undermined thine own interests by not giving them the support which, in essence, YOU deserve.

Ed

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