PM Lee Hsien Loong allows indoor talks to be held without a police licence, 22 August 2004

During his National Day rally speech on 22 August 2003, just after assuming the appointment of Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong announced that all indoor talks could be henceforth held without applying for a licence from the police. The same would go for performances and exhibitions at Speakers' Corner. The news was reported in The Straits Times:

"It is a promise he has made before - to keep on opening up society, encouraging diversity and more participation from the people.

Last night, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong took concrete steps to realise this pledge when he announced two measures that would make it easier for Singaporeans to express their views in different ways.

The first: all indoor talks can now be held without a licence from the police.

Where previously all public talks required a public entertainment licence, those taking place indoors are now exempted, 'unless they touch on 'sensitive issues such as race and religion' '.

Another relaxation: People can now hold performances and exhibitions at the Speakers' Corner without having to apply for a licence.

After all, as PM Lee noted, Singaporeans are free to air their views at the open-air area, set up four years agoin Hong Lim Park.

In fact, using the space for exhibitions is not a new idea. Civil society group Think Centre obtained permits to hold doll displays there last year, after failing to get police permission for the events to take place before the Raffles Place MRT station.

Referring to their initiative, PM Lee said: 'Once in a while, Think Centre says they want to go to the Speakers' Corner and they want to plant 100 flowers there, let the hundred flowers bloom.

Well, I think go ahead.'

It's free expression 'as long as you don't get into race and religion and don't start a riot', he said.

This, he said, was a signal for Singaporeans to 'speak your voice, be heard, take responsibility for your views and opinions'.

It was a theme he had touched on as early as January, before he became Prime Minister.

Speaking at a Harvard Club function, then deputy prime minister Lee set out for the first time how he planned to conduct government- people relations as Prime Minister.

'I have no doubt that our society must open up further,' he had said, describing the growing participation and diversity over the past 20 years as 'vital pluses for Singapore'.

Ten days ago, he renewed the pledge when he was sworn in as Prime Minister. He presented a vision of a government that would be open and inclusive in its approach.

'Our people should feel free to express diverse views, pursue unconventional ideas, or simply be different,' he had said.

Last night, as he reiterated this pledge, he noted that 'as a society also we have to be forward-looking'.

'We have to be prepared to accept the diversity of views and to listen to the debate, and to have this discussion always with a view to moving Singapore forward,' he said."

An excerpt of Lee's speech, the entirety of which was also published in The Straits Times, raised hope for the LGBT community:

"We should have an open society which is welcoming of talent, which welcomes diverse views, which is yet cohesive and has a sense of common purpose. And we should be a community where every citizen counts, where everyone can develop his human potential to the full, and everyone participates in building and repairing and upgrading this shared home which is Singapore."

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This article was written by Roy Tan.