Singapore How to handle protests
How should Singapore handle protests against government policies?

For example, there are many peoples who are against vaccination and the restrictions imposed on the unvaccinated, which they consider to be discriminatory.

In some countries, they will protest on the streets. However, the protest could become violent and might be exploited by malicious parties, including foreign parties. 

If there is no avenue for people to air their grievances, it will have negative consequences.

There is an avenue for people to protest online, but the messages are often quite messy and could become quite confused. 

I suggest this approach:

1. Provide a platform for issues to be raised on for people to vote for or against the issue.

2. If the support for the issue reaches the first threshold, the authority should be obliged to give a reply. The reply should be posted in the platform.

3. If the support reaches the second threshold, the authority should organize a town hall meeting.  The people to be invited into the meeting could be picked by a random draw from among the people who expressed interest to attend.  The meeting could be conducted online. The meeting should be recorded and released to the public.

I hope that this approach could provide a satisfactory platform for the public to air their disagreement with government policies and get a reply.

Tan Kin Lian
 

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