A Speakers’ Square to promote the right to freedom of speech and assembly was launched in Penang this morning.
The square is located at the stage of the Millennium Square on the sea-front side of the Esplanade
The Speakers’ Square in Penang is the first of its kind outside a university campus in the country.
A small crowd of about 40, including several state assembly members, witnessed the launch at 8.20am by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng. State exco member for local government Chow Kon Yeow, NGO rep Andre and Guan Eng spoke. Among the crowd were representatives of civil society groups such as Aliran, Suaram and Sembang-Sembang.
Penang Suaram coordinator Ong Jing Cheng said he hoped greater freedom of information and the re-introduction of local government elections would be next on the agenda.
The Speakers’ Square is available to the public every Wednesday and Sunday from 6.00pm to 9.00pm beginning this Sunday, 9 May.
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>>http://www.dapmalaysia.org/all-archive/English/2003/oct03/bul/bul2287.htm In the link above, you will see how DAP Malaysia has admitted that they have FALSELY ACCUSED Tamby Chik of raping that 15 year old Malay girl. Lim Guan Eng is definitely NOT a hero in this case. And no, I am not from the Barisan Nasional.I am just stating the facts.<< This is interesting but this snapshot can be really misleading if we do not examine the whole story behind the admission. They were sued by Rahim and (predictably) lost the court case on false accusation. What transpired had caught them out, and until TODAY, the girl's family… Read more »
“Make your own conclusions, but the apology made was to avoid the bankrupting of DAP.” If it is as simple as you state – “bankrupting of DAP”, haha, then I have a bridge to sell ya ! I thought DAP stands for integrity, principle and all that, or am I wrong? If that 15 year old Malay girl was statutorily raped over a period of time …, then why don’t DAP stood its ground and fought the fight to the end?… What type of chicken-out is this?? “The courage of LGE throughout this episode was commendable.” Courage? The word “COURAGE”… Read more »
Are there also firm plans to further develop Esplanade for other use? It needs to draw a crowd as well, doesn’t it? If not, the only people who’d come are those who are already converts. Preaching to the converts seems bit pointless…
Are civil society groups happy with this? Seems bit like token insincere effort to me…
Sincerity is another matter. Actually this is a trapping square that will trap many innocent victims. Too bad. The rocket has setup the trap for people.
GK.
If negotiating a RM600,000/= double storey for squatters in KBP and giving you to speak at speaker square are not sincere enough, what do you expect !!. Yes, maybe LGE should give 3 millions to each household of KBP and and deny the people to speak at speaker square. Ist that what you want. Tell that to your cheap skate big gun Najib and UMNO, let us speak to our heart content against you and see what happen. The rotten 1 Malaysia jail will be waiting for you.
All the best to the speakers who use this corner.
I think you had better gather your friends together and get them to support you if you are thinking of letting your mouth loose at that site.
Otherwise, you may be your only audience.
Gerakan K
It all depends on what you believe in…A True Democracy or a Guided Democracy. A BN … like you will believe in No Democracy!
Anil is allowing you to ooze out rubbish … simply to demonstrate, what Democracy is all about…..
My God, they should just demolish that monstrosity. Thanks a lot, KTK, for ruining the Padang.
Think LGE would be matured enough to take criticism , if any , in the true democratic way.
Anyway I think I am among the many thousands (wifey and dotter too )who managed to take a photo with LGE.
Wonder how many have taken personal photo with the softie CM before LGE .
Let’s predict the first ISA ticket winner under this holy square. Maybe within 3 months ???
p/s: To Chairman Lim, can you beat my prediction and be the first one instead ???
Gerakan K
Shall I propose the name to be changed to Sandiwara Square to better reflect its purpose ?
May be we can even add a stone statue of our beloved Great Leader, our Chairman Lim as a tribute ?
Indeed it would be very interesting indeed to see what would Chairman Lim would do if Perkasa or UMNO folks gather there to denounce the racist policies of DAP and Cheap Minister.
Ooh, look, Gerakan K talking to Gerakan K. How sad and pathetic.
Sure, Perkasa is not racist to you….
K is another commentator.
Good God, anilnetto, KKK is not a vulgar word, I do not appreciate your censorship and this act does not respect basic free speech.
I have yet to see you censor even a single word with ellipsis of any of the lies posted by the likes of K, Gerakan K and Iron on your blog.
I dont expect commenters here to suggest that other commenters belong to the KKK. Kindly refer to the comment guidelines. Concentrate on the issues, not the commenters.
Please look again, if you haven’t seen those ellipses on the other commenters you mentioned.
People remember that “There is freedom of speech” (say what ever you like) in Malaysia “But there is no freedom after speech” (so call sensitive issue said by non-BeEnd friendly or supporters will be charged “ISA”.
Anything said to hantam PKR well be OK, no action taken by the SB.
This platform will be most likely to use by MP Bayan Baru to hantam LGE for a start.
Lets see how the BeEnd going to digest this!
Sorry, but the same thing could be said on the opposite side too.
I once hampir kena hentam by … samseng, for stating out the truth about LKS and his son LGE.
Luckily I was with a group of friends, or else I would no longer be here.
There you start again. You can hantem people only.
You know what?
I just did a search on your message on Anil’s blog, and I can not find even ONE MESSAGE from you that contributes anything to the thread.
ALL your messages in Anil’s blog (at least those messages Google has successfully archived) are there to hentam other posters.
What are you doing here, Kingkong?
To harass other posters or to discuss?
Please stick to the topic, ok?
Pay some respect to the host of this blog, ok?
If you want to hentam people, you go set up your own Kingkong blog.
Speakers’ Square? What a non-issue. What a waste of time and effort. I can get better publicity using Anil’s blog. Who needs a redundant Speakers’ Square???
What Penangites need is local government and frankly, an honest state government which serves the interests of its rate-paying citizens and NOT a government that panders to corporate interests and which wants to waste good MPPP funds to build a white elephant PICC.
And note, more people can hear what I am saying now than if I went and wasted time screaming my lungs out at Lim Guan Eng’s pathetic Speakers’ Square.
Do you know you are asking too much?
How can a son of a politico-dinosaurius lead a government which serves the people the way it ought to be?
What we have right now, in Penang, is the result of Nepotism, not that much difference from what happens in Putrajaya.
Both our PM and our CM came to power not because of their own deeds. They came to power because who their dads were.
End of story.
Yeah, nepotism that got lim guan eng into jail in the first place, for defending the honour of a Malay girl who got raped by an UMNO warlord.
Keep it coming UMNO cybertrooper.
Sorry, I think you have taken the wrong medication again… Lim Guan Eng has willfully committed a crime and thus being locked up as a criminal. But before you want to argue with me, read this link, from DAP Malaysia: http://www.dapmalaysia.org/all-archive/English/2003/oct03/bul/bul2287.htm In the link above, you will see how DAP Malaysia has admitted that they have FALSELY ACCUSED Tamby Chik of raping that 15 year old Malay girl. Lim Guan Eng is definitely NOT a hero in this case. And no, I am not from the Barisan Nasional. I am just stating the facts. To Anil, I know that this… Read more »
This is really veering off-topic. Please stick to the topic.
I know, Anil, and I said it’s “off topic” first. 😀
Thx for the reminder, tho. Peace !
The same with your PKR Taikoh. The law found him guilty of Sodom just like Sodom and Gomorrah End of Story.
He was later acquitted though.
Anil: I would put the crowd to be more in the region of 80-100. Among the notables present were Tuan Haji Sulaiman Abdullah (ex-Malaysian Bar President and Anwar’s former lead counsel), Anwar Fazal and Eddy Choong. Even the REHDA chief was there. Developers supporting FOI and Speakers’ Square??
Thanks, someone else just told me the crowd was around 50-60.
“kami perkasa tak payah apa2 square ni…
kami perkasa dilindungi oleh pihak polis.
kami boleh berucap (menghasut) dimana2 aje yang kami suka. dalam rumah lim guan eng pun boleh”.
4RAKYAT
Kami juga diberi LESEN bercakap siok siok seperti LESEN perniagaan khas!
Kami muka nipis tak kan guna Speaker’s Square dilancar Lim Guan Eng!
Sebab kami di lindungi BERKASAR!
I wish there is an one-stop virtual speaker corner managed by the state government.
Well, this got to me one of the unfunniest and cruelest jokes of the year played by Chairman Lim on Penangites. I m sure that the Pakatan fanboys will go … over this, saying this is the greatest thing since the sliced bread. Let me “potong steam” and point out that our Southern neighbours Singapore also have such corners and it is obvious where our Cheap Minister got his inspiration from. I guess we can speak anything and everything as long as it is not against LGE and Pakatan. If you are foolish enough to do so, well, be prepared… Read more »
K, You wrong. This place will be closed once you denounce the corruption and deceits of UMNO, MIC, MCA, Gerakan and Najib. Furthermore you (could) be arrested by he police on the order of UMNO & BN goons. The police (perceived to be) subservient to UMNO will arrest you for speaking without a permit. Is that clear enough. Who is going to close who. Open your eyes. Inspiration has to come from somewhere and somebody else. Definitely not from the … scandal … prone of cheap gun like UMNO & Najib who have to stoop so low for a pittance.… Read more »
PORR ALERT !
I was just informed that DAP wants the PORR project to be revived !!!
Anil, can you help confirmed if it is true?
I will try and check it out.
Speakers’ Square launched in Penang-If launch in Sitiawan,wahlau,nightmare for adun here.Dato Ngeh! can we speak of our unhappiness in Penang?
Remember to bring us some goodies from Sitiawan.
Yeah, some yummy delicious snacks. 😀
Also I heard Samy Vellu wants to have the next MIC agm at the speakers corner!(?) WAH.
Wah speakers corner. WAH. but be careful if you say anything against BN you masuk into ISA which is officially the non-speakers corner….
I heard the Perkasa chief wants to use the speakers corner(?)
I sure would like to see how them “loket” ppl would react if Ibrahim Ali and the Perkasa goons use that speaker corner to hurl insults at the idol they (the “lokets”) worship so much – Lim Guan Eng.
There you start again. You should be very happy that father and son allows you to hurl attacks on them as compare to your PKR trinity – father wife and daughter
Another first from Penang. A good move towards freedom of information and democracy in Malaysia.
Those who just cannot keep their mouth shut are happy to be at the Speaker Square!
….
How sad, that even promoting democracy means yet another unnecessarily big contract: construction in this case.
The construction of the Millennium Square concrete stage was undertaken about a decade ago under the BN administration.
And until today, the ‘square’ was not being utilize at all this while.
That’s great reuse of space.
Would the police respect the freedom of speech corner? Would they shoot to defend themselves from verbal attacks?
As long as you do not hurl your verbal attacks from inside a car, I don’t think the police will shoot.
But then …
Aha! Mr Anil, finally, I have found my democratic spot to air my grievances….won’t be putting you in a tight spot once too often,hahaha! When writing in your blog, it reminded me of the good old days when I was still in Malaysia, a good twenty over years ago. Every time, when we were discussing a sensitive issue, we had to look over our shoulders to see, who were the people around us….. Being in Australia for well over twenty years it is difficult for me to not be direct with my comments, instead of beating around the bush. I… Read more »
Assuming that I will not be able to obtain a resolution over my complaint from Jabatan Pembangunan Kemahiran by this week, can I be allowed to air my grievance in this Speaker Square for the sake of truth and justice?