PLU first application: letter to the Prime Minister

source: original document

Petition for the Registration of 'People Like Us'

PLU is intended as a gay and lesbian support group, to help each other live more positive lives, and to contribute to greater understanding and tolerance of gay and lesbian persons in Singapore.

We are encouraged by, and agree wholeheartedly with, your June 5 speech in Parliament wherein you said that the future of Singapore depends on putting people at its centre, and that each citizen must feel valued. Gay and lesbian citizens would like to be reassured that the State values them too, but so far, the rejection of our application has given quite the opposite signal.

You have asked Singaporeans to adopt a fresh mindset and be willing to respect and accept a greater diversity of ideas and cultures, and to gain strength from that. Groupthink is perilous to this small country. We are not asking the government to fully endorse our personal views. We are simply hoping that the government will act upon its own philosophy of giving space to well-meaning but different viewpoints, and creating a climate whereby fresh thinking is encouraged.

It is a laudable aim to make Singapore attractive to top talent from around the world, but some top talent happen to be gay or lesbian. Increasingly, senior level decision-makers in multinational corporations, in universities and even governments, are open about their sexual orientation and Singapore will not be an attractive environment if it is perceived to be homophobic. Even gay and lesbian Singaporeans now studying abroad consider favourably the idea of never returning.

Singaporeans have to move towards a more realistic appreciation of sexuality issues, affecting as it does, some 5-10% of our citizens, extrapolating from recent studies in other countries. This implies that there are some 150,000 to 300,000 Singaporeans who feel alienated from the State.

On July 5, your call for civil society was repeated, and you pointed out that a necessary condition must be the government taking a step back, perhaps even the back seat. PLU is precisely such an example of grass-roots voluntarism, passionate about serving our local gay and lesbian community. It is civil society in the making. It strikes us that to disallow the registration of our group would go against the grain of your expressed wishes.

It seems no one appreciates that by making a sincere attempt to register and operate within the framework of the law, PLU is underlining our view that we should be responsible and accountable as a group. When citizens with grievances are completely shut out of the system, the grievances do not disappear, but will manifest in other ways. Apathy, cynicism, voting with their feet, perhaps even defiance and irresponsible extremism are some of the ways in which, historically, disaffected citizens react to being denied a voice. This is not healthy for Singapore.

In previous statements, you have also stressed the importance of transparency and accountability in government relations with citizens, yet no one so far has told us the reasons for dismissing our application, leaving us second-guessing the concerns of the government. We have said, early in our application process, that we are prepared to dialogue and explore ways in which we can assuage the specific concerns of the authorities, but first, someone has to tell us what those concerns are.

In the absence of such feedback, we have tried our best to explain our convictions in various letters to the Minister for Home Affairs. For your convenience, copies of our correspondence are enclosed.

We would be grateful if you would, with the Honourable Minister for Home Affairs, re-assess the issues, and allow PLU to be registered.

On behalf of all ten signatories to our application
Signed by the Pro-tem President   

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