SPEAKERS CORNERED: DILEMMA OF FREEDOM WITHIN HONG LIM PARK

Abstract

Created as the local adaptation to the Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park London, the Speakers’ Corner in Hong Lim Park serves as a symbol of Singaporeans’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech and assembly. Since its launch on 1 September 2000, the Singapore government has allowed Singapore citizens who have applied for permits to hold public speeches within its boundaries. Through the years, regulations of the park have been loosened to include protests or demonstrations as permitted activities within its boundaries. Despite having designated as the official space for free speech and assembly, Speakers’ Corner’s location beside a neighbourhood police post and the ubiquitous surveillance cameras within the site contradicts its status as a freedom park. The panoptic gaze over this public space provides constant scrutiny of every action of participants who showed up in this public space to practise their rights to assemble and express. Such presence of visual policing on site leads to the question – Is there true freedom of speech and assembly in Speakers’ Corner? This dissertation hypothesises that the Speakers’ Corner is a paradoxical space where freedom is granted but controlled by the authority through its urban location, site relevance, spatial regulation, policing methods, park landscape and technology. It is hoped that this dissertation may reveal the restrictions and contradictions of Speakers’ Corner in Hong Lim Park and their possible influences on the spatial formations of protests.