| December 08, 2004
Press statement: Rejection of PELU Application
for Snowball party to be held on 25 Dec 2004
Singapore - The Singpapore Police Force issued a press
release today announcing that they had rejected an application
for a public entertainment license for Snowball, an
event to be held on 25 and 26 December in Singapore.
The application was submitted by Jungle Media Pte Ltd,
a Singapore subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Fridae on
20 October 2004.
2. The application was rejected on the grounds that
the Police are unable to approve any application for
an event which goes against the moral values of a large
majority of Singaporeans. This action was apparently
prompted by “several letters of complaint”
about the “openly gay acts” at our events.
3. This is not the first time that Snowball is being
held, or indeed that Fridae or our Singapore subsidiary
Jungle Media Pte Ltd are applying for the public entertainment
license. Similar licenses were issued for past events,
namely Snowball in December 2002 and 2003, Nation in
August 2002, 2003, 2004, Squirt (April 2004), Boys of
Summer (June 2003) and Paradise Ball (December 2003).
On each occasion, there was full disclosure of the nature
of each event, which is a dance party featuring a DJ.
In fact, we have had a very congenial working relationship
with PELU and various police jurisdictions for all our
past events.
4.. Our events are known to be extremely professionally
organised, and have earned both domestic, as well as
international acclaim. Nation.04, which attracted 8,000
participants, has been featured in Far Eastern Economic
Review, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Reuters, AFP and AP
newswires, Asahi Shimbun, Sydney Morning Herald, South
China Morning Post and countless other newspapers around
the world. Not only have our events been named as one
of the top 10 gay events by Australia’s DNA Magazine,
Nation.04 has also been nominated for "Best Event
Experience" in the 2005 Singapore Tourism Awards.
Our events have created an invaluable buzz that Singapore
is a hip and exciting city to visit.
5. Independent studies and informal surveys, have shown
that our events generate significant tourism revenue
for Singapore. Based on a study commissioned by the
STB, Nation.04 was estimated to have generated S$10million
in tourism revenue, exceeding even that of the 2004
Global Entropolis convention, which generated an estimated
S$6million in the same period of time.
6. In the 4 years that we have been working with the
police and PELU for our events, not once have we been
made aware that there was anything illegal about our
events. We are law-abiding citizens, and we have gone
through great lengths to ensure that no laws are broken
in the organisation of our events. Our events are essentially
dance parties with international DJs, and we are absolutely
certain that nothing about our events are illegal.
7. Our company, Fridae, has recently been "signed
up" by Senior Minister of Health Dr Balaji with
the Ministry of Health to work as a partner in addressing
the recent increase of HIV amongst gay men. We believe
that it is important to maintain open channels between
the government and the gay community to promote an aggressive
public health campaign that has the potential to save
many lives. Our events are an important means to reach
this otherwise difficult to reach demographic, many
of whom already feel increasingly alienated, disenfranchised,
and discriminated against in their own homeland, and
may be driven underground if the environment turns unfavourable.
8. Whilst we understand that not everyone in Singapore
society agrees with homosexuality as a concept, and
that social attitudes will take time to change, it is
nevertheless not mere concept but reality for the many
gay Singaporeans who live and breathe it every day.
9. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National
Day Rally speech was inspiring for many gay and lesbian
citizens of Singapore who saw this as a clear indication
that we too had a role to play in Singapore's future.
"We should have an open society which is welcoming
of talent, which welcomes diverse views, 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," said PM Lee.
10. It is outside the scope of the Singapore Police
Force, whose mission is to uphold the law, maintain
order and keep the peace in the Republic of Singapore,
to make a decision based on what it perceives to be
the “moral values of a large majority of Singaporeans”,
a claim that is unsubstantiated and subjective.
11. Fridae believes that it is unconscionable and a
grave mistake to allow intolerance and discrimination
to sidetrack and derail our vision of a Singapore that
embraces ALL Singaporeans regardless of creed. In fact,
it has been a very vocal minority of fundamentalist
Christians and conservative Christian-linked groups
such as Focus on the Family that have succeeded in swaying
our secular government to their moralist beliefs.
12. Snowball may only be a singular, insignificant
event to most people, but to the gay community that
doesn’t have many outlets and channels to begin
with, it is a major event that they look forward to,
a safe space for them to be themselves, celebrate the
year end, and feel proud that they are doing so on home
ground.
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