NGOs 1 Singapore 0

The NGOs of the IMF/World Bank Meet in Singapore achieved what the American and Australian Governments could not do. In a rare reversal of its earlier stance, Singapore agreed to allow 22 of the 27 black listed NGO members into the country.

Which makes you wonder which pea-brained scholar was behind this.

There were 2 options which were open to us on the NGOs issue. Either we do a Germany World Cup 2006 and welcome everyone with open arms, or we choose the option more characteristic of Singapore and ban everyone. Once a decision was made, sticking to it was the easy part.

If we had chosen option Germany World Cup 2006, and we do allow them to protest here, (without imposing a million and one restrictions), and they put one toe out of line, then no one in the world would have blamed us if we had deported the whole bloody lot afterwards.

As for option Typical Singapore, if we banned the whole lot, and they move to Batam to sound war drums etc, and they put one toe out of line there, then no one in the world would have blamed us for banning the whole lot.

Given the massive number of NGO members, the odds of them putting even a fingernail out of line is extremely good.

But what did we do? We flip and we flop and we made a u-turn. So first we get flack for not allowing freedom of speech etc, then now we get flack for not giving NGOs enough time to prepare for the trip here. At the same time, now that the NGOs are united in slinging mud at us, what are the odds of them creating trouble in Batam?

For all the money, effort and 4 billion smiles we've put into this, what kind of press coverage in the world news have we gotten? Not about our beautiful country or the hospitality, for news coverage has been centred on the NGOs issue.

For this, NGOs 1 Singapore 0.

That pea-brained scholar who got us into this mess ought to be shot. Sometimes common sense is not so common after all.