Asean Symposium

Last week the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Symposium was held here at a few different venues, but the Shangri-La was where most of the action was. The security was even tighter than when President Bush was here last year.

As I was walking to the grocery store one day to get large quantities of food and alcohol for our International American Thanksgiving on Saturday, police and scary dudes with even scarier guns were stationed every few meters along the way. When I reached the corner of Orange Grove and Orchard Road I saw a "crowd" dressed in red t-shirts . It is highly unusual to see a large number of people congregating here because groups must get prior approval for peaceful demonstrations.

The demonstrators were Myanmar activists attempting to deliver a petition (the large card in the 2nd bad camera phone picture) directly to the ASEAN leaders asking that they pressure the junta to free the Burmese people. The police stopped them before they got to the Shangri-La, but then they arranged for Mr. Lee to come and receive it.

I believe that the demonstrators were breaking the law because the police took down the their particulars and were planning an investigation of possible offences.