PM Lee after Laneway Festival mess: 'Do the right thing'

Channel NewsAsia 28 Jan 15;

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Wednesday (Jan 28) called on Singaporeans to help the country progress from a "cleaned city to a truly clean city", after highlighting the state of Gardens by the Bay following the 2015 Laneway Festival last Saturday.

Mr Lee put up a picture on his Facebook page illustrating rubbish strewn on the ground following the music festival at the Meadow at Gardens by the Bay. He contrasted this with the actions of Myanmar sports fans, who were seen picking up litter at National Stadium after their football team's clash with the Lions.

"It takes continuous effort to keep Singapore clean. We need to progress from being a cleaned city to a truly clean city," Mr Lee wrote.

"All of us can play a part – picking up our own litter, educating our children and grandchildren, and reminding others to do the right thing. Visit the Public Hygiene Council's page to find out how you can help."

- CNA/kk

PM Lee calls for clean, not cleaned, city
Rachel Au-yong My Paper AsiaOne 29 Jan 15;

SINGAPORE - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday called on Singaporeans to pick up their own litter, so that Singapore can progress from being a "cleaned city to a truly clean city".

He singled out litterbugs who attended a music festival on Saturday and left the venue strewn with plastic bags and other rubbish.

In a Facebook post, Mr Lee put up a photograph of the Meadow at Gardens by the Bay, which was covered with litter after some 13,000 people attended the 2015 Laneway Music Festival over the weekend.

He contrasted this behaviour with that of Myanmar's football fans, who were seen picking up litter at the National Stadium even after their team lost to Singapore during the AFF Suzuki Cup in November.

"It takes continuous effort to keep Singapore clean. We need to progress from being a cleaned city to a truly clean city," wrote Mr Lee.

"All of us can play a part - picking up our own litter, educating our children and grandchildren, and reminding others to do the right thing. Visit the Public Hygiene Council's page to find out how you can help."

Since April, penalties for littering have become twice as harsh.

Offenders face a maximum fine of $2,000 for the first conviction, $4,000 for the second conviction and $10,000 for the third and subsequent convictions.

S’pore likely to become garbage city without foreign workers: ESM Goh
Today Online 29 Jan 15;

SINGAPORE — The Republic may end up as a “garbage city”, said Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong today (Jan 29) following reports of how a part of the Gardens by the Bay was covered with rubbish following a music festival.

His remarks came a day after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong posted on his Facebook page a picture that showed rubbish strewn on the ground following the 2015 Laneway Festival at The Meadow at Gardens by the Bay. About 13,000 people attended the event last Saturday.

Mr Lee contrasted the situation with the actions of Myanmar sports fans, who were seen picking up litter at the National Stadium after their football team played the Lions last November.

In a Facebook post, Mr Goh wrote: “Our reputation as one of the world’s cleanest cities is going down the rubbish chute. It looks like a case of ‘monkeys see, monkeys do’.”

He noted that Tokyo has no rubbish even though the Japanese capital has no garbage bins in public places.

“The Japanese take their snack wrappers, empty bottles and ponchos home to dispose. That is why Tokyo is a fine city without ‘fine’ signs. That is why it is a clean city with no foreign workers.”

Mr Goh added: “Without foreign workers, Singapore is likely to become a ‘garbage city’. Cleanliness is a character thing. It shows who you really are.”

In his Facebook post on Wednesday, Mr Lee said: “It takes continuous effort to keep Singapore clean. We need to progress from being a cleaned city to a truly clean city.”

Dish the dirt, you'll likely end up soiled
John Lui The Straits Times AsiaOne 3 Feb 15;

Online trolls expose their own sense of inferiority when they launch virulent attacks Last week, rubbish left at a music festival caused us to wake up to the threat posed to the nation by rich white people.

It began with Facebook posts, by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, directed at behaviour we've lived with forever.

They mentioned littering at a music festival, and how we as a people have a way to go before we learn to show care and respect for public areas. It sparked an online ruckus.

These are reminders we have seen in the past, about the piles of garbage left behind whenever big groups gather, whether it is in Chinatown during Chinese New Year, or in Geylang Serai during Hari Raya Puasa, or in foodcourts and cinemas, or at the National Stadium after a game.

This time, however, the posts and news reports triggered a torrent of online conversations. The litterbugs in question were not your run-of-the-mill local specimens.

The alternative-music jamboree the Laneway Festival was the event in question, so the Internet's hatred targeting system locked on to the young people who left garbage on the grass.

More specifically, the young, white, beer-swilling people with money, paying $140 and more to see edgy haircuts playing synthesisers.

Laneway's 13,000 ticket-holders embody everything a certain sector of society here loves to hate - foreign, boozed-up and moneyed, taking over a public park with their weird artsy music.

And now, these privileged few have the audacity to pollute our hallowed ground with their rubbish - it was a magic combination of traits that made writers on Facebook and in the alternative media lose their collective minds.

According to people at the event, only about half the crowd were white, but that did not matter. In the alternative media, Laneway was the gathering place of the devil's own Caucasian hipster invasion force.