Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Rosa Parks passed - 1913-2005

Now many Singaporeans might not be familar with Rosa Parks, but her act of defiance in 1955, open the pathways to many segregation laws reform in the US then. Who would have imagined just barely 50 years ago, Black people can only sit at the back of the buses, and the front row seats were reserved for the whites only. If it gets too crowded, the center rows might have to be given up for white people too. When buses get too crowded, the Black people would have to pay at the front of the bus, exit the buses and board the bus from the rear door. This is the United States we're talking about.

On 1 Dec 1955, Rosa Park refused to give up her seat. 4 persons were asked to move and give way for 1 white man by the bus driver. 3 moved, but Mrs Parks didn't budge.The driver said "Well, I'm going to have you arrested". Rosa said "You may do that". Mrs Parks was arrested and fined $14. Following her arrest, the blacks community boycotted the bus service (they accounted for 75% of the business) for more than 12months until the court ruled against segration on public transport.

It does makes me wonder, if something similar happened to Singapore, would Singaporeans simply boycott the system, or just go along with the flow.

Black American Web - Nation's Leaders Express Sadness at Civil Rights Icon's Death

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It does makes me wonder, if something similar happened to Singapore, would Singaporeans simply boycott the system, or just go along with the flow.

Aaaah the power of a purely rethorical question...

But look at it, Singaporeans are already doing doing this civil disobedience thing when they think the state is going against their freedom for no reason:
- they litter
- the are not courteous in public transport
- they spit
- and they are starting to eat in the MRT...

Well, who knew?