ST Sep 14, 2006The Singapore authorities must be feeling pretty irritated with Paul Wolfowitz by now. Maybe instead of the Four Million Smiles project, they should have done something like Singaporean Seelan Palay's Four Hundred Frowns project.
World Bank hopes S'pore objection to activists not censorship
THE head of the World Bank said he hopes that Singapore's decision to prevent some activists from attending the IMF-World Bank meetings is not a case of censorship.
Singapore's position on 28 activists has drawn criticism from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Singapore authorities said these activists posed a threat to security.
Officials at the two institutions have said the ban may be in breach of an agreement.
'I certainly hope their opinions are not the reason they have been excluded,' World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz told a forum of civil society groups on Thursday.
'Their opinions are critical to our institution. It's all the more reason we need to hear them. 'If this is censorship based on people's views then this is even more serious,' he said.
He also said he had so far not received a 'satisfactory explanation' from authorities on the exclusion of some of the 500 pre-approved activists who planned to come to Singapore ...
Then again maybe not. I hear Seelan Palay has just been arrested.
In other news, Singabloodypore has other news you won't read about in the local mainstream media.
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