Most of us have probably never heard of the band Watain before today. However, after the events of yesterday, probably ALL of us know about them and how they were banned on the day they were supposed to hold a concert here in Singapore. However, do we know the real reasons behind the ban? Many netizens went online to rant about the incident.
One Reddit user blamed it on the petition which snowballed into the ban:
"The petition per se did not influence the decision ... It was an assessment made by the ministry, with security as well as public order assessment": K Shanmugam Sc on why MHA advised that the WATAIN concert be cancelled.
Mate, if it didn't influence the decision, why so GODDAMN LAST MINUTE? People come here liao, then you say not welcomed. Sure, then you should FOOT THE BILL 100%. Because you should had done it wayyyyyy before IMDA approved them to perform intially, and they even had heavy restrictions on what can be played. As if I'm going to believe 100%, it may not had influenced totally, but I'm sure it caused a loud enough ruckus that they decided to look into it.
Its no different from when residents complain about something, nothing gets done, they go to their MP or complain in the newspapers, suddenly the MPs say they will look into the issue.
Hell, it should show how terrible inter agency coordination really is, why didn't they seek information regarding this earlier if its a 'security' risk?
Another questioned if it was because of religious people holding political roles, which might have affected the decisions:
Just a thought I had in regards to the Watain incident. I'd be very interested to see who actually made up the MDA reviewing committee. Should there be such a thing as "Religious Corruption" to look into?
We don't have the US kinda lobbying, but does Religious Lobbying exist here?
Should a secular state have policy makers that are religiously biased?
Do share your thoughts! Personally, I'm non religious. Satanism and Christianity are different sides of the same coin to me. Does the fact that one is clearly favoured more than the other (AFAIK satanism is not recognised as a religion in Singapore) mean that Singapore is religiously biased?
We await the day that our government will be transparent with us and let us know the real reasons behind their decisions and stop lying to our citizens. But will that day ever come? Whatever it is, we are sorry that this has happened to the concert.
