Australia
and New Zealand started the rolling global protests denouncing corporate greed
but capitalist countries elsewhere in Asia were reluctant to demonstrate, with
the turnout in wealthy Singapore almost zero.
Protesters gathered across the world on
Saturday to denounce bankers and politicians over the international economic
crisis, with violence rocking Rome where cars were torched and bank windows
smashed.
In New York, where the Occupy Wall Street
movement began, organizers said the protest grew to at least 5,000.
Protesters had gathered in Japan and across
Southeast Asia, but in the hundreds at most. Singapore didn't even manage that.
Singapore is one of the world's wealthiest
nations and a regional base for many banks and fund managers, but its
long-ruling People's Action Party is losing support from an electorate unhappy
about the widening income divide and the government's liberal immigration
policy.
The pro-government Sunday Times appeared to
take pride in the non-turnout after a call to gather at Raffles Place in the
financial center failed to materialize.
"What's missing in this picture?" it
asked on its front page above a picture of three policemen patrolling an almost
empty Raffle Place.
Speakers'
corner
An unidentified person had set up a Facebook
page and Twitter account calling on Singaporeans to protest against income
inequality and a lack of accountability in the country's sovereign wealth
funds, prompting a police warning.
Singapore bars demonstrations, gatherings or
speeches without a permit except at a tiny "Speakers' Corner" in a
small park at the edge of the central business district.
"The organizers hid behind their Facebook
and Twitter accounts, posting messages such as 'we should try this again on
Monday' and 'where is everyone right now?'" the newspaper said.
In Malaysia, the movement drew a modest 200 in
the capital, Kuala Lumpur. Organizers blamed the poor turnout on a lack of
communication and fears of a police crackdown.
"Partly it's because a lot of people are
still not aware we are here, because our publicity has been limited to social
media," said Fahmi Reza, 34, of the Kuala Lumpur People's Assembly, a
social action group which organized the gathering.
Some of the protesters held up placards
bearing the slogan "Occupy Dataran"(occupy the square), then broke
into smaller groups after police instructed them to disperse.
"Anti-capitalism is not my cause but
anti-authoritarianism is definitely my cause and as citizens ... we came here
to stand up for our rights," said lecturer Wong Chin Huat, 38.
Large public protests are rare in Malaysia but
more than 10,000 people took to the streets in July in anger over the slow pace
of political reforms.
Rain curbed protests in South Korea and there
was only a small turnout in the southern Chinese city of Hong Kong.
"Many Hong Kong people didn't (take part
in) these actions because the economic crisis hasn't reached Hong Kong
yet," said leftwing activist Napo Wong Weng-chi.
"The whole economic situation of Hong
Kong is not as bad as in the U.S. or Europe."
Hundreds marched in Tokyo, where many had
gathered to complain about radiation leaks from the Fukushima nuclear power
plant seven months after an earthquake triggered the world's worst nuclear
disaster in 25 years.
The English-language Japan Times asked why
people weren't protesting, pointing to 2.04 million Japanese on welfare, the
highest number since 1951.
"The answer is, they are, a little,"
it said. "The anti-nuclear sentiment may well spill over to other issues.
Mass movements are not always correct, but those that last have good reasons
for lasting."
Reuters
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