London has seen it’s fair share of protests and strikes over the years, but while sitting in a cafe and watching the drama unfold on the 9th of December, it occurred to me that I had never been in a city with proper protest taking place before. I guess this has to do with the marvelous job social studies has done to indoctrinate Singaporean youth, as the many Singaporeans whom I have spoken to all agree that a) protesting in Singapore is futile, and b) the Government is doing a decent job anyway.
As an international student in London, I can feel the passion that British students have against these cuts. Yet, I find it hard sympathize with them, especially when they behave like hooligans and vandalize historical monuments, such as the statue of Winston Churchill. Do these ‘students’ deserve to be subsidized for a university education when they are showing themselves to be utter morons?
Their main complaint concerns the increase in tuition fees. Apparently, the government aims to soften the blow of this increase by handing out scholarships to poorer students, meaning they would pay less than they do now, while the richer students would pay the increased tuition fees. Those in the middle might be caught in between; unable to apply for the scholarships, but keenly affected by the increased fees. However, student loans are available which can be repaid after graduation (I think). After saying all this, I should admit that I may have misunderstood the policies, as my information has been gathered from newspapers lying around the Tube, and from other foreign students.
In essence, their unhappiness stems from a localized outlook, where they (the British students) are only interested in protecting their own welfare. This outlook pervades British society, from striking tube workers to students. These internal struggles distract the UK from the more pressing problems such as keeping itself competitive internationally, and maintaining it’s status as an important player in world politics. I feel that there should be limits on welfare, be it in subsidizing education or health, rather than living in a bubble and ending up like Spain. The students yesterday do not think so though, instead opting to argue that education was cut as it was easy to, while others (Defence?) should have been cut.
I think that people are mistaken when they say the Government should do what the people want as they were voted in by them. Firstly, a few thousand protesters do not represent the Will of the People. Secondly, the Government was elected because the People trust them in making the right decisions to bring progress, not necessarily the popular ones.
Besides the students, the Metropolitan Police were also under the media’s microscope yesterday. In October, they dealt poorly with the protesters, with a fire extinguisher being thrown off a building, among other acts of hooliganism. This time, they again managed to royally mess things up (haha). Why was there no change in route direction for the PoW’s vehicle? Also, why were they so inappropriately prepared… where were the tear gas and water canons which other police forces use to ensure crowd control? I guess they could learn from the SAF as well- if protesters get near enough, fire your weapon into the sky as a warning shot. They can even use rubber bullets instead of real ones.
Ah well, after being in the UK for 3 months, one learns to pause, take a breath, and go, “sigh, its the UK la, what to do”.
